AG Schimel makes fool of himself on "free speech", John Doe

State Rep. Chris Taylor has been calling out the absurd double-standard of Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, who last week asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to investigate the leak of information on the allegedly-closed John Doe case in Wisconsin, but has pointedly refused to do the same for right-wing money-launderer Eric O'Keefe. This is despite O'Keefe constantly leaking (often false and misleading) information to right-wing media during the course of the investigation, and keeping enough voters ignorant to keep much of the Wisconsin GOP from feeling consequences for their corruption.

Schimel released a statement this evening in response to Rep. Taylor's latest reminder of the double-standard, and Schimel's "reasoning" left my jaw on the floor.

As a career prosecutor and now as Attorney General, I respect the Constitution and would never threaten to prosecute a private citizen who is exercising his or her individual rights.

“No judge has the authority to place a gag order on a private citizen to prevent that person from talking about acts committed against them by the government.

“It is important to clarify that as a private citizen, Eric O'Keefe had a right to publicly voice his objection to the manner in which he was being treated. It is a fundamental principle that citizens have the freedom to speak out against their government.

“Rep. Taylor, or anyone else, has a First Amendment right to criticize me as a public official. As someone with a law degree, Rep. Taylor should also realize that Mr. O'Keefe has a right to criticize the government's outrageous actions."

There is a LOT of bullshit to unpack in those 4 paragraphs. First of all, "I never threaten to prosecute a citizen exercising his/her individual rights," and "acts committed against them by the government"???? Laundering money in clear violation of state law and setting up fraudulent shell groups to avoid taxes as a "social welfare group" isn't an individual right as far as I'm concerned. Maybe to a Koch-addled puppet in Bubble World, but not in the Real one. Scott Walker certainly didn't believe he could speak about the John Doe investigation as it was ongoing, and frequently sais as much to reporters. Was Walker lying to reporters when he claimed that, AG Schimel, or are you lying now?



Second, Schimel willfully allows a different standard for his boy O'Keefe vs the John Doe prosecutors, who by law could not leak the documentation they had in the John Doe case. I wonder if he feels the same way about FBI Director James Comey's leaking of information on Friday, on second-hand emails that Comey may not even have had a warrant to look at, let alone release a statement implying certain details regarding an ongoing investigation. I also would have been interested to see if Schimel would have denigrated Human Weasel Jason Chaffetz (R-DC Sleaze) for planning to leak out that information 10 days before an election - should the John Doe prosecutors have been able to do the same as "private citizens" right before Walker's 2012 or 2014 elections? I think someone should ask Donald Trump and Scott Walker what they think about Schimel's stance when they rally in Eau Claire tomorrow, don't you? (well, that and maybe ask about Walker's love of private servers)

In addition, Schimel is clearly allowing a different standard for O'Keefe as a "private citizen" than he does for the leaker that gave the bombshell information to the Guardian which laid out the whole money-laundering scheme. Aren't they both assumed to be private citizens, Bradley boy?

Schimel closes by calling the investigation into this money-laundering and pay-for-play influence-peddling "outrageous." That should scream volumes to you. In Schimel's and WisGOP's Bubble World, it's looking into the source of the money train and the corruption that is the threat, and not the corruption and hiding from public scrutiny by rich oligarchs. They're totally cool with that stuff, and the secrecy of their little cabal, and the hell with what happens to democracy in the process.

But hey, let's put Schimel's statements to the test. I guess it's well past time for the rest of the John Doe information to be leaked to the public (by a "private citizen", of course), as well as the contents of tapes Schimel made while he was the Waukesha County DA- tapes Schimel has blocked from the public and has asked other right-wing hacks on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to keep from the public's eyes.

It's time to stop thinking these GOP scumbuckets will ever operate in good faith, or in any manner of consistency to the law, and Dems cannot continue to play nice with these lawless slime. They must be removed ASAP before they remove the last vestiges of accountability that WisGOP elected officials may have to the law.