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Walker says nothing illegal about campaign donations

The Guardian U.S. sifted through a set of 1,500 leaked documents from the John Doe probe into Walker’s campaign and conservative groups that supported him during the recall effort, including Wisconsin Club for Growth.

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An in-depth investigative report from the Guardian U.S. sheds new light on the relationships between Gov. Scott Walker and donors to the Wisconsin Club for Growth during the governor’s 2012 recall election, raising questions about influence over at least one legislative effort that would have benefited one significant donor.

The Republican governor cited court rulings that shut down the investigation, including at the circuit level, “because it clearly didn’t show anything illegal”.

The article’s headline says documents from the investigation “lay bare” the “pervasive influence of corporate cash on modern USA elections”. Justices will consider that request on September 26.

The Latest on documents showing Wisconsin Gov.

Simmons’ contributions mirror a $700,000 donation from mining firm Gogebic Taconite to Wisconsin Club for Growth around the same time, a donation that was earlier disclosed in court records.

A spokesperson for Governor Walker’s campaign sent 27 News the following statement in regards to The Guardian’s story.

For instance, in an overnight meeting in June 2013, Republicans on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee inserted a provision into the budget long sought by the lead paint industry that was meant to block lawsuits pending against them by 171 children sickened by lead paint. The phrase suggested by the lobbyist is the one that was added to an amendment, which was passed and signed into law but later blocked by a federal court.

Club For Growth attorney David Rivkin said in an email that prosecutors made up crimes that don’t exist and called their appeal “legally frivolous and just another publicity stunt meant to tarnish their targets’ reputations and salvage their own”.

In an interview Wednesday, the boy’s attorney, Peter Earle, said he was “trembling with rage” at the news of the contributions by the industry, saying that they were meant to block claims by “the most vulnerable among us”. The first installment of those contributions came less than three months after Walker signed a sweeping rewrite of Wisconsin’s tort laws that made it harder for anyone injured by lead paint to sue the companies who once produced it. Luther Olsen of Ripon, told the Cap Times of Madison it was not. “Several courts shut down the baseless investigation on multiple occasions, and there is absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing”, wrote Joe Fadness.

“I think that’s quite a jump”, he said.

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Spokeswomen for Republican Senate and Assembly leaders didn’t immediately respond to emails.

Gov Walker prepares for RNC primetime speech