The investigation is ongoing. It continues to expand at an exponential rate, touching more and more of Walker's inner circle, including aides in the county executive's office, 2010 campaign aides and donors, and aides in the governor's office and Walker's current campaign. Notably, Rindfleisch, who was paid by Milwaukee County taxpayers during the 2010 Walker campaign, left county employment after Walker's election to help organize the new governor's inauguration. Rindfieisch then went to work as a top fundraising aide with the governor's political operation, Friends of Scott Walker, with which she was employed until January, 2012.
Sources close to the inquiry say that the "John Doe" investigation is still in the early stages of sorting through mountains of information obtained in FBI raids and related investigations of Walker aides and donors. That means that the steady flow of charges and complaints could extend the recall campaign that Walker is all but certain to face, after one million Wisconsinites petitioned for his ouster.
The full impact of the investigation on the recall campaign will only be revealed over the period of the next several months.
The potential that the "John Doe" inquiry will be a major political problem for Walker now seems a good deal greater than it did just days ago.
Here's why?
The latest complaint ties wrongdoing to Walker's 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
This new complaint makes the connection to Walker's current spokesman Cullen Werwie, who has requested immunity in the John Doe probe. The private e-mail network in the county executive's office was aiding both Walker's campaign and the campaign of a Walker ally, Brett Davis, who was running for lieutenant governor. Werwie was Davis's campaign spokesman. (In addition to Werwie, Davis is now a top Walker appointee.)
The complaint features reference to an e-mail from Walker showing at least some knowledge of problems with politicking in the office. He is primarily concerned that there are no media stories about political operations being run out of the county executive's office -- following the revelation in 2010 that one of the aides charged Thursday, Wink, was doing political work on county time. "We cannot afford another story like this one," reads the e-mail, which was included in the complaint. "No one can give them any reason to do another story." The governor even counsels the aide about the use of laptops and websites during the workday.
That e-mail is one Walker is going to be questioned about as he tours Wisconsin following his State of the State speech.
The complaint released Thursday is the most detailed and serious yet directed at the official and political activities on behalf of Walker.
And few will debate that these charges are the most serious to arise thus far from the John Doe probe. They bring the investigation dramatically closer to the governor.
This does not mean that the governor is going to be indicted, or that he is guilty of wrongdoing.
But it does raise the classic question from the Watergate era inquiries into the misdeeds of aides to then-President Richard Nixon.
Of Nixon it was asked: "What did he know and when did he know it?"
With the latest charges and the fresh complaint, it is now entirely reasonable to say with regard to Scott Walker: "What did he know and when did he know it?"
Cross-posted from The Nation
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