Let's Talk About That Whole Scott Walker Criminal Investigation Thing

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

09 August 15

Watching Scotty blow, continued.

here's a nice moment that comes at the end of every investigation, whether that comes at the end of a successful trial or, as is the case here, whether the investigation dies a premature death because the entire system has been rigged through politics to kill the investigation until it is really, most sincerely, dead. That moment occurs when the principals involved release all the supporting documents behind their respective cases secure in the knowledge that nobody's paying attention any more, if they ever were at all.

They are at that most interesting point up in that Koch Industries midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin. Two weeks ago, a rather obvious judicial bag job ended the investigation into the shenanigans that invariably attend any campaign conducted on behalf of Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their subsidiary. Throughout the various investigations, Walker, now running for president of the United States, insisted that he was never a target of the investigation. To the surprise of absolutely nobody, this now has been shown to be something of an exaggeration.

In a court filing made in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and two deputies, a 2011 request for search warrants indicates that investigators believed there was probable cause Walker and two associates committed felony misconduct in office while Walker's administration negotiated a lease to house the county's Department on Aging. An affidavit filed by Robert Stelter, an investigator in the Milwaukee County district attorney's office, states: "I believe that there is probable cause to believe that Scott Walker, John Hiller, and Andrew Jensen, in concert together, committed a felony, i.e., Misconduct in Public Office."

Doing something criminal while negotiating a lease is pretty much the same kind of nickel-and-dime grifting that has been a feature of Walker's entire political career. The fact that it is still a big deal in what's left of the state is a window into the good-government Wisconsin that Walker, his handlers, and his pet legislature have worked so assiduously to destroy. In other words, it's more than typical. (If you want to look at grand-illusion corruption, as opposed to simple sleight-of-hand sleaziness, the Gogebec Iron Mine is where you want to look.) Ball's in your court tonight, Megyn.