Yowsa! 2002 is many years earlier than the John Doe investigators acknowledged they knew the system was in operation.
The person who installed the secret router is now speaking up in breaking news in the Wisconsin State Journal.
Gov. Scott Walker's Milwaukee County executive office was using a secret Internet system as early as 2002, according to a former county administrator who said he helped set up the network.
Milwaukee County human resources assistant director Bob Kiefert said he was called into Walker's office in 2002 by then-deputy chief of staff Tim Russell. Kiefert showed Russell how to set up a hard-wired Internet connection using a DSL modem and a telephone line. The network allowed county executive staff to send and receive emails and surf the Web outside the public system set up by the county's Information Management Services Division in 1998.
"They didn’t trust the IMSD county system to be the pathway or the gateway through which their emails went," Kiefert said in an interview. "They wouldn’t have control of those emails."
This means that the use of private emails, etc. began shortly after Walker became Milwaukee County Executive.
While Walker was never charged (and I and others still wonder why not - was it the $650,000 he spent on lawyers?), Russell was only charged and convicted for embezzling funds and never charged with his illegal activities regarding the secret router and private email system which was in use to circumvent archiving required under Open Records Laws.
Kiefert said he never spoke with Walker directly about the system but said Russell brought him to Walker's office to be thanked personally for his help. Walker, who was on the phone, looked up, smiled and waved, he said.
"There was no talk of how they were going to use it for campaigning or anything like that," Kiefert said. "Russell made it clear I was doing a favor for Scott Walker."
(bolding is mine)
Drip drip drip. More evidence that Walker was up to his chin in this scheme.
Investigators found evidence in one of the county executive's offices that the system involved a 3G broadband Internet connection and wireless router, and an AT&T broadband account paid for by Russell with a service start date of Oct. 16, 2009.
Kiefert said the 3G broadband network described in the complaint is a faster, more modern version of the equipment he helped install in 2002.
(bolding is mine)
This likely means that the original 2002 equipment was replaced, perhaps more than once, since it's original installation in 2002. It's use, however, remained the same.
Kiefer said he was never contacted by the John Doe prosecutors.
This space kept vacant for more Friday News Dump news.
WELL HERE COMES MORE NEWS
Scott Walker is asking the feds to delay the time for him to make a decision on a proposed casino by the Menomonee tribe.
Gov. Scott Walker asked federal authorities Friday to give him an extra six months to mull whether to approve a Hard Rock casino in Kenosha — a move that, if granted, would delay the sensitive decision until after he stands for re-election in November.
The U.S. Department of Interior signed off on the casino last summer and gave Walker a year — until Aug. 23 — to make the final determination on whether to allow the $800 million gambling hall and entertainment complex at the former Dairyland Greyhound Park.
After months of "consideration" he promised a decision within days. That was a few months ago. The deadline he set came and went.
Now he wants 6 months more time. Why? To delay the decision until after the November election when Walker will be on the ballot running for re-election. And with that delay he can continue to receive campaign payola from every side of this issue as he already has.
The Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi together have contributed more than $1 million over the years to influence elections in Wisconsin, with the Potawatomi doing the majority of the giving. A delay in the decision could restrain their political giving for fear of upsetting either side.
There's another reason, IMHO. Walker is well known for rewarding friends and donors and even more well known for punishing enemies or those he considers to be enemies. Postponing the decision until after the election means he'll have the opportunity to review reservation voting results and that
opens up the possibility of a reward or punishment to reservations who don't support him.
I'm hoping the feds tell him to crap or get off the pot. He's had a year already to squeeze tribal money into his campaign coffers.
.