I just finished reading the two new criminal complaints filed by Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm against two Walker aides at the county, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=259245\">Kelly Rindfleisch and Darlene Wink</a>.<br /><br />Both women are accused of doing political work on county time. Rindfleisch is being charged with four felonies while Wink is facing two misdemeanors. Wink has agreed to testify and, apparently, will offer evidence about destruction of documents.<br /><br />But that\'s where this <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"/article-17283-scott-walkers-other-big-problem.html\">John Doe saga</a> begins. It certainly doesn\'t end here. Not by a long shot. <br /><br />No wonder why Walker canceled his appearance in Wausau today. Believe me, it wasn\'t because of the weather.<br /><br /> <div align=\"center\"><strong>Local GOP Operatives Working for the County Executive</strong><br /></div><br />From the new details that are emerging in these complaints it seems that there was a full-blown political operation housed in Walker\'s county executive offices. <br /><br />Walker\'s deputy chief of staff, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"/blog-7767-the-tim-russell-criminal-complaint.html\">Tim Russell</a>, was the Republican Party of Milwaukee County\'s treasurer.<br /><br />Rindfleisch was Lt. Gov. candidate Brett Davis\'s fundraiser at the same time she worked as a policy analyst for Walker and, later, as a deputy chief of staff. She was hired by Russell and rented a room from Jim Villa (Walker\'s close county and campaign aide) in West Allis so that she could allegedly fulfill her residency requirement. She had been granted immunity in the legislative caucus scandal a decade ago.<br /><br />Darlene Wink was responsible for constituent services in Walker\'s office at the same time she was vice president of the Republican Party of Milwaukee County and planning fundraisers for Walker.<br /><br />See a pattern emerge?<br /><br /> <div align=\"center\"><strong>A Private Internet Network Within the County Executive Offices</strong><br /></div><br />According to the new complaints, Russell had established a USB device and router to create a wireless Internet connection. Russell paid for it; the service start date was Oct. 16, 2009. Investigators found the packages for these devices hidden in an armoire in Rindfleisch\'s office, which had once been occupied by Russell.<br /><br />Rindfleischalong with “select, \'insider\' staffers”used this secret e-mail system for both official and unofficial business, the complaint alleges. <br /><br />It was never disclosed to county employees outside of a closely knit group within the Walker administration. <br /><br />It wasn\'t even disclosed to Laurie Panella, the acting director of the information management services division.<br /><br />Therefore, when reporters (ahem) and others made open records requests, the contents of this private email system weren\'t part of the searches.<br /><br />Basically, these “select, \'insider\' staffers” were operating off the official grid.<br /><br />So who were these insiders?<br /><br />I don\'t know, but I have a feeling that the DA does.<br /><br /> <div align=\"center\"><strong>Fundraising for Davis on County Time</strong><br /></div><br />The complaint includes tons of back and forth on Rindfleisch\'s fundraising activities for Davis while on the job and being paid by Milwaukee County taxpayers.<br /><br />In total, the DA found that Rindfleisch exchanged a minimum of 300 emails with Brett Davis during weekday office hours between Feb. 3, 2010, and July 9, 2010. “These email contacts were almost always, if not exclusively, related to fundraising efforts,” the complaint states.<br /><br />Rindfleisch emailed Cullen Werwie a lot. Werwie was working for the Davis campaign at the time. When Davis lost the primary election to Rebecca Kleefisch, he worked for the Walker campaign. When Walker became governor, Werwie became his spokesman.<br /><br />Werwie has been given immunity in the John Doe investigation. <br /><br />The complaint also includes chat messages to and from Rindfleisch in which she admits that she is campaigning while at work:<br /><br />“I\'m on my laptop,” she wrote. “Separate system…. Half of what I\'m doing is policy for the campaign. It\'s policy stuff but it\'s for use over there. I\'m also doing Operation Freedom.”