What does Scott Stonewall Walker have to hide about his legal defense fund?
He says he created it perfectly legally, with advice from the Government Accountability Board.
People are curious about what that advice might have been, and Tom Barrett is demanding some answers. WITI-TV, Milwaukee's Fox affiliate, reports:
Walker has said he is not the target of the investigation, but under state law, only those elected officials who are charged with a crime or under investigation can set up legal defense funds. Walker says he set up the fund under the guidance of the Government Accountability Board.
The Democratic Party filed a request with the GAB to release all of its communication with Walker.
But a GAB spokesman says state law doesn't allow GAB to release its advice to elected officials unless the requestor agrees.
That puts the ball squarely back in Walker's court.
He was dismissive today, calling the Dem Party's request a political stunt.
But what is he hiding? Why not let the voters know what advice he got about setting up the fund?
Is he a target of the investigation? He says he's not, but then what's the legal basis for GAB giving him approval?
Is he paying lawyers for his former aides, who have been charged with 15 felonies? Thing is, they worked for him when he was county executive, and the state law only provides for legal defense funds for state officials.
And, while we're at it, who are the donors who approved shifting their money -- at least $60,000 worth that we know of -- from his campaign treasury into his legal defense fund? There is nothing to prevent him from disclosing those names. He is simply stonewalling.
Barrett said it today:
"Gov. Walker is the only governor in this nation who has a criminal defense fund. The only governor. And he is stonewalling this state and he is stonewalling the media by refusing time and time again to answer who's paying the tens of thousands of dollars in a legal-defense fund for himself, and I don't know who else he is paying for."
Twenty-one days. Drip. Drip. Drip.