Scott Walker’s office stonewalled DA inquiry into stolen veterans’ funds, record shows

Hired, promoted and defended veterans' money-embezzling top aide, Tim Russell and other scumbags

Contradicting repeated statements by Scott Walker that he and his staff instigated the John Doe criminal investigation, a report filed last night (Bice. MJS) substantiates the assertion Walker and top aides stonewalled the Milwaukee District Attorney’s office, prompting the creation of the John Doe probe.

By Michael Leon

The criminal probe has so far resulted in multiple felony and misdemeanor charges, and presents a dire threat to Scott Walker’s surviving the recall election on June 5.

The DA probe was begun while Walker was serving as Milwaukee County Executive, and criminal complaints against top Walker aides allege and demonstrate that embezzled money in the $10,000s meant for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families was used by aides to Scott Walker and former operators of the website—ScottWalker.org—to then register the ScottWalker.org website.

The crimanal complaints already filed also indicate that part of the embezzled money was used for Walker’s aides’ taking vacations in the “Caribbean and Hawaii, and a political trip to Georgia to help organize [Herman] Cain’s Republican presidential campaign.” (Bice. MJS)

Scott Walker on motorcycle at Operation Freedom event. Walker's personal aides stole from fund meant for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan

Long-time Walker confidante, Tim Russell, said in August 2010 that the embezzled funds were a book-keeping error.

Mainstream media and local broadcast media in Wisconsin have virtually buried the story with the exception of Bice and a few political writers.

Can one good writer put down a corrupt governor like Scott Walker backed by $60-million in rightwing money?

We’ll know June 5, but the fall-out from the Bice report is reverberating across the state.

Stealing from veterans like Tim Russell and other top Walker aides did should be a scandal of historical proportions.

Reported Bice in August 2010:

A couple of months ago, Russell said the Walker administration had asked Chisholm to investigate what had happened to $11,000 raised in 2007 for the event. The DA confirmed that his office was looking into the matter.

“Nobody’s making accusations about anything here,” Russell said in June. “Maybe there are records in somebody’s bottom drawer that would demonstrate that money was appropriately spent.”

Writes Bice today in August 2010:

On May 5, 2010, Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf filed a petition with court officials asking if his office could initiate a secret investigation into what happened with $11,000 in donations intended for Operation Freedom, an annual event honoring veterans.

By making it a secret John Doe investigation, Landgraf wrote that prosecutors might get better cooperation from Walker’s office, which had been “unwilling or unable” to turn over records and information needed in the investigation. He said he would need to subpoena county records and officials.

Veterans money-stealing Tim Russell carried more than just water for Scott Walker - Russell at left and Walker at right in shot

Wisconsin statute 968.26 on John Doe proceedings is the statutory authority for conducting John Doe probes in Wisconsin.

The purpose of a John Doe investigation is to determine if and by whom a crime has been committed in a given court’s jurisdiction, by statute.

There are a very wide range of causes why a district attorney might request a judge to convene a John Doe proceeding: Conflicts of interest, practical difficulties, and so on.

Another cause is stonewalling and blocking an investigation.

And this is looking into stealing from veterans no less!

Writes Bice:

“As part of the pre-Doe investigation, Investigator Jeffrey Doss sought to obtain documentation that would form the basis of tracing the funds from Milwaukee County to the Order,” Landgraf wrote in his May 2010 petition. “The Office of the County Executive has been unwilling or unable to provide such documentation. It is unclear at this juncture why the Office of the County Executive has not produced (or has not caused another Department to produce) these records.”

Walker has throughout the campaign sought to dismiss the John Doe investigation, and brushed aside questions by saying he just wants to help and cooperate with the criminal investigation, lately calling it a “distraction.”

Walker has even gone so far as to state that he and his office asked for the John Doe investigation.

Bice’s obtained documents prove that Walker is a liar.

Said Tom Barrett to Scott Walker in the debate last night, “I have a police department that arrests felons. He has a practice of hiring them.”

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