How much legal trouble is Scott Walker in?
One measure of how seriously he's taking the long-running John Doe investigation is how heavily he has lawyered up, and how much he is spending in an effort to defend himself and dissuade prosecutors from issuing charges against him. He's already had six aides and associates charged with 15 felonies and three misdemeanors, but continues to use his "I am an Eagle Scout" defense and insist he is personally clean.
His campaign reportedly paid more than $100,000 to the Michael Best law firm and attorney Steven Biskupic, the former US attorney, for "compliance issues" in 2011. That term usually means making sure the campaign is following the campaign finance laws, but that usually doesn't cost $100,000.
In February, Walker annpounced he had hired two criminal defense attorneys. One is Michael Steinle, a Milwaukee attorney, and the other is John Gallo,a former federal prosecutor in Chicago who says that his practice includes “representing criminal defendants and grand jury targets.”
Now Walker's personal financial disclosure filed with the state Government Accountability Board lists more than $50,000 in debts to Sidley Austin LLP, the Chicago firm for which Gallo works. That disclosure was how much Walker owed the firm on Dec. 31, long before he announced that he had retained Gallo. The John Doe has heated up since then, so he presumably owes much more than $50,000 now.
Dan Bice reports that Walker also disclosed that he owed between $5,000 and $50,000 to Terschan, Steinle & Ness, the Milwaukee firm where Steinle is a partner.
Here's the Wisconsin Reporter story, but the link to Walker's disclosure form is broken, although the others work, and it does not appear on the GAB website, where you need to fill out a request and pay to have the board mail or email you a copy (!) At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, the Wisconsin Reporter is part of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, funded by right-wing groups including the Bradley Foundation. Broken link? Was the reporter too thorough?
No wonder Walker set up a legal defense fund,while insisting he is not a target of the John Doe.
He clearly thinks he could be in serious legal trouble, and is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to keep the growing scandal from splashing up on him. It could be disastrous for him during the recall campaign, which helps explain the friendly "advice" Milwaukee DA John Chisholm is getting that it just wouldn't be right to do it before the election in June.
If you're a voter, it would be fairer to know all of the charges against Walker and his cronies before being asked to vote on whether to keep him in office or not.
But Chisholm will operate on his own timeline, do a thorough job, and announce the results when he's done, without regard to the political calendar. I don't know if he was an Eagle Scout, but he really conducts himself like one.