I’m not in Chicago today for the oral arguments in the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker’s coordination with conservative political groups, primarily the Wisconsin Club for Growth.
But the information that’s already coming out is fascinating.
The Wisconsin Club for Growth and its leader, Eric O’Keefe, are suing Wisconsin prosecutors for investigating their activities. They call it a partisan witch-hunt that violates their right to free speech.
U.S. Judge Rudolph Randa bought the Club for Growth’s arguments hook, line and sinker. He ordered that the investigation should be halted and the evidence gathered should be destroyed.
Today, the prosecutors are appealing Randa’s decision.
The three-judge panel hearing the case is the same three-judge panel that in 2007 famously overturned another politically charged case decided by Randa—the conviction of Doyle administration employee Georgia Thompson.
The prosecutor, then-U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic, alleged that she was steering a contract to a favored company.
(Biskupic is now Walker’s attorney. His wife is Randa’s assistant. What a small world.)
The three appeals court judges in Chicago heard Thompson’s appeal and immediately released her. They called the evidence used against her “beyond thin,” which has got to be pretty embarrassing for Randa and Biskupic.
The same three judges—Chief District Judge Diane Wood, Frank Easterbrook and William Bauer—also stayed Randa’s order to destroy the evidence collected in this case.
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Wood was nominated by Bill Clinton, Frank Easterbrook was nominated by Ronald Reagan and William Bauer was nominated by Gerald Ford.
And before you jump to conclusions about how they’ll rule, remember that in June Judge Easterbrook ordered the unsealing of tons of documents in the case, allowing the public to see that prosecutors allege that Walker himself was at the center of a “criminal scheme.”
Randa, incidentally, was nominated by George W. Bush.
