Well, well, well. Daniel Bice, watch-dog journalist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is up late (and so am I, it seems).

It appears that Scott Walker has transferred another LARGE sum of money - $100,000 - to the John Doe Legal Defense fund.



Gov. Scott Walker's campaign has transferred another $100,000 to the defense fund used to pay his pricey criminal defense lawyers in the lengthy John Doe investigation into activities during Walker's time as county executive. Newly filed campaign reports show Walker's campaign transferred $70,000 to the Scott Walker Trust on May 3 and another $30,000 on May 17. That bring the total the first-term governor has put in the defense fund to $160,000 in the past six weeks.

Walker has said repeatedly that he is cooperating with investigators. Actually, it sounds like Walker's legal team has spent a lot of time working on the John Doe case. I don't care how the GOP or Walker's campaign is going to spin this but $160,000 in total fees to criminal defense lawyers is A LOT OF MONEY!

For good criminal defense lawyers, rates between $300-500 per hour are not uncommon. At that price range, Walker's lawyers have spent between 300-500 hours on this case.

Walker can afford the bills - he reported receiving another $5 million in the last month:

Gov. Scott Walker raised more than $5 million in less than one month to fight off the June 5 recall against him, underscoring the fact that the election will be the most expensive in the state's history.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, his Democratic challenger, raised $3.1 million between April 24 and May 21, an impressive total in a normal governor's race but still below Walker's unprecedented fundraising. Barrett has raised $3.9 million since joining the race March 30 and had $1.5 million available for the last two weeks of the race.

Barrett, on the other hand only raised $3.1 million.It is interesting to note that with all the money Walker has raised, both candidates are heading into the final week essentially tied with cash on hand. Walker's $1.6 million to Barrett's $1.5 million. Add another 36,000 in people power to Barrett's campaign and I guess that tilts the odds in our favor!

As far as the John Doe is concerned, some interesting news was reported by Daniel Bice the other day:

Earlier this week, No Quarter reported that officials are looking at an email exchange between Walker and a longtime campaign aide over a 2010 real estate deal. Sources say that the emails were written in late June 2010 - a month later than earlier indicated - shortly before the project went out to bid.

Regarding Walker and John Doe, I can't say it any better than Barrett's spokesman:

The spokesman for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Walker's foe in the recall election, repeated the point that Walker is the only governor in the U.S. with a defense fund. "If Walker really had nothing to hide, he could have saved himself a lot of money in legal bills by just releasing the emails to the public," said Barrett aide Phil Walzak.