Walker Camp Charged with Multiple Counts of Misconduct in Public Office
A criminal complaint filed today in the ongoing Joe Doe criminal investigation says that Kelly Rindfleish was hired to work full-time on Scott Walker's Milwaukee County Executive in early 2010 with the clear intent that she would spend most of her time illegally working for Walker's gubneratorial campaign.
The complaint states that she was hired by Walker's close aide, Tim Russell-- and without the knowledge or consent of Cheif of Staff Tom Nardelli. Rindfleish came at the recomendation of Walker's campaign manager, Keith Gilkes, as well as Walker's close friend, Jim Villa. Russell set-up up Rindfleish on a campaign laptop and created a special, non-government internet connection to do "policy work" as a "policy analyst" for the county.
However, the investigators found a great deal of evidence that Rindfleish was doing mostly campaign work on the taxpayer's dime. At one point, Rindfleish even emails a friend and says:
"What I'm doing is policy for the campaign."
The complaint strongly implicates Walker.
Not only was Rindfleish suggested by (and living with) Walker's close friend and former chief of staff, Jim Villa, but the complaint makes a point of including a map and a description that she worked "less than 25 feet from the office of then County Executive Scott Walker."
In addition, the complaint takes notice that when Walker sent the following email to Russell, the campaign-at-work activity suddenly took a big dip:
Scott Walker Email to Aide Tim Russell
Clearly by mentioning "laptops" Walker is aware of the illegal scheme to do campaign work in the government office with campaign laptops and on a private campaign network.
The complaint also details how Rindfleish did fundraising for Lt. Gov. candidate Brett Davis, which the complaint states "persons associated with the Friends of Scott Walker campaign committee generally favored Brett Davis over other candidates for the office of Lieutenant Governor."
Here's the kicker, though: Even though Rindfleish has been under the investigative cross hairs for months, the Walker campaign had kept her on the pay roll up until a week ago!
Speaking of keeping people on the pay roll, guess who was Brett Davis' campaign manager aka the guy that was helping coordinate all this illegal activity out of Walker's government office? The governor's current spokesperson, Cullen Werwie.
