Should the general public know about this operation and how it has proceeded to operate like those that we fought a world war against in the 1940's? Please explain how this John Doe investigation of Conservatives is any different?
Is this too much to ask of the supposedly unafraid news outlets? Where's the outrage????
WSJ: John Doe Prosecutors Targeted National Conservatives Too
By Right Wisconsin
A lawsuit in Waukesha County against the Government Accountability Board is giving the public the most extensive look inside the unconstitutional John Doe investigation and the true ambitions of regulators and prosecutors. Documents from this case have revealed partisanship, strategy, and even misgivings about the legal theory from the Special Prosecutor.
The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that prosecutors were also interested in national conservative figures as they pursued their over-broad investigation of conservative organizations in Wisconsin.
The documents are under seal in a state court case, Eric O’Keefe and Wisconsin Club for Growth v. Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB), but two sources have read them to us. The lawsuit is a complaint against the GAB, the state agency that worked with Milwaukee prosecutors on the John Doe that used campaign-finance laws to trample the First Amendment.
We’ve tried to expose this illegal harassment since the autumn of 2013, when early morning home raids and subpoenas hit conservative groups across the state. From that investigation and a previous John Doe whose documents were transferred into the new investigation, prosecutors and the GAB collected millions of documents, including personal files, emails and bank statements.
The John Doe team searched the digital cache for information related to their now-discredited theory of campaign-finance coordination, but they didn’t stop there. The Milwaukee District Attorney’s office, run by Democrat John Chisholm, sent GAB staff a spreadsheet of search terms that included prominent national conservatives.
The spreadsheet includes the names and personal email addresses of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, political strategist and Journal contributor Karl Rove, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republican Party chief Reince Priebus and Fox News host Sean Hannity.
The list also includes search terms for such non-scandalous words as “coordination plan” and “message.” The government snoops created ideological search concepts like “big union bosses” and “big government,” as if such phrases suggest some law-breaking intent. Recall that when the IRS targeted conservative groups for special vetting, it created a “Be On the Lookout” list of key words such as “patriot” and “tea party.”
In a word, prosecutors were obsessed. They were pursuing a theory that would have given them license to investigate nearly the entire conservative movement - not just in Wisconsin but nationally. The Wall Street Journal has previously reported how investigators contemplated investigating radio hosts Charlie Sykes and Sean Hannity not just for communications with conservative groups but for equal time violations, something well beyond their purview.
From the beginning, the John Doe investigation has been labeled a fishing expedition. But we didn't know just how accurate this description really was. In fact, it was akin to taxpayer funded opposition research with use of gag orders, subpoenas, and the threat of arrest.
"Many caught in this dragnet are still unaware that their emails and personal data are held by state law enforcement," says the Wall Street Journal. "If Republican office-holders had tried something like this, liberals would be shouting about a vast domestic spying operation."
Truer words were never spoken.
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