<br /><br />You may remember that Rindfleisch was mentioned in Russell\'s criminal complaint. Rindfleisch was an officer of Heritage Guard Preservation Society, the fake charity Russell had set up to handle Operation Freedom\'s finances. She told investigators that she had no clue that Russell had made her an officer of HGPS. <br /><br /> <div align=\"center\"><strong>Communicating with Walker\'s Campaign Committee</strong><br /></div> <p><br />According to the complaint, Rindfleisch communicated more than 1,000 times with someone from Walker\'s gubernatorial campaign committee, Friends of Scott Walker, during weekday business hours between Feb. 3, 2010, and July 9, 2010.<br /><br />I repeat: more than 1,000 political emails while working for the county.<br /><br />“This averages to about 10.8 such emails per day, with a maximum number of 74 such emails on April 29, 2010.” (Page 15 of the criminal complaint, if you want to check.)<br /><br />Rindfleisch was communicating with campaign manager Keith Gilkes, deputy campaign manager Stephan Thompson (now the head of the state GOP), or communications director Jill Bader.</p> <p>The information in the footnotes should make Walker and his former campaign staffers shudder:<br /><br /></p> <blockquote>Footnote 18: “This Table 1 [of Davis campaign-related email activity on April 12, 2010] reflects only fundraising-related emails. In addition to these emails, Ms. Rindfleisch also sent or received seven emails from County Executive staff members [via her personal email account]. Additionally, her account included twelve emails which she either sent to, received from or was a recipient with persons associated with the campaign committee, Friends of Scott Walker.”<br /></blockquote> <blockquote>Footnote 19: Table 2, of Rindfleisch\'s campaign-related emails during county work hours on April 14, 2010, doesn\'t include 29 emails sent to or from Friends of Scott Walker.<br /><br />Footnote 20: Table 3, of Rindfleisch\'s campaign-related emails during county work hours on April 16, 2010, doesn\'t include six emails to or from County Executive staffers or two emails sent to or from Friends of Scott Walker.<br /><br />Footnote 21: Table 4, of Rindfleisch\'s campaign-related emails during county work hours on April 20, 2010, doesn\'t include 19 emails to or from County Executive staffers or 11 emails sent to or from Friends of Scott Walker.<br /><br />Footnote 22: Table 5, of Rindfleisch\'s campaign-related emails during county work hours on April 22, 2010, doesn\'t include seven emails to or from County Executive staffers or 14 emails sent to or from Friends of Scott Walker.<br /><br />Footnote 23: Table 6, of Rindfleisch\'s campaign-related emails during county work hours on April 22, 2010, doesn\'t include four emails to or from County Executive staffers or six emails sent to or from Friends of Scott Walker.<br /><br />Footnote 24: Table 7, of Rindfleisch\'s campaign-related emails during county work hours on May 3, 2010, doesn\'t include two emails to or from County Executive staffers or nine emails sent to or from Friends of Scott Walker.<br /><br />Footnote 25: Table 8, of Rindfleisch\'s campaign-related emails during county work hours on May 4, 2010, doesn\'t include three emails to or from County Executive staffers or 15 emails sent to or from Friends of Scott Walker.<br /></blockquote> <p><br />So my question is: when is the DA going to do something about Rindfleisch\'s communications with Walker\'s campaign on county time? And was she the only county staffer in communication with Walker\'s campaign during office hours? And why was she using her personal email account for official county business?<br /></p> <p>And where was Walker?<br /><br />Drip, drip, drip…<br /><br /></p> <div align=\"center\"><strong>Wink Planning Fundraisers on County Time</strong><br /></div><br />Rindfleisch wasn\'t the only one working on campaign activities while working for Walker. <br /><br />According to the criminal complaint, on county time and using county resources, Darlene Wink planned two Milwaukee County GOP-sanctioned fundraisers for Walker (only one materialized), organized phone banks, sent out press releases and discussed political stuff with Tim Russell while on county time. She even got right-wing talker Vicki McKenna to agree to host one fundraiser, interestingly. <br /><br />I guess she\'s a good multitasker.<br /><br />There\'s no indication that Wink was one of the insiders who used the private WiFi network. <br /><br />And there\'s no indication that the DA is even close to closing his investigation.<br /><br />
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