{"id":2260091,"date":"2024-06-05T03:26:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T07:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-ghost-of-wisconsins-unconstitutional-john-doe-investigation-haunts-trump-trials\/"},"modified":"2024-06-05T03:30:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T07:30:49","slug":"the-ghost-of-wisconsins-unconstitutional-john-doe-investigation-haunts-trump-trials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-ghost-of-wisconsins-unconstitutional-john-doe-investigation-haunts-trump-trials\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin&#8217;s Unconstitutional John Doe Investigation Continues to Impact Trump Trials"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-ghost-of-wisconsins-unconstitutional-john-doe-investigation-haunts-trump-trials%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2260091&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The summary discusses \u200cthe ongoing legal issues involving former President Trump, including a \u200dgag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan. It also draws parallels to the controversial John Doe investigation \u2064in Wisconsin, highlighting the challenges faced by conservatives during the\u200c probe. The summary emphasizes \u200dthe impact of gag orders on free \u200dspeech and the legal battles in both cases. \u2062The summary delves into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ohio-supreme-court-clears-the-way-for-current-congressional-map-to-be-used-in-2024\/\" title=\"Ohio's Supreme Court approves the use of current congressional map in 2024.\">legal challenges surrounding<\/a> former President\u2062 Trump, such as the gag order from Judge Juan Merchan. It compares these \u2064issues to the contentious John Doe investigation\u2062 in Wisconsin, underscoring the hurdles\u2063 conservatives encountered. The emphasis\u2062 is on the repercussions of gag orders on free speech and the legal \u2064confrontations in each scenario.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Even after a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/31\/trump-november-5-will-be-the-most-important-day-in-our-countrys-history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Manhattan kangaroo court found former President Donald Trump guilty<\/a> of Frankensteinian charges, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/30\/judge-merchans-jury-instructions-prove-trumps-trial-is-about-power-not-the-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Judge Juan Merchan<\/a> refuses to lift a gag order on the GOP\u2019s presidential candidate. <\/p>\n<p>The highly partisan judge slapped the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/videos\/politics\/2024\/04\/30\/defense-attorney-reacts-to-judge-merchan-gag-order-ruling-trump-sot-digvid.cnn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> gag order<\/a> on Trump in March, barring him from speaking publicly about prosecutors, witnesses, jurors, and others in the trumped-up case against him. In short, Merchan has silenced Trump\u2019s ability to speak out against what the former president has often described as a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d against him. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1580365298\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-01ec92dde6db9cc44c16ed8ebf42873f fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-01ec92dde6db9cc44c16ed8ebf42873f\"><\/div>\n<p>That\u2019s a distinct disadvantage when your political opponent is campaigning on the long list of felony charges against you \u2014 charges your political opponent\u2019s agents and allies have brought. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Silent Treatment<\/h2>\n<p>Merchan\u2019s gag order has only been so effective, of course. Trump is not the silent type. He has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/trump-trial-gag-order-contempt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">defied the order multiple times<\/a> and been fined the maximum $1,000 for each of the 10 violations. That\u2019s chump change to Trump. But the judge also has threatened to imprison the former president for speaking out, insisting that Trump\u2019s criticism of the leftist-led legal process is a threat to the people he\u2019s criticizing.  <\/p>\n<p>As Forbes<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/alisondurkee\/2024\/05\/31\/trump-still-under-gag-order-cant-comment-on-jury-witnesses-after-conviction\/?sh=75a21fec5ee4#:~:text=The%20ex-president%20appeared%20to,Cohen's%20name%20under%20the%20order.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> reported,<\/a> the left\u2019s Public Enemy No. 1 \u201cappeared to push the limits of the order in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/saradorn\/2024\/05\/31\/trump-says-he-will-appeal-guilty-verdict\/?sh=2bd86208e34d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">remarks on Friday<\/a> even as he repeatedly noted he was restricted in what he could say\u2026\u201d Trump called serial liar and prosecution star witness Michael Cohen a \u201csleazebag\u201d without naming his disgraced former attorney.