For a couple of months, the prosecutor purge scandal has produced a series of disconcerting questions, but the one simmering just below the surface has been about the U.S. Attorneys who weren’t<\/i> fired. If eight were fired for failing to politicize their offices, what did the other 85 do to keep their jobs?<\/p>\n
There are plenty of questionable instances of prosecutors filing dubious cases before last year’s midterm elections, but following up on an item<\/a> from last week, a case in Wisconsin is quickly becoming the controversy to watch.<\/p>\n A quick summary for those just joining us. Last year, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D), was in the midst of a tough re-election fight. Around the same time as the Republicans picked Doyle’s challenger, U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic brought charges against a top official in Doyle’s administration, accusing the state purchasing supervisor of corruption. Last Thursday, federal judges rejected Biskupic’s case with almost unprecedented speed, assailing the charges and concluding that “the evidence is beyond thin.”<\/p>\n Since then, we’ve learned quite a bit. Over the weekend, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Milwaukee denied that the prosecution was politically motivated, but in less than categorical terms<\/a>: “I can tell you that from our perspective it was not, but that is as far as I’m going to go.” Anyone persuaded by that?<\/p>\n The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Daniel Bice fleshed out<\/a> the broader dynamic in more detail, explaining the role politics may have played in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n For weeks, it was unclear who whined to the White House last year that not enough voter fraud cases were being prosecuted in Milwaukee. Now we know.<\/p>\n The state Republican Party went straight to the top in its efforts to make voter fraud an issue in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n Sources tell No Quarter that Rick Wiley, then the executive director of the state GOP, directed a staffer in 2005 to prepare a 30-page report on election abuses in Wisconsin so Wiley could pass it along to a top White House official.<\/p>\n That document, entitled “Fraud in Wisconsin 2004: A Timeline\/Summary,” turned up last week in the horde of White House and U.S. Justice Department records released by the House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.<\/p>\n “The report was prepared for Karl Rove,” said a source with knowledge of the situation. “Rick wanted it so he could give it to Karl Rove.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Let’s unpack this a bit. What happened next? Well, that’s a little fuzzy at this point, but about six months later, Biskupic brought fairly ridiculous charges against Doyle’s state purchasing supervisor, much to the delight of local Republicans who used the case<\/a> in campaign attack ads in the gubernatorial race.<\/p>\n Was Biskupic pressured to bring the case? At this point, we don’t know, but the other question to ponder is whether Biskupic was on the chopping block at the time he brought the beyond-thin charges. We know which eight U.S. Attorneys were purged, but the Justice Department has refused to acknowledge which other federal prosecutors were considered for dismissal — and how they managed to keep their jobs.<\/p>\n In other words — and this is just speculation, based on what we’ve seen — Biskupic’s job could have been on the line when he needlessly brought corruption charges against an innocent state official during a competitive gubernatorial campaign. Sometimes, people make unwise decisions when they think they might get fired.<\/p>\n
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\nIn 2004, Republicans in Wisconsin alleged that John Kerry won thanks to widespread “voter fraud.” In 2005, Biskupic completed a review and said there was no evidence to support the claims, much to the chagrin on local Republican activists who wanted him to take action. Biskupic’s report, of course, wasn’t good enough for the state GOP, which contacted Rove directly, insisting that there was campaign corruption going on in Wisconsin, which the White House should take seriously.<\/p>\n