When An Email Stings The Boss, Part One

Part One:

If you were the boss and you're Rupert Murdoch, and the heart of a news story alleges illegal activity in the workplace involving hidden, inappropriate communications, bad things can happen.

If you were the boss and you're Scott Walker, and the heart of a news story alleges illegal activity in the workplace involving hidden, inappropriate communications - - well, stay tuned: 

An email from Scott Walker, sent from his campaign email account in May 2010, directs an aide [Tim Russell] now facing felony charges to avoid embarrassing news stories.

"We cannot afford another story like this one," reads the email, documented in a criminal complaint made public Thursday. "No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the workday, etc."

The criminal complaint that documents the email is against Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker's deputy chief of staff while [s]he was Milwaukee County executive. It demonstrates that the story clearly concerned Walker about the activities of his employees.

"This email ... with its reference to no more laptops during the workday, provides an apparent explanation for the drop in Rindfleisch's daytime fundraising activity in the few weeks following Darlene Wink's resignation," the criminal complaint against Rindfleisch states...

Rindfleisch faces four felony counts for spending "significant time" raising funds for former state Rep. Brett Davis, R-Oregon, during Davis' bid for lieutenant governor. The Milwaukee County DA's office alleges that Rindfleisch set up a private email network from the county executive's office to aid Davis' campaign.

The complaint alleges that Rindfleisch worked extensively on Davis' campaign but that work dropped off after the Journal Sentinel story broke on May 14, 2010. That was the same day Walker sent the email to Tim Russell, who had hired Rindfleisch earlier that year as a policy analyst in the county exec's office.

The complaint alleges that Russell, then deputy chief of staff for Walker, supplied Rindfleisch with a non-county-issued personal laptop computer, and a private Internet connection supplied by Russell, and that Rindfleisch worked on projects assigned by Russell....

In March 2010, Rindfleisch was promoted to deputy chief of staff, working less than 25 feet from Walker's office. Both before and after the promotion, from February until July, she worked on Davis' campaign "during business hours while Rindfleisch was paid to do work on behalf of Milwaukee County," the complaint states.

Wink's charges stem from her alleged work on an event called, "Happy Birthday Scott," a fundraiser commemorating Walker's candidacy for governor and his 42nd birthday. The complaint against her alleges that she worked on the fundraiser from her desk in the county executive's office, and also used both her own personal computer and a county computer to organize the event.

Part Two, Monday.