Josh Kaul, Wisconsin’s far-left attorney general, sent an email to his Department of Justice employees Friday to remind them that the election of Donald Trump “does not change our mission, our vision, or our values.”
Kaul’s “values” in nearly six years as the Badger’s state’s top prosecutor seem to be playing politics with prosecutions, much like his allies in the Biden-Harris administration’s weaponized U.S. Department of Justice. And he apparently wants his team to know that he intends to pull the leftist “resistance” card when it comes to Trump’s plans to clean up dirty, politically driven witch hunts.
“As you’re aware, the presidential election was held on Tuesday, and the outcome of that election will result in substantial changes to many federal policies,” Kaul wrote in the email obtained by The Federalist.
“At DOJ, our mission is to protect the public and ensure that justice is done,” the email continues. “In times of change, I think it’s good to remind ourselves of who we are as an agency and what role we serve for the people of our state. We are leaders in protecting the safety, well-being, and rights of Wisconsinites.”
It’s a nuanced parsing of words for the highly partisan AG. As a veteran employee of the state DOJ put it, Kaul “seems to be subtly implying that the Trump administration[‘s] priorities are in conflict with those of Wisconsin.”
The source, who asked not to be identified, said he doesn’t recall a similar email from Kaul in 2020 when Joe Biden claimed victory over then-President Trump in the general election.
“The public should be made aware of the potential undermining of any efforts of the Trump administration to investigate election integrity or civil rights violations such as the targeting of the Wausau mayor,” the DOJ employee said, referring to a recent high-profile political investigation on Kaul’s watch.
“The election does not change our mission, our vision, or our values. What will change are the circumstances we’re presented with,” Kaul wrote in his email.
At a press conference on Friday, Kaul audaciously threatened that he and his agency are prepared to act “if the new administration infringes upon the freedoms of Wisconsinites or attempts to use our system of justice as a tool for vengeance.”
“We will act to protect the best interests of the people of the state of Wisconsin, we’ll act to uphold equal justice under the law,” the democrat tool for vengeance said, according to the leftist Wisconsin Examiner.
He noted that federal policies have a “significant impact” on the Department of Justice, partnering agencies, and Wisconsin residents. Whatever Trump has in mind, Kaul self-righteously claims that his agency will “continue to act based on the best interests of the people of Wisconsin, steadfast in our commitment to protecting public safety, upholding equal justice under the law, and protecting the rights of Wisconsinites.”
Hmmm. Let’s take a look at the attorney general’s brand of “equal justice under the law.”
‘Out of Proportion’
As The Federalist first reported last month, agents from the state DOJ’s Division of Criminal Investigation raided the office and home of conservative Wausau Mayor Doug Diny in connection with Diny’s removal of an unsecured absentee ballot drop box. Investigators grabbed electronic devices, including computers and the personal smartphones of Diny and his wife. The raid was conducted simultaneously at the two locations, as the mayor was at his office and his wife was home alone with the couple’s 18-month-old grandson. Agents also searched their vehicles.
The very public serving of the expansive search warrant occurred on Oct. 23, a month after the mayor carted away the ballot box located outside city hall and placed it inside the government building for safekeeping, he said.
Diny said the box was not bolted down and was subject to security breaches before Wisconsin’s absentee ballot season got underway. The city clerk quickly returned the drop box to its position outside city hall.
Leftist groups went ballistic, accusing the mayor of election interference. They called for Diny’s arrest and prosecution.
Kaul responded with an investigative sledgehammer, with a raid seeking evidence of “Election fraud” related to the removal of the ballot drop box. Critics suspect the probe is a political reprisal for Diny’s election victory in April over incumbent Mayor Katie Rosenberg, the darling of Wisconsin’s leftist elite and an absentee ballot drop box crusader.
Regardless, critics see Kaul’s actions as an abuse of power. The Wall Street Journal editorial board described the raid as “out of proportion to Mr. Diny’s action.”
The mayor has still not been charged with a crime. DOJ agents have yet to return the phones they took from Diny and his wife. In an interview Friday, Diny told me he had to buy new mobile phones.
“My overall hope was, regardless of which way it went, that once the election was done, things would settle down, the temperature would cool down,” the mayor said.
Liberal prosecutors have spent the past four years targeting Trump and other conservatives with intimidation, investigations, raids, arrests, and convictions. With a Republican revolution bringing Trump and the GOP back to power, it is unlikely the left will cool the temperature.
America has seen this movie before.
Making ‘Lawyers Into Criminals’
Earlier this year, Kaul held a press conference on the state capitol’s steps to announce charges in his phony “fake electors” case against long-time attorney and former Dane County Judge Jim Troupis, who served as former Trump’s legal counsel following the disputed 2020 presidential election.
Kaul also charged Troupis’ fellow attorney Kenneth Chesebro and Trump political operative Michael Roman in his political witch hunt.
The state Department of Justice hit the three defendants with massaged forgery charges in a case that former U.S. Department of Justice attorney and Federal Election Commission member Hans von Spakovsky has described as an “abusive political prosecution” that should be tossed out and ultimately lead to sanctions against a highly partisan attorney general.
Trump challenged in court his losses in swing states that decided the 2020 election. The election was plagued with myriad irregularities and election law violations. Trump campaign attorneys directed a strategy to employ a slate of alternate electors in Wisconsin and other states to secure the president’s victory, should he win his legal battles.
John F. Kennedy’s campaign used alternate electors in Hawaii in 1960 when the results there were in dispute.
Kaul’s own Department of Justice initially found nothing wrong with the strategy. It issued a memo to the Wisconsin Elections Commission explaining, “Nothing … prohibits or otherwise limits a party from meeting to cast electoral votes during a challenge to an election tabulation. [The statutes] say nothing about an alternative set of electors casting votes and do not expressly prohibit a slate of electors [from] casting votes to preserve their votes in case pending legal challenges prove successful.” The commission sought guidance from Kaul’s agency in twice rejecting complaints from a leftist lawfare group pushing the “fake electors” narrative — in March 2022 and again last December.
But Kaul decided to resurrect the matter not long after a Manhattan kangaroo court convicted Trump in another spurious prosecution. An initial appearance in the Wisconsin alternate electors case is scheduled for Dec. 12, some six months after the AG brought his trumped-up charges.
A reply brief filed on behalf of Troupis asserts what even a partisan hack like Kaul should understand: “[C]riminal law doesn’t turn on novel interpretations of statutes — especially those that have been around since Roman times.”
“And it doesn’t make lawyers into criminals just because they represent an unpopular client or, for that matter, a client who lost the election. Instead, it’s important that a lawyer’s actions be judged according to the profession’s demands.”
‘Political Stunt’
The leftist attorney general wants his DOJ team to know that they should be guided by shared values: integrity, equity (from the DEI manual), accountability, excellence, and collaboration.
He says nothing of justice guided by politics, but that’s what Kaul is practicing at the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Just ask Mayor Doug Diny.
“I would say that I think he has been influenced by politics more than he’d like to admit,” Diny said of Kaul. “I was accused of making a political stunt. I would say what the [DOJ] did is more of a political stunt.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
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