Immediately, national news outlets and liberal activists ran with the story, nearly breaking the Internet in the process. “Prosecutors: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Part Of 'Criminal Scheme'” read the Huffington Post. Politico ran with a similar story, adding that “Walker has denied wrongdoing, and no charges have been filed.” Undeterred by facts, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas tweeted, “As feds close in on Scott Walker, just note: none of this would be happening without the recall elections. #DeferredVictory”
However, missing from all these accounts was one small fact: Shortly after prosecutors made the “criminal scheme” charge, it was rejected by the presiding judge, Gregory Peterson. On Dec. 9, 2013, prosecutor Francis Schmitz filed a motion in opposition to quashing subpoenas in the case in which he made the “criminal scheme” allegation. On Jan. 10, 2014, Peterson threw out Schmitz’s motion, saying that it “failed to show probable cause that a crime had been committed.”
In fact, Peterson was only the first judge to rule against prosecutors. Last month, ruling on a lawsuit brought by the defendants, federal Judge Rudolph Randa shut down the entire investigation, issuing a sternly worded rebuke to prosecutors pursing Walker and his allies. So despite all the celebrating liberal groups were doing with the release of the documents on Thursday, few of them knew that the case is currently dead.