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, too, is being silenced in a separate gag order in the stalled federal prosecution on allegations that he tried to \u201coverturn the 2020 election\u201d \u2014 a case led by Biden\u2019s Department of Justice. As Forbes reported, Trump and other parties in the case are prohibited from publicly talking about witnesses \u201cconcerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding.\u201d <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2c5dcb7f7662a97a8448780892e438b6 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2c5dcb7f7662a97a8448780892e438b6\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cParties also cannot make public statements about court staff, counsel in the case or their families (with the exception of Special Counsel Jack Smith, who\u2019s leading the government\u2019s investigation) if they\u2019re \u2018made with the intent to materially interfere,\u2019\u201d the publication reported. <\/p>\n<p>The gaggers insist the orders are meant to protect the government officials working the case. They just happen to have the added benefit to the people in power of silencing Democrat President Joe Biden\u2019s Republican challenger \u2014 on penalty of jail. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Darkest\u2019 Doe<\/h2>\n<p>Several conservatives in Wisconsin can relate. They went through years of hell during the Badger State\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/04\/07\/nancy-pelosis-jan-6-committee-is-following-the-same-pattern-as-the-evil-john-doe-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> John Doe investigation,<\/a> an unconstitutional star chamber led by leftist bureaucrats and highly partisan Democrat prosecutors. <\/p>\n<p>The second wave of the bogus campaign finance violation investigations culminated with a series of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.maciverinstitute.com\/2019\/01\/no-one-held-accountable-schimels-probe-into-john-doe-quietly-concludes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> predawn, armed raids<\/a> on the homes and offices of conservative activists. On Oct. 3, 2013, law enforcement agents were ordered to collect \u201cevidence\u201d in what has been described as one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/legalinsurrection.com\/2019\/01\/wisconsin-john-doe-prosecutorial-abuses-will-go-unpunished-but-they-should-be-remembered\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">darkest chapters in Wisconsin history.<\/a> As the MacIver Institute <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maciverinstitute.com\/2018\/10\/five-years-ago-today-john-doe-raids-wisconsin\/\">reported: <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-9f7c02aff2974db3dca5881f4040482c fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-9f7c02aff2974db3dca5881f4040482c\"><\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Armed police demanded a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2015\/07\/wisconsin-john-doe-investigations-conservatives-16-year-old-victim-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">16-year-old boy,<\/a> home alone, open the door so that agents engaged in an unconstitutional investigation could root through his parents\u2019 possessions \u2026[A}suburbanMadisonmomwasawakenedbysoundsinthedarknessMomentslaterher[A}suburbanMadisonmomwasawakenedbysoundsinthedarknessMomentslaterher<a href=\"http:\/\/www.maciverinstitute.com\/2018\/01\/is-this-justice-deborah-jordahl-and-her-family-lived-the-real-john-doe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">children woke up to armed deputies<\/a> standing over their beds. On Oct. 3, 2013, the politically driven probe known as \u2018John Doe II\u2019 exhibited the full force of prosecutorial abuse, exhibiting why this secret investigation marked one of the darkest chapters in Wisconsin history. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It all started a few years before. A nebulous, secret probe, the John Doe investigations were really just a court-sanctioned cover to go after then-Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican hated by the left for gutting the outsized power of Wisconsin\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fiery-video-woman-blasts-ca-school-board-says-of-leftist-teachers-we-want-you-out-now\/\" title=\"FIERY VIDEO: Woman Blasts CA School Board, Says Of Leftist Teachers, \u2018We Want You Out. Now.\u2019\">public sector labor unions<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>It was launched by Milwaukee County\u2019s Democrat District Attorney <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maciverinstitute.com\/2019\/01\/where-is-john-doe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Chisholm<\/a> and his band of constitution-breaking merry men. The probe ultimately was expanded into a wider statewide net backed by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2015\/07\/wisconsin-john-doe-investigations-halted-supreme-court\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">legally flawed reading <\/a>of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/google-expands-security-efforts-ahead-of-2022-elections\/\" title=\"Google Expands Security Efforts Ahead of 2022 Elections\">campaign finance law<\/a> and an abusive state election regulator filled with partisan agents. