So news broke that three more people have been arrested as part of the 20-month John Doe investigation of Gov. Scott Walker's aides.
The biggest news—as of now, at least—is that close Walker aide Tim Russell has been arrested and has been charged with three counts of theft/embezzlement. Russell has worked in the Walker administration in various posts from 2002 to 2010, with a few breaks here and there.
Russell's partner, Brian Pierick, has also been charged with felonies for child enticement and exposing genitals or pubic area. I've glanced at the criminal complaint and it involves a Waukesha high school student and the complaint includes a transcript of lots of graphic texting. (I'll blog about it in a separate post.)
According to the criminal complaint, at the same time he worked for Walker, Russell was siphoning money from two campaign accounts and a nonprofit set up to recognize veterans and their families, then using that money for his personal use.
Talk about low.
In a nutshell:
When Walker was county executive, he championed Operation Freedom, a free day at the zoo for vets and their families.
The event got lots of private and corporate donations.
For a long while, the county executive's office collected the donations for the event. In 2006, the funds were administered by the Michelle Witmer Chapter of he Military Order of the Purple Heart.
Kevin Kavanaugh was the treasurer.
There was a $11,000 shortfall. (Spoiler alert: Kavanaugh has been charged with five felonies.)
The finances were transferred to the Alonzo Cudworth American Legion Post #23.
That post handled Operation Freedom's finances in an exemplary manner.
However, in October 2009, Walker personally terminated the American Legion's memorandum of understanding with the county.
From then on, Operation Freedom's finances would be handled by Heritage Guard Preservation Society (HGPS), headed by Russell.
Both Walker and Russell signed the new MOE on Oct. 20, 2009.
HGPS received more than $19,000 from the old entity.
Donations flowed in from Ron and Jane Johnson (that would be the U.S. Senator who unseated Russ Feingold in November 2010), Rockwell Automation, WE Energies, M&I Trust, Associated Bank, the Republican Party of Milwaukee County (the criminal complaint helpfully provides the detail that Russell signed that check), JP Cullen and Sons and the Forest County Potawatomi Community.
But did Russell use those funds for Operation Freedom?
Nope.
He swindled at least half of it, more than $21,000, according to the complaint.
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Russell allegedly stole money from the HGPS and used it for his personal use—a Caribbean cruise, a trip to Hawaii, meeting with Herman Cain campaign manager Mark Block in Atlanta, and even registering the pro-Walker political website ScottforGov (and variations of that domain name).
He used HGPS money to pay back Chris Kujawa. Kujawa had run for county supervisor; Russell was not the treasurer but controlled the campaign account; Russell had used Kujawa's campaign account for his own use; Russell repaid Kujawa with HGPS's money. The check that Russell cut to repay Kujawa even has “RE: Heritage Guard Preservation Society” printed on it. Kujawa didn't know what that signified.
Russell even used some of the HGPS money to pay rent for his real estate company's offices.
And Russell allegedly used funds from Larry Spicer's campaign for his own use as well.
In all, Russell used about 50% of the HGPS money for his own use. If you count the money he used for the Regent Realty rent, “the percentage of funds stolen jumps to 62%,” the complaint states.
So, did Walker know about Russell's shenanigans?
That isn't clear from the criminal complaint.
Walker transferred the finances of Operation Freedom to an entity that Russell took over.
There doesn't seem to be any evidence that Walker (or anyone at the county) was checking HGPS to see if it was operating legitimately.
But Walker and Russell have been so closely aligned over the years it's sort of insane that Russell went ahead with this scheme and that allegedly swiped money intended for veterans that was donated by many of Walker's corporate backers.
I know that lots of Walker supporters are saying that there's nothing to see here because Walker didn't take Russell to Madison with him. But let me just remind these folks that yes, Walker left Russell behind at Milwaukee County. In fact, when Lee Holloway became county executive in 2010, after Walker went to Madison, Holloway fired Russell immediately. And folks criticized Holloway for doing so. But it looks like Holloway—and not Walker—did the right thing.
How this all connects to the other folks who were granted immunity—Rose Ann Dieck, Cullen Werwie—and folks like Cindy Archer who were swept up in the investigation is still unclear at least for now.
I'll have more on this—much more—on this blog.
