Ethics, Elections Commissions Push Back On DOJ Leak Report

Members of the state Ethics Commission and Elections Commission pushed back Tuesday on a report released last week regarding leaked documents related to the now-closed John Doe investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

Attorney General Brad Schimel issued the report, which investigated the source of leaked documents from the John Doe probe. The probe investigated possible illegal coordination between Walker’s 2012 campaign and conservative groups.

The leaks were made public in a Sept. 2016 report by The Guardian newspaper.

In the report, Schimel called for disciplinary actions against nine individuals for what he called “systemic and pervasive mishandling” of the John Doe evidence. One of those nine individuals includes current Elections Commission counsel Nathan Judnic. At the time of the John Doe investigation, Judnic was employed at the now-defunct Government Accountability Board.

The Elections Commission met in closed session Tuesday to discuss the report and Schimel’s recommendations.

After discussions Tuesday, Mark Thomsen, chairman of the commission, said the commission stands behind former GAB staff who now work for the Elections Commission, including Judnic and commission administrator Mike Haas.

“Nothing in that report has caused us to question our support of interim administrator Michael Haas,” said Thomsen.

He added he has, “all the confidence in the world” in Judnic.

Thomsen said the commission plans to ask Walker to appoint an attorney to assist the agency in responding to the DOJ report.

The Ethics Commission also responded to Schimel’s report Tuesday, releasing a letter calling for the attorney general to issue a statement clarifying and correcting elements of his report.

“The report contains omissions and inaccuracies regarding the involvement in the investigation by Ethics Commission staff,” the letter reads. “There is not a single person in our agency who had knowledge of the content of the leaked documents before they were published, and as such none of us were able to identify that a crime had occurred at the time.”

The letter calls for Schimel to release a statement affirming the Ethics Commission and its staff “fully cooperated with, proactively contacted, and assisted DOJ with its investigation into the leak.”

The letter also argues the Ethics Commission has more security policies in place than the GAB.

“The report commingles a description of the security practices under the GAB with those under the Ethics Commission,” the letter said. “Make no mistake, the security deficiencies that previously existed under the GAB have been resolved.”

Schimel pushed backed later Tuesday, saying the Ethics Commission’s qualms were “not serious criticisms.”

“The commission’s letter simply disagrees with DOJ’s characterization of certain events and criticizes the tone of certain portions of the report,” Schimel wrote.

The DOJ report also outlined a previously unreported secret investigation that occurred during the John Doe probe. According to the report, that investigation examined the actions of a number of Wisconsin Republicans for possible illegal campaign work on state time.

The probe included the collection of emails by Walker, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, former RNC chair and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and included a number of personal emails between state Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Brookfield, and her daughter.

Information about that investigation has led a number of state Republicans to call the John Doe probe politically motivated. Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, called for the resignation of Ethics and Elections Commission members and staff who had a previous affiliation with GAB.

Nass told the Associated Press Tuesday the Ethics Commission letter released Tuesday did not change his thoughts on the matter.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 6:07 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, with original reporting from WPR.