CHICAGO -- Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker knew that his campaign to fend off a 2012 recall coordinated with conservative groups, which is illegal in the state, prosecutors said in court documents made public Thursday.
Walker touted the work of one of his campaign staff members in coordinating fundraising and campaign activity among conservative groups in a 2011 email to Republican strategist Karl Rove, according to the unsealed court papers. The groups included the Wisconsin chapter of Club for Growth.
He "helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin," Walker wrote to Rove on May 4, 2011, referring to his staff member, according to the documents.
A first-term governor, Walker successfully defeated the recall campaign, which was led by labor groups opposed to his legislation that limited collective-bargaining rights. He has been cited as a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate.
A special prosecutor endorsed by district attorneys in five counties had been pursuing a confidential investigation into the coordination efforts between Walker's office and conservative groups until last month, when a Milwaukee federal judge ruled the probe violated U.S. constitutional protections for political activity.
The prosecutors appealed that decision.
U.S. Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook on Thursday ordered 266 pages of documents related to the investigation unsealed.
Laurel Patrick, the governor's press secretary, referred a request for comment on the contents of the unsealed papers to his campaign spokesman, Alleigh Marre.
"The Friends of Scott Walker campaign are not party to the federal suit and have no control over any of the documents in that suit," Marre said in an emailed statement.
The documents show prosecutors abused their powers and adopted a "blatantly unconstitutional interpretation of Wisconsin law," Andrew Grossman, a lawyer representing Wisconsin Club for Growth, said in an emailed statement.
The court found only coordination of expenditures may be regulated, and the state didn't argue coordination of expenditures occurred, Grossman said.
"Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and this is a story that needs to be told to prevent more abuses," he said.
While the federal court bid to end the investigation was filed by Eric O'Keefe, director and treasurer for Wisconsin Club for Growth, his was one of several groups that attempted to have investigatory subpoenas quashed in state court, according to a ruling included in the newly released documents.
"The scope of the criminal scheme under investigation is expansive," the county prosecutors said in a December state court filing opposing the motion to quash the subpoenas. "It includes criminal violations of multiple election laws."
The subpoenas were quashed by a state judge.
J.B. Van Hollen, the state's Republican attorney general, declined to participate in the investigation.
In a May letter to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, Van Hollen said he was concerned about "potential conflicts of interest that arise by virtue of our ongoing representation of Scott Walker in his official capacity as governor."
Leading the five-county investigation was former Deputy U.S. Attorney Francis Schmitz.
"The documents released today raise more questions than answers about Scott Walker's misconduct during his first term," Democratic National Committee press secretary Michael Czin said in a statement. Czin called the alleged coordination illegal and "a clear violation of the public's trust."
The appellate court case is O'Keefe v. Chisholm, 14-1822, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Chicago).
Information for this article was contributed by John McCormick and Tim Jones of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 06/20/2014