Was DA Chisholm motivated to go after Walker in John Doe investigation by his own wife?



MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Thousands more documents were released on Thursday, September 11th in the first "John Doe" investigation targeting Scott Walker.

The documents pertain to the investigation into Walker's former aides and associates while he was Milwaukee County Executive.

Meanwhile, an online report is making allegations about the prosecutor at the heart of this issue, and his supposed motivations.

The report claims District Attorney John Chisholm was motivated to go after Walker, because Chisholm's wife was part of a teachers union.

On Thursday, seven gigabytes of documents were released from the now-closed John Doe investigation that resulted in convictions against six people. Walker has never been charged with any wrongdoing.

The release of documents is the second in just a matter of weeks, but it's an online article on legalnewsline.com that's making more waves.

"We live in such a partisan age that people say things, and there isn't really a factual basis for it," said Mordecai Lee.

Mordecai Lee is a professor of government affairs at UW-Milwaukee. He's skeptical of the article which sites a single, anonymous source who claims District Attorney John Chisholm "felt that it was his personal duty to stop Walker from treating people like this," after Act 10. In fact, the source claims Chisholm was motivated to investigate Walker because Chisholm's wife was a teachers union steward.

"I think the District Attorney deserves the benefit of the doubt -- most especially because some of his partners in the John Doe II investigation are elected as Republican DA's," said Lee.

The source in the online report goes on to say DA offices feature pro-union paraphernalia -- like posters.

"It seems to me this could have come out and would have come out years ago," Lee said.

A spokesperson for Chisholm also responded to the report:

"The article in which this anonymous source is quoted is yet another example of a carefully orchestrated, partisan-inspired publication designed to inflame but not inform. The suggest that Mrs. Chisholm and her supposed dislike of Act 10 drove this investigation is ridiculous."


Lee also says the website in question is funded by groups that are generally more conservative.

He expects even more discussions and accusations about the John Doe investigations as we get closer to the election.

Voters hit the polls on November 4th.