WRN file photo
Milwaukee County’s district attorney and two others want to take over an appeal of the state Supreme Court’s decision to halt a John Doe investigation.
D.A. John Chisholm filed the motion to intervene with the state Supreme Court Friday, along with two other unnamed district attorneys. The request itself remains under seal, pending review by the court.
The probe, which was halted by the high court earlier this year, was looking into whether Governor Scott Walker’s campaign and conservative groups illegally coordinated during the 2012 recall election. In a 4-2 decision last July, justices ended the investigation, ruling the activity was allowed.
Earlier this month, the court also removed special prosecutor Francis Schmitz from the case. Schmitz has said an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was possible, because he believes the investigation was justified. His removal means that the prosecutors who originally started the investigation would have to initiate the appeal though.
While the identity of the other two prosecutors was not immediately known, both the Dodge and Columbia County district attorneys said earlier this week they would not get involved with any effort to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Dane County D.A. Ismael Ozanne and Iowa County D.A. Larry Nelson were also involved in the investigation, before the judge overseeing the John Doe appointed Schmitz as the special prosecutor.