Just hours after he delivered a State of the State address that he hoped would set the tone for his campaign to avert a recall election threat, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was hit with exactly the sort of news that embattled politicians fear most.
Two former aides to Walker -- one of whom was in the employ of his campaign until just days ago -- have been charged with felonies and misdemeanors in the ongoing "John Doe" investigation of wrongdoing by aides, political allies and campaign donors with links to the embattled governor.
These charges follow closely on the filing of felony charges against Tim Russell, a former Walker deputy chief of staff and one of the governor's closest aides over the past decade.
The aides charged Thursday were, according to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, engaged in fundraising activities and other political work while working on the staff of Walker when he served as county executive.
Chisholm explains in a fifty-seven-page complaint that Russell and the newly indicted aides established a "secret email system available to and used by select 'insider' staffers for both official and unofficial business." That system was built around a wireless router that was kept in an armoire in the office of Walker's deputy chief of staff -- just a few feet from Walker's office. Its existence was "never disclosed to county employees outside a closely held group within the Walker administration."
The complaint discuses the exchange of thousands -- yes, thousands -- of e-mails involving fundraising and political activity. Many of these e-mails from the deputy chief of staff who is now charged with four felony counts of misconduct in public office, Kelly Rindfleisch, and top political aides to Walker, including Keith Gilkes, who went on to serve as the governor's chief of staff.
Walker has said that during the campaign he was in constant communication with Gilkes about fundraising and campaign strategy.