I'd hoped for a different outcome.
Dark money is tough to beat and very few of such petitions are taken by the Court. So it goes...
Dark money is tough to beat and very few of such petitions are taken by the Court. So it goes...
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Wisconsin's John Doe case investigating coordination between Gov. Scott Walker's recall campaign and conservative groups that supported him.As I wrote yesterday:
It's a long-shot, as the US Supreme Court takes few of such petitions, but taking the case could more broadly explain why Fitzwalkerstan/Havocwreackostan/the chamber of commerce state managed to win elections in a bought-and-sold Wisconsin.
James, do you know if this can go to the Dept of Justice or does this stop it in it's tracks?
ReplyDeleteNot being an attorney, I cannot say. I would think that anyone can bring evidence of alleged criminality to prosecutors.
ReplyDeleteGutless and disgusting. But nothing's stopping charges from being filed on tax evasion, fraud, and excessive direct donations, is there?
ReplyDeleteThe whole legal battle up to this point was over the John Doe investigation, and it specifically centered around who/what could be subpoenaed.
ReplyDeleteSo, it's dead as a John Doe investigation, and the subpoenas in question are quashed... but since no charges were ever filed, nothing has been decided on the merits (and double-jeopardy doesn't come into play).
If a case can be made from the evidence already gathered, a prosecutor could go ahead and bring charges. The challenge is going to be finding a prosecutor with the guts (and resources) to follow through, and then actually getting a fair hearing. Best bet is likely on the federal level, maybe with stuff like CfG's tax status. Unfortunately, that'll take more years and Walker and co get to stay in power.
Obviously we don't want to go to Walker's extremes, but it sure would be nice if DPW took a lesson or two about how it's easier to ask forgiveness (and stay in power!) than ask permission.
Sorry, folks, nothing is going to happen now and the people that brought this forward are going to get the pants sued off them and be very sorry they got involved at all!
ReplyDeleteThe media will build on the lie that the contents of the Daily Mail don't count and that the only criminality that matters is that they were leaked. The evidence of crimes in the document dump? The media, lead by the usual hacks, will proclaim:
1. The public doesn't care. Walker is teflon. Everyone was so clever about the crimes that it might as well be legal (note that they won't proclaim any of the crimes legal though).
2. Even though virtually nothing but a few tidbits of the demonstrated criminality got published in the U.S., and even less was published in Wisconsin, the media will proclaim that everything in the document dump is old news.
3. The next step, before flushing this all down the memory hole will be that the media will declare it is "old news" and any talk about anything that the document dumps prove as as crime is unfair.
4. Lather, rinse, repeat -- PRESTO -- inconvenient facts and crimes? GONE!
No one that is paying attention should be surprised. A major figure at the state's largest newspaper falsely proclaimed this all "dead as a doornail" years ago, JUST BEFORE THE TRIALS OF WALKER'S CLOSEST AIDS BEGAN THAT ALL RESULTED IN CONVICTIONS.
We are going to see terrible things happen. Remember,ALEC/Koch only needs 6 more statehouses to hold a Constitutional Convention and rewrite everything so that we are exclusively a corpocracy and absolutely nothing can be done.
http://inthesetimes.com/article/18940/alec-balanced-budget-corporate-constitutional-convention
So ironic that the media across Wisconsin and America proclaims criminal treasonous people to be "patriots". How will they sell us on the idea that re-writing the U.S. Constitution is what the founders intended and doing so pays homage to them?
Think about that -- the lie that patriots would destroy that which they claim to stand for is no more outrageous than the tripe you read, see, and hear in the news every day.
If nothing else the "Court of public Opinion" got to see what Walker did and perhaps their judgment could be a death knell, all be it slow, that bursts the balloon of Walker, Vos, Fitz, Darling and those in the Republican cabal. We've all seen the corruption and they can deny it all they want and hide behind no charges being filed..............but we've seen the truth and they cannot run away from "PAY TO PLAY" nor the illegal funneling of money, illegal at the time they did it, and those are facts that they cannot change no matter their rhetoric!
ReplyDelete