Madison - Appeals Court allows secret probe into recall elections to proceed
Source: Journal Sentinal
Appeals Court allows secret probe into recall elections to proceed
Attorney General Van Hollen declined the case
By Patrick Marley, Jason Stein and Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel Updated: 7:21 p.m.
Madison — The state Court of Appeals blocked an attempt Thursday to halt a secret investigation into recent recall elections and unsealed some files in the case, revealing that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen last year declined a request to lead the probe after considering the question for nearly five months.
The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the Madison-based 4th District Court of Appeals is a win for prosecutors and comes just three weeks after they faced a separate setback by the judge overseeing the investigation. That earlier ruling quashed subpoenas issued to conservative groups supporting Gov. Scott Walker.
How the case will move forward is not clear, but observers have long expected that the losing party in Thursday's appeals court ruling would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
The appeals court Thursday also unsealed some of the previously secret documents in the case at the request of the three unnamed parties who sued to block the probe. The documents confirmed for the first time that Van Hollen was asked to lead the probe by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, a Democrat, in January 2013.
Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/news/appeals-court-wont-block-secret-probe-into-recall-elections-b99195441z1-242846031.html
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