County Executive Abele to release thousands of pages of John Doe investigation emails

This is great news.

A pool of at least tens of thousands of emails will likely soon become available from aides to Gov. Scott Walker when he was Milwaukee County executive.

One person’s records consist of 25,000 to 40,000 emails, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele said in an interview Thursday. Prosecutors seized the computers of multiple people, but Abele said he did not know how many emails those others had exchanged.

Abele’s comments marked the most detailed explanation yet of the scope of the records in question.

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11 thoughts on “County Executive Abele to release thousands of pages of John Doe investigation emails

  1. Zach, thanks. Agree this is very good news. Hope the County Exec follows through.

  2. I’m going to play devils advocate and say that this is not good news. The emails aren’t going to reveal anything more damning than what we’ve already seen, the broader voting public won’t be paying much attention, and when the release of these emails doesn’t bring Walker down as is hoped, folks will sink further into despondency beyond what they are already, which will doom Mary Burke for sure.

    If we don’t make up our minds that we’re going to beat Walker in November, without help from either John Doe or Mike Tate, we’re probably not going to beat Walker in November.

    1. I agree about Mike Tate, absolutely, but the emails could be the turning point because of the Journal-Sentinel’s interest in them.
      J-S hasn’t been particularly interested in any of Scott Walker’s misbehavior; in fact they’ve been tolerant to a point that can only be described as pathetic. It took them forever to express an interest in those emails, maybe because it took them longer to figure out how to benefit from them.
      Pulitzer bait, baby. Hard-charging investigative journalists bring down a Teflon governor. Go for it, J-S, for whatever reason you’re doing this.

    2. While I agree that we shouldn’t wait on John Doe to be the Dems’ golden ticket in November, these documents will have an effect on the election. If you remember when the first set of WalkerDocs dropped, Walker dropped in the polls because people got to see the type of amoral slimeballs that he is and that he surrounded himself by.

      This shows up clearly in the “cares about someone like me” question, where more than 50% already think Scotty doesn’t care about them, and another document dump will turn that number even higher.

      And that’s where the Dems should strike, with a central message of. “Scott Walker and the GOP are corrupt a-holes.” Most of Wisconsin would agree.

  3. Sue,

    This isn’t Pulitzer bait. The DA has already declined to prosecute. That provides Walker with a damn near air tight escape route. This isn’t Christies Bridgegate, or Nixon’s Watergate, where a smoking gun might still be uncovered. Walker’s rap, no matter what comes out, will be that it’s old news and that he needs to get on with the business of governing and moving the state forward. The howl from Dems over what’s in the emails will look to the larger public like sour grapes, bitter grapes, even. I don’t think any good can come from this. I dearly hope I’m wrong.

    1. SC, I agree with your assessment totally.
      If a Politian does wrong and ya got the goods, skewer him/her. If you don’t have the goods, put down the bowl of sour grapes and slowly back away.
      Unfortunately after near 4 years, eating sour grapes at this point is purely voluntary and inhibits one’s ability to see the forest through the trees.

      1. ig,

        Thanks for, “If you don’t have the goods, put down the bowl of sour grapes and slowly back away.” another belt-high, batting practice fastball.

        “County staff shared sex assault victim name with Scott Walker political aides”

        “While Scott Walker was Milwaukee County executive, his staff freely shared the name of a sexual assault victim and details about her case with political operatives, recently released emails show….”

        http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/county-staff-shared-sex-assault-victim-name-with-scott-walker-political-aides-b99235336z1-252997631.html

        A couple of things you need to remember,

        1) All the media in Wisconsin desperately need Walker and Burke to spend, spend, spend on ads.

        2) As more emails leak out, Chisholm will get even more criticism for not prosecuting. Some of that’s fair, a lot of it probably isn’t. The unions, especially Milwaukee Police, cut deals with Walker, IMHO, the history will be that Chisholm was a hero who went where no one wanted to go following the oligarch’s takeover of Wisconsin. But to survive the onslaught from well paid media hacks, and get the five-convictions he did, he had to make really tough choices, while taking on the best legal talent in Wisconsin, a former U.S. Attorney, Steve Biskupic.

        When you become “independent,” you’ll figure out that if you want better teachers, you need to increase their compensation. That’s the argument all the Fortune 500 CEO’s use and the it applies to all other public sector workers.

        http://www.aflcio.org/Corporate-Watch/Paywatch-2014/100-Highest-Paid-CEOs

  4. john, Try to stay on topic, huh?
    I agreed with SC that the likelihood of a John Doe revelation at this point was extremely low and that the hopeful critters that are holding on to it are sour grapes. Sour grapes is not an admirable behavior by anyone’s standard. You win some, you lose some. Keep civil and move on…….

  5. To be clear, I didn’t say it was sour grapes, I said it will look like that, and be portrayed as such by Walker, to the broader public.

    1. Fair enough. Thanks for the clarification.
      “I” said sour grapes. SC’s original comment is on the money.

  6. Well why didn’t Chisholm Charge Walker? I think based on information obtained that Expanded the Investigation is why. I don’t expect any of these e-mails to expand on what May be taking place in JD#2. Why charge on a possible lower wrongdoing when a More serious infraction has taken place? That does happen. For all of us it is frustrating to a point of not knowing Exact specifics. Unseal the JD#2 Documents, That will explain many of the questions that persist, As to Why things happened the way they have.

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