A new court filing contends that the communist prosecutor has built a situation without a legal basis as Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul slams holding on to the “evidence” his brokers seized in a politically charged attack on Wausau Mayor Doug Diny’s business and home.  ,
” To put it charitably, it’s a political fishing expedition”, Diny’s attorney, Joseph Bugni, wrote in reply to the state Department of Justice’s defense of its investigation into the conservative mayor. It’s a practice that is being practiced without legal justification, and it needs to end with the return of his devices and the destruction of the information gathered from them.
According to The Federalist’s first report in October, Wisconsin DOJ investigators raided Diny’s home while his wife and 18-month-old grandson watched. They also served a warrant on his mayoral office. Nearly a month after Diny removed an unsecured drop box that was intended to be used as an absentee ballot receptacle from outside city hall, they seized the mayor’s and his wife’s smartphones and other electronic devices.  ,
According to the search warrant, Diny’s attorneys planned to gather evidence in connection with Diny’s accusations of election fraud when he moved the drop box to his office on September 22. The mayor has stated that he was concerned about the security of the ballot drop box, which was ultimately used to collect absentee ballots before the Nov. 5 presidential election, without the Wausau City Council’s approval.  ,
After the left screamed for Diny’s head, Kaul, a Democrat political climber with plans for a possible run for governor in 2026, took over the investigation. As the local paper reported, a group of four residents, including Marathon County Supervisor Randy Radtke, delivered a request to the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District seeking federal intervention.  ,
No Cause, No Crime
The state responded to Diny’s request on November 21 by labeling the investigation by Kaul as an unlawful seizure conducted without cause. In his legal claims that the law enforcement action was illegal, Diny’s brief, filed in Marathon County Circuit Court, asserts that he wasn’t sufficiently specific in his claims.
And Kaul argues that there’s no need for this talk about suppressing evidence. After all, the AG’s office hasn’t filed charges yet.  ,
The response states that” the probable cause of the search warrant remains unaffected by a court order.”  ,
In summary, Kaul and the team are requesting that the judge and the subject of his investigation trust them.
In the court filing from this week’s this week, the mayor’s attorney argued that Diny does not have to be” content that law enforcement is acting in good faith and, in time, the property matter will be resolved.” Kapul has come to know as a leftist zealot driven by politics. Why would a conservative mayor, particularly one who trusts a Department of Justice investigation conducted by Kaul?  ,
To begin with, there is no probable cause because Diny committed no crime, the brief asserts. In the brief, Bugni states that the election fraud statute can only be broken by tampering with a ballot box on election day.  ,
” September 22 wasn’t election day, and he didn’t touch a ballot box”, the filing notes.  ,
And while drop boxes can be used to pick up absentee ballots in Wisconsin, they are not ballot boxes as the statute specifies. The Madison defense attorney contends that expanding the definition of “ballot box” could lead to a potentially legal wriggle room.  ,
The brief contends that “in addition, if the State’s theory is true, then every drobox is a ballot box and the municipal clerks are breaking the statutes every time they empty it, turn it over, or don’t place the seal over it,” the brief adds. It is foolish to assert in one word that the statute covers behavior before election day and that it reaches drop boxes. Reading a statute in this manner would be to disregard the statutes ‘ plain meaning and upend over a century of case law that places strict and precise requirements at ballot boxes.
Much Like John Doe
Some legal observers have likened Kaul’s politically-charged investigation into Wausau’s mayor to Wisconsin’s notorious John Doe investigations more than a decade ago. In the secret investigation that targeted the then-Gov., corrupt prosecutors in Milwaukee County and the Government Accountability Board, the state’s election and campaign finance regulator, collaborated. Scott Walker, a Republican, and conservative allies. In the fictitious campaign finance investigation that the Wisconsin Supreme Court ultimately ruled was unconstitutional and a “perfect storm of wrongs,” law enforcement officials conducted armed, pre-dawn searches on conservatives ‘ homes and seized electronic devices and mountains of documents.
Bugni points out that John Doe prosecutors, too, attempted to tell appeals courts that they were “incapable of ordering the return of the devices and the destruction” of the the evidence produced from the investigation.  ,
” When those actions were challenged ( before charges had issued ), the Wisconsin Supreme Court didn’t throw up its hands and say: ‘ sorry, nothing we can do until the charges come,’ instead, it marched through the analysis and found that the prosecution’s theory was not grounded in reason or law.’ And as a remedy, it mandated that the copies be destroyed and the evidence be returned. We are asking for exactly the same”, the brief states.  ,
” In other words, this Court isn’t powerless to do what’s previously been done” . ,
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has said the probe and the accompanying raid “are the actions of jack-booted thugs” . , Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican who represents Wausau in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, has said he would like the House Judiciary Committee, of which he is a member, to look into Kaul’s politically driven probe. State Sen. Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee, called the raid” an infuriating abuse of power” . ,
” It enrages me that Josh Kaul’s department is funded to carry out such politically motivated things.” With all the issues our state has at the moment, this is what Josh Kaul has prioritized”? after The Federalist published the details of the raid, the lawmaker stated in a statement.  ,
The Federalist’s senior elections correspondent, Matt Kittle, is. 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.
