After some legal back and forth, a federal judge in Wisconsin on Thursday re-issued his order halting the secret “John Doe” probe investigating Walker’s 2012 recall election.
Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa ordered a group of Wisconsin state prosecutors to stop all activities related to the probe, and to destroy any material they had obtained during the investigation. The prosecutors were focused on alleged campaign coordination between Walker’s campaign and outside conservative groups, and Randa’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by one of the group’s being targeted by the investigation, Wisconsin Club for Growth.
The prosecutors have appealed Randa’s ruling, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on Wednesday stayed the ruling. The higher court offered a way for Randa to reissue the ruling — which he has now done — but also said that the part of Randa’s ruling ordering the prosecutors to destroy collected material will remain stayed “as long as proceedings continue in this court.”
