O’Keefe and the Clubare suing Chisholm, Special Prosecutor Francis Schmitz, and other investigatorswho are part of the five-county bipartisan John Doe investigation intocoordination between Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and independent conservativegroups, including Wisconsin Club for Growth.
Among other things,Schmitz’s filing takes a giant swipe at O’Keefe’s argument, saying that O’Keefeand the Club are suing the wrong people.
Why? Schmitz wrote:
“The statute specificto campaign law enforcement that provides that such actions cannot beprosecuted outside the potential defendant’s county of residence. The statuterefutes, indisputably and as a matter of law, plaintiffs’ contention that theyare the victims of any prosecution, selective or otherwise, by Milwaukee Countyauthorities. Only the district attorneys of Dane County and Iowa County havelegal capacity to prosecute the plaintiffs.”
Let’s unpack thisstatement.
When the GovernmentAccountability Board (GAB) was created to replace the old State ElectionsBoard, one of the items in the legislation created a provision that requirescampaign finance violations to be prosecuted in the accused’s home county.
The thinking byRepublicans was that Dane County was too stringent and that elected officialswould have an easier time in their county of residence.
That’s precisely howit worked out for Scott Jensen, who got his trial moved to Waukesha County,where he got a pass from DA Brian Schimel, who’s now running as a Republicanfor attorney general.
So, where does EricO’Keefe live?
Iowa County.
Which county is hometo the Sun Prairie-based Wisconsin Club for Growth?
Dane County.
So why are they suingMilwaukee prosecutors? Why aren't Iowa County DA Larry Nelson and Dane County DA Ismael Ozanne being sued?
In addition, Schmitzcontends that the Milwaukee prosecutors being sued didn’t launch the John Doein the first place:
Plaintiffs utterlyfail to face reality, which is that the only John Doe proceeding legallyrelevant to them was commenced by petition of a district attorney of anothercounty (who is not party to this action), as well as the state judge whoordered the commencement. It was not commenced or ordered to be commenced bythe Milwaukee prosecutors. Again, they have no statutory power to do that, theydid not do that, and, perhaps most importantly in the injunction context here,they do not have the statutory authority to either vacate the judge’s ordercommencing the action or order the district attorney of another county to doanything.
So even if O’Keefeand Wisconsin Club for Growth ultimately win in federal court, what, exactly,would they win? Chisholm and co. don’t have the power to shut down aninvestigation in another county, much less trash a judge’s order. This is yet more evidence indicating that O'Keefe's lawsuit is a political stunt meant to trash Chisholm and the Milwaukee-based prosecutors and investigators.