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Secret Power<\/h2>\n<p>The Wisconsin Supreme Court in <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2015\/07\/17\/scott-walker-john-doe-saga-over\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">July 2015 <\/a>finally ended the overreaching probe, finding that John Doe prosecutors had engaged in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lb7.uscourts.gov\/documents\/15-157URL1Watchdogarticle.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cperfect storm of wrongs.\u201d<\/a> That ruling, which found sweeping abuses of the victims\u2019 First Amendment rights, was rendered after years of fear and mountains of legal bills. <\/p>\n<p>Targets of the secret probe faced $10,000 fines and six months in jail for saying anything publicly about the raids, the government spying operations that stole their personal and professional emails, the charges against them, or anything related to the case \u2014 including their innocence. The John Doe prosecutors, too, faced the same penalties, but details about the alleged illegal activities curiously kept appearing in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other corporate media outlets during Walker\u2019s reelection year. <\/p>\n<p>As MacIver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maciverinstitute.com\/2018\/10\/five-years-ago-today-john-doe-raids-wisconsin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported:<\/a> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Children subjected to government raids before the break of dawn were told that they and their parents could go to jail if they told anyone about the John Doe investigation. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2015\/07\/wisconsin-john-doe-investigations-conservatives-16-year-old-victim-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Review\u2019s David French wrote<\/a> about a 16-year-old who was home alone when John Doe investigators came pounding on his door. <\/p>\n<p>\u2018To his horror, he saw uniformed officers, their guns drawn. \u2018Police,\u2019 they yelled. \u2018We have a warrant.\u2019 An officer shined a flashlight on a document (he) couldn\u2019t read. Unsure what to do, but unwilling to defy the authorities, he let them in,\u2019 French wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The officers sat him down, read him the entire search warrant, and ordered him not to tell anyone about the raid \u2014 not even school officials. He asked if he could call his parents. They said no. He asked if he could call a lawyer. They said no.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Investigators then rooted through the family\u2019s home looking for evidence of a political crime, French wrote. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">John Doe \u2018Writ Large\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Ultimately, the corrupt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox6now.com\/news\/state-senate-gop-votes-to-dissolve-government-accountability-board\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Government Accountability Board,<\/a> the state\u2019s campaign finance and election regulator that helped drive the John Doe probes, was shut down and the state\u2019s constitutionally suspect John Doe law reformed. Republicans in power, of course, replaced the GAB with agencies populated by some of the same bureaucrats who pushed the John Doe probes. <\/p>\n<p>U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican, was a state senator at the time of the state Supreme Court\u2019s ruling. He was instrumental in leading the reforms of the law and agency that created the unconstitutional John Doe investigations. As Trump was beginning his presidential term among the chaos of the leftists who vowed to take him down, Tiffany offered a prediction that turned out to be shockingly prescient. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened in Wisconsin \u2026 is being writ large across the country,\u201d Tiffany<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2018\/07\/06\/lefts-war-on-gov-walker-in-wisconsin-was-a-dry-run-for-its-resistance-against-trump\/\"> told me.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>John Doe is alive and well in the government\u2019s prosecution of Donald J. Trump. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-e7b8ad3c951655b4f2d4b2ea72aad844 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-e7b8ad3c951655b4f2d4b2ea72aad844\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite a guilty verdict in Manhattan&#8217;s controversial trial, Judge Juan Merchan maintains a gag order on former President Trump. The partisan judge imposed the order in March, restricting Trump from discussing the prosecution, witnesses, jurors, and other aspects of the case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2260092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-04-at-1.06.01-PM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2260091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-04-at-1.06.01-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2260091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2260092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2260091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2260091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2260091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}