Our readers know that Democratic prosecutors in Wisconsin tried to criminalize thepolitical speech of Governor Scott Walker’s allies, but it turns out their ambitions didn’tstop at the state line. New evidence shows that John Doe investigators were trawling thefiles they collected via subpoenas and search warrants for information on nationalconservatives.

The documents are under seal in a state court case, Eric O’Keefe and Wisconsin Club forGrowth v. Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB), but two sources have readthem to us. The lawsuit is a complaint against the GAB, the state agency that workedwith Milwaukee prosecutors on the John Doe that used campaign-finance laws totrample the First Amendment.

We’ve tried to expose this illegal harassmentsince the autumn of 2013, when earlymorning home raids and subpoenas hitconservative groups across the state. Fromthat investigation and a previous John Doewhose documents were transferred into the

new investigation, prosecutors and the GAB collected millions of documents, includingpersonal files, emails and bank statements.

The John Doe team searched the digital cache for information related to their now-discredited theory of campaign-finance coordination, but they didn’t stop there.

The Milwaukee District Attorney’s office, run by Democrat John Chisholm, sent GABstaff a spreadsheet of search terms that included prominent national conservatives.

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/john-doe-goes-to-washington-1445899241

OPINION REVIEW & OUTLOOK

John Doe Goes to WashingtonWisconsin’s illegal probe went after national conservative figures.

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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in Las Vegas on Sept. 14. PHOTO: ISAAC BREKKEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

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The spreadsheet includes the names and personal email addresses of former FloridaGovernor Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, political strategist and Journalcontributor Karl Rove, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republican Party chiefReince Priebus and Fox News host Sean Hannity.

The list also includes search terms for such non-scandalous words as “coordinationplan” and “message.” The government snoops created ideological search concepts like“big union bosses” and “big government,” as if such phrases suggest some law-breakingintent. Recall that when the IRS targeted conservative groups for special vetting, itcreated a “Be On the Lookout” list of key words such as “patriot” and “tea party.”

The John Doe documents don’t say why these national figures were targeted, though weassume they were also thought to be allies of Mr. Walker. From documents releasedearlier this year we know prosecutors discussed looking into Mr. Hannity andMilwaukee radio host Charlie Sykes for “potential equal time violations.”

Through rounds of search warrants and searches of Internet service providers, theprosecutors expanded their writ to pursue the liberal hobbyhorse of “dark money” inelections. In a memo describing their theory of a “scheme” to get around campaign-finance limits, the D.A.’s office refers derisively to “so-called social welfareorganization(s)” which “represent a huge loophole to traditional regulation of politicaladvertising.”

In an August 10, 2012 petition to the Circuit Court in Milwaukee County to open theJohn Doe into conservative groups, Assistant District Attorney David Robles wrote, “Ianticipate subpoenaing Wisconsin state officials, Wisconsin senate candidates,campaign contributors, and contributors to ‘501(c)(4)’ organizations during the courseof the investigation to identify the purpose of the contributions.”

At least one of the subsequent subpoenas that we’ve seen asked for “fundraisinginformation and the identity of persons contributing to the corporation.” In otherwords: Give up the names of your donors. The scope of these searches is breathtakingand shows how easily the liberal obsession with campaign “coordination” turns intopartisan score-settling. No wonder the Wisconsin Supreme Court shut the probe downas unconstitutional earlier this year.

We doubt these national political figures knew their names were on the search list. Butthen vast numbers of documents were seized from dozens of individuals andorganizations that have never been charged with a crime. Many caught in this dragnet

are still unaware that their emails and personal data are held by state law enforcement.If Republican office-holders had tried something like this, liberals would be shoutingabout a vast domestic spying operation.

Last week Wisconsin’s legislature approved a John Doe reform bill on a party-line voteand Mr. Walker signed it on Friday. The legislation restricts John Doe probes, whichrequire secrecy from targets and witnesses, mostly for serious felonies and violentcrimes. Using it for standard political investigations will be barred.

That’s a start, but the Milwaukee prosecutors and liberal activists at the GAB abusedtheir authority for partisan purposes. The courts need to hold them accountable.

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