The Latest: Ethics commissioner won’t recuse himself

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The Latest on response to Attorney General Brad Schimel’s investigation into information leaks (all times local):

6:30 p.m.

Wisconsin Ethics Commission Chairman David Halbrooks says he won’t recuse himself from issues that involve the now-closed secret investigation into Gov. Scott Walker.

Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel on Tuesday said Halbrooks should recuse himself because he was granted immunity in the first John Doe investigation that involved aides to Walker when he was Milwaukee County executive. The investigation into Walker’s recall campaign grew out of that initial probe.

Halbrooks says Schimel’s call for him to recuse himself doesn’t make sense. He says the Ethics Commission wants to work with Schimel to determine who leaked documents collected during that investigation in 2016.

Halbrooks says, “We did not intend any adversarial response to the attorney general in any way, shape or form.”

Halbrooks is a Democrat and an attorney in Milwaukee.

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5:10 p.m.

Attorney General Brad Schimel says Ethics Commission Chairman David Halbrooks should recuse himself from any involvement in issues related to the now-closed investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

Schimel raised concerns with Halbrooks Tuesday, in a letter he sent to the commission. That was in response to criticisms Halbrooks and the commission’s vice chair raised with Schimel about his own investigation into leaks related to the probe.

Schimel says there could be a conflict having Halbrooks involved, given that he was granted immunity in the first John Doe probe that focused on aides of Walker when he was Milwaukee County executive. The investigation into Walker’s recall campaign grew out of that initial probe.

Halbrooks is a Democrat and a Milwaukee attorney. He did not immediately return messages.

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4:35 p.m.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission is standing behind its leader, even as one Republican state senator is calling for his resignation.

The commission on Tuesday approved a resolution of support for administrator Michael Haas. He’s led the commission since it was created after the now-defunct Government Accountability Board was disbanded in 2015. Haas also worked for the GAB.

State Sen. Steve Naas has called for Haas and chief elections attorney Nate Judnic to resign. He’s also called for resignations of the top two officials at the Ethics Commission.

Naas says all four are tainted by their handling of issues related to a now-closed investigation into Gov. Scott Walker.

Haas says he stands by Judnic, even though Attorney General Brad Schimel called for contempt proceedings against Judnic and eight others who worked on the Walker investigation.

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4:25 p.m.

Attorney General Brad Schimel and leaders of Wisconsin’s ethics and elections commissions are disagreeing over how evidence collected from Republicans across Wisconsin came to be labeled as “Opposition Research.”

Schimel’s Department of Justice discovered the files during its probe of how documents collected during a secret investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign were leaked to a newspaper.

Ethics Commission leaders told Schimel Tuesday the file was “one of the pieces of illegally seized data” and not created by the former Government Accountability Board.

But Schimel says in response that assertion “cannot possibly be true” because metadata shows the folders were created on a GAB hard drive in 2012. Schimel says DOJ has “not heard an adequate explanation as to why” former GAB staff created the folder and then placed it in the Ethics Commission basement.

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3:55 p.m.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission is seeking an attorney to assist with issues presented by a report from Attorney General Brad Schimel that raised concerns with how a secret investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign was handled.

The commission voted Tuesday to ask Gov. Scott Walker to appoint an attorney. Elections Commission Chairman Mark Thomsen says the attorney will help gather more information, including access to a sealed letter Schimel submitted with the report last week.

Schimel is seeking contempt of court proceedings against six former Government Accountability Board employees, one of whom currently works for the Elections Commission as an attorney. Thomsen says “I haven’t read anything in the report that gets close to contempt.”

The commission also voted to support its administrator, Michael Haas.

Republican state Sen. Steve Nass has called for Haas and Elections Commission attorney Nate Judnic to resign. Haas says he supports Judnic.

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3:30 p.m.

Attorney General Brad Schimel is standing by his report into the leaking of secret information gathered during an investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

Schimel on Tuesday stood firm after the leaders of the Wisconsin Ethics Commission sent him a letter saying his report had “omissions and inaccuracies.”

Schimel says in letter back that six claims made by the commission “could be charitably called errors.” He says the commission “simply disagrees with DOJ’s characterization of certain events and criticizes the tone of certain portions of the report.”

He says the criticisms are not serious.

The Ethics Commission had wanted Schimel to make a statement saying the commission had cooperated with the investigation. The commission also said Schimel failed to recognize security enhancements that had been made.

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12:10 p.m.

Republican state Sen. Steve Nass says he stands by his call that the administrator and chief attorney of the Wisconsin Ethics Commission should resign.

Nass said Tuesday he had seen nothing to change his mind in a letter sent by the chair and vice-chair of the commission rebutting a report from Attorney General Brad Schimel. That report cited failures in security as leading to the leaking of 1,300-pages of documents collected during a secret John Doe probe into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

Nass says he does want to hear Schimel’s response to the commission’s charge that his report contained “omissions and inaccuracies.” But Nass says, “I just don’t trust the Ethics Commission right now.”

Nass has also called for the administrator and attorney for the Elections Commission to resign.

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10:55 a.m.

The Wisconsin Ethics Commission says folders containing emails seized from Republicans labeled “Opposition Research” were not prepared by staff of the former Government Accountability Board.

Instead, the commission’s chair and vice chair tell Attorney General Brad Schimel in a letter Tuesday that the file was “one of the pieces of illegally seized data” during the now-closed investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s recall campaign.

Schimel highlighted the folder in his report issued last week looking into the leaking of thousands of pages of secret documents collected during the probe. Schimel accused partisans of “weaponizing” the GAB to further political goals.

Schimel said in the report that DOJ was unable to determine who labeled the emails as “Opposition Research, what the purpose of the label was or how the emails were to be used in the future.

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10:05 a.m.

The Wisconsin Ethics Commission is calling on Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel to clarify his investigatory report that faulted lax security for leading to the leaking of documents collected during a secret probe into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

The commission’s leaders sent Schimel a letter Tuesday asking that he address what they called “omissions and inaccuracies” about Ethics staff involvement.

For one, the commission says steps have been taken to “eliminate any future security issues.” It says no one at the commission had knowledge of the leaked documents before they were published by the Guardian newspaper.

The commission also asks Schimel to issue a statement saying that staff fully cooperated with the Department of Justice’s investigation.

Schimel spokesman Johnny Koremenos says he may have a comment later after DOJ has a chance to review the Ethics Commission letter.

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9:15 a.m.

The Wisconsin Ethics Commission is pushing back against findings of a report issued by Attorney General Brad Schimel related to a now-closed secret investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

The commission sent Schimel a letter Tuesday saying his report contains “omissions and inaccuracies” about actions of the Ethics Commission staff.

The commission asks Schimel to issue a statement saying that the commission and its staff fully cooperated with the Department of Justice as it tried to determine how documents collected during the Walker probe were leaked to a newspaper.

The letter also says security concerns under the former Government Accountability Board that Schimel raised in the report have been resolved. The commission says new protocols allow for identifying any staff member who accesses any data.

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9 a.m.

Wisconsin ethics and elections officials are expected to respond to what they have said are inaccuracies in a report by Attorney General Brad Schimel about a now-closed secret investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

Schimel last week released the results of a year-long investigation into how information collected during the John Doe probe into Walker was leaked to a newspaper. Schimel is recommending that nine people involved with the investigation be held in contempt.

The report says employees at the former Government Accountability Board “grossly mishandled secret John Doe evidence and related materials and then failed to turn over all evidence as ordered by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.”

The GAB was dissolved and replaced with separate Ethics and Elections commissions. Both of them are expected to comment on Schimel’s findings Tuesday.