Gov. Scott Walker, shown speaking at a Memorial Day event in Milwaukee this week, on Thursday sought to deflect questions about whether his campaign is in settlement talks with prosecutors in a secret John Doe probe. Credit: Mike De Sisti

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Madison — With a carefully worded, two-sentence statement, Gov. Scott Walker sought Thursday to deflect questions about whether his campaign is in settlement talks with prosecutors in a secret John Doe probe.

The campaign for the GOP governor was responding to a letter sent Wednesday on behalf of a conservative group that questioned whether a special prosecutor in the investigation is negotiating with Walker's campaign to seek concessions that the outside group might oppose.

The Wisconsin Club for Growth and its treasurer, Eric O'Keefe, filed a federal lawsuit in February against special prosecutor Francis Schmitz and others contending their free speech rights were violated by the secret investigation into possible illegal coordination by groups involved in the 2012 recall campaigns. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa in Milwaukee halted the probe this month as he considers the group's claims.

The statement by Friends of Scott Walker was attributed simply to the campaign and not to any individual and appeared to deal only with the federal lawsuit, not the state investigation in which both the Club for Growth and Walker's campaign are targets.

"Neither Governor Walker nor his campaign committee are parties to the federal lawsuit. This means they have no legal standing to reach a settlement or deal in their lawsuit," the statement reads in full.

A spokeswoman for Walker did not respond to questions clarifying the statement.

The secrecy requirement surrounding the John Doe investigation makes it difficult for the Walker camp to respond to the club's claims. Randa's order — a federal ruling halting a state investigation — also makes for a highly unusual situation even for the top-shelf attorneys involved in the case, said Jeremy Levinson, a Democratic campaign finance attorney who has represented clients in John Doe probes.

"Part of what's going on is that nobody knows what's going on," Levinson said.

The Club for Growth could have several concerns about a Walker campaign's settlement, he said. For instance, the settlement could oblige the Walker campaign to provide certain information about the case. It could also mean the campaign gives up the right to decline to testify to avoid self-incrimination, since the campaign would be safe from new charges.

"The danger (for other parties) would be that a deal by definition could weaken the position of everyone else," Levinson said.

Rick Esenberg, an attorney and president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, said that isn't necessarily the case. For instance, prosecutors may be simply looking for a way out of what has become a very difficult case, Esenberg said.

But he added that O'Keefe and the club are unlikely to know that.

"It could be what's being negotiated is abject surrender (by prosecutors), but if you don't know that, you don't know that," he said.

In a filing Thursday to Randa, David Rivkin, a Washington, D.C., attorney for the club and O'Keefe, questioned whether Schmitz is attempting to reach a settlement with Walker's campaign in violation of Randa's order. Specifically, Rivkin raised the question of whether a settlement might preclude people in Walker's campaign from working for both the governor's re-election and for the Club for Growth.

One example of that would be R.J. Johnson, who is an adviser to both Walker's campaign and the Wisconsin Club for Growth.

"It appears that (Schmitz) wants the court to moot its injunction by allowing him to attempt to enforce subpoenas in Wisconsin state court and to use the coercive power of the state to cut side-deals that impair plaintiffs' associational rights. Enough is enough," Rivkin wrote.

Schmitz's attorneys filed a motion Wednesday with Randa seeking clarification of his order shutting down the investigation, saying they wanted to confirm they were free to engage in talks with other parties in the John Doe.

In his brief, Rivkin said Schmitz should have to say what exactly he wants to talk about with other parties in the case to make sure it doesn't violate Randa's order.

This latest legal scuffle between conservatives was touched off by a Wall Street Journal editorial criticizing the apparent discussions between the Walker campaign and Schmitz.

Shortly after Walker, a Republican, won his June 2012 recall election, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm launched a secret probe to look into whether the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative groups illegally coordinated with Walker's campaign. Chisholm is a Democrat, and Schmitz, the special prosecutor overseeing the investigation, describes himself as a Republican who voted for Walker.

John Doe investigations are overseen by judges and allow prosecutors to compel people to produce documents and give testimony. The inquiry is being conducted under secrecy, though details have spilled out through leaks and a wave of litigation surrounding the investigation.

A three-judge panel of the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago is considering aspects of Club for Growth's lawsuit, including requests from prosecutors to overturn Randa's order blocking the probe and to dismiss the lawsuit outright. In addition to the federal skirmish, prosecutors are fighting in state courts, where unnamed targets have sought to shut the Doe down.