It's starting to look like Gov. Scott Walker might be the target of a federal investigation. Woo hoo!
Madison - About a dozen law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, raided the home of a former top aide to Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday as part of a growing John Doe investigation.
The home on Dunning St. on Madison's east side is owned by Cynthia A. Archer, who was until recently deputy administration secretary to the Republican governor. Archer, 52, now holds a different state job but is on paid sick leave, records show.
"We're doing a law enforcement action," one of the FBI agents told a reporter.
He didn't identify himself or provide further comment but confirmed that he and three others were with the FBI and that a Dane County sheriff's deputy was present.
The raid on Archer's home coincides with a John Doe investigation in Milwaukee County.
That probe was started last year after the Journal Sentinel reported that another Walker staffer who was being paid by Milwaukee County taxpayers to help citizens with county services was instead using her work time to post anonymous comments supporting candidate Walker on websites and blogs. As part of the investigation, authorities earlier seized the work computers of two former Walker staffers and executed a search warrant of one of their homes.
Archer, who also held the top staff position under Walker while he served as Milwaukee County executive, said as recently as Friday in an email to the Journal Sentinel that she was "not involved in any way in the John Doe investigation."
I do know it's never a good sign when your governor hires a defense attorney, as is being reported by Wisconsin bloggers:
In spite of the fact that the search warrant was executed on Archer's home in the state capital of Madison, the agents were out of the FBI's Milwaukee office making it appear that the federal investigation concerns Governor Walker's time as Milwaukee county executive.
"Saw about two or three more, four or five, then I saw agents getting out of the car and putting on their jackets, that's what identified it, FBI on the back of the jackets," Madison resident Dale Reichers told reporters. Reichers says he saw the law enforcement teams show up at his neighbor's house before 7 a.m. His neighbor is Cynthia Archer.
[...] The grand-jury-like investigation appears to be directly aimed at ex-employees of Governor Walker, with the focus being on their activities while working in Milwaukee County and suspicions they did political work on public time. Two previous federal raids on Walker staffers ended with the seizure of work computers. While this is the first time the FBI has investigated Walker it is NOT the first time he has been involved in accusations or appearances of corruption.
Walker's campaign hired a former Milwaukee U.S. attorney to represent his interests if the investigation comes closer to him. The current federal prosecutor in Milwaukee is offering no comment on the investigation at this time.
