Fox Does Damage Control For Scott Walker On Criminal Investigation
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 20th, 2014 11:08 pm by HL
Fox Does Damage Control For Scott Walker On Criminal Investigation
Fox News helped Republican Gov. Scott Walker (WI) rehabilitate his image following newly released details on a criminal investigation into potential coordination between Walker’s recall campaign and outside spending groups, dismissing allegations of wrongdoing as merely attempts “to trash him.”
Documents unsealed on June 19 offered details on an extensive investigation into whether the Walker campaign was involved in a “criminal scheme” to illegally coordinate campaign activities with outside spending groups during his 2011 and 2012 recall elections.
Walker took to Fox & Friends the following day for a softball interview to respond to the allegations.
Walker repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, emphasizing that the investigation was halted by a federal judge. Co-host Steve Doocy agreed, speculating “These are documents that, for a case that does not exist anymore, it’s not going anywhere, and they’re just opening it up — it looks like they’re just trying to trash you.” When Walker responded that the allegations detailed in the documents are nothing more than attacks by political opponents and the media, Doocy went on:
DOOCY: So the show’s over, but they’re trying to trash you. Are they trying to do to you what they did to Chris Christie in New Jersey?
[…]
Scott Walker, answering the charges. Not that there are any charges, just people trying to trash him.
It is true that the nearly two-year-old investigation is currently halted, and that no charges have yet been filed. But what Fox and Walker fail to admit is that the issue appears far from over. As Vox explained:
State law requires that any such nonprofits spending on election ads do so independently, without any coordination with Walker or his aides. Prosecutors are arguing that they didn’t do so — that, instead, Walker and two of his campaign consultants participated in a “criminal scheme” to “utilize and direct” the nonprofits’ behavior. The investigation is being conducted under Wisconsin’s unique John Doe law, which allows for many of the proceedings to be kept secret. The district attorney of Milwaukee, a Democrat, initiated the probe, but several other county prosecutors joined in, and a special prosecutor has since been appointed.
Importantly, no charges have been filed against anyone, and none appear imminent. Most of the legal wrangling so far has focused instead on whether prosecutors had probable cause to raid and subpoena documents from the consultants and nonprofit groups they believe to be involved.
It’s an investigation being led by both Democrats and Republicans across five counties. In January and May 2014, a state judge and federal district court judge, respectively, ruled that prosecutors issued subpoenas without probable case during the investigation, but the state judge later stayed his own order, and the matter is currently pending before a federal appellate panel, which released the new documents at the prosecutors’ request.
