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A national procurement expert said Wednesday that inside information on a county real estate deal provided by top Milwaukee County officials to the treasurer of Gov. Scott Walker’s gubernatorial campaign was “highly unethical” and made a “fraud of the entire process.”

Roughly 16,000 emails released Tuesday and collected during an investigation into Walker’s Milwaukee County office revealed the back channel assistance that Walker and his top aides gave to John Hiller. Hiller, a real estate broker who at the time was Walker’s longtime campaign treasurer, was quietly working for one of three bidders seeking to provide office space and purchase an aging building known as City Campus owned by Milwaukee County, where Walker was county executive.

In an email sent Aug. 21, 2010, top Walker appointee Cindy Archer outlined details that Hiller should put in his “best and final” bid. Archer urged Walker and fellow county official Tim Russell: “The rubber is meeting the road on this issue. If you can help Hiller, now is the time.”

In the end, the county rejected all three bids for cost reasons and moved employees into existing county-owned space. Although six former Walker aides and associates were convicted in the investigation, no charges were issued in connection with that incident.