By james art Wisconsin’s far-left attorney general has yet to comment two days after The Federalist first reported that the state Department of Justice raided Wausau Mayor Douglas Dini’s office and home — a law enforcement operation tied to Dini’s removal and moving an unsecured absentee ballot box to City Hall.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican who represents Wausau in northern Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, said he would like the House Judiciary Committee to investigate Attorney General Josh Kaul’s politically-driven investigation. Tiffany, who serves on the committee, told Wisconsin conservative talk show host Vicki McKenna that Kaul’s actions smack of the type of political gun investigations and prosecutions the Biden-Harris administration conducted during his tenure.
“I see Merrick Garland doing things like that in Washington, D.C., whether it’s Catholics or people in school board meetings, whatever the case may be,” the congressman said, referring to some of the many targets of the U.S. Department of Justice . “Now it looks like Josh Kaul wants to be a mini-Merrick Garland for Halloween.”
“Thugs in Boots Actions”
On Friday, a source familiar with Wednesday’s raid told The Federalist that law enforcement officials seized cellphones and other electronic devices believed to be related to the Wausau investigation. That includes Dini’s wife’s cell phone, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the developing nature of the case.
An official in the attorney general’s office told The Federalist that the state Department of Justice could provide more information about the raid. The agency did not return several requests for comment, including a follow-up email asking law enforcement officials why it was necessary, sources told The Federalist, to serve a warrant and seize the mayor’s property in a dispute over the controversial absentee ballot in Wisconsin law.
Wausau radio station WSAU reported Sunday that the state DOJ, “led by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, has not commented on the raid.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, the senior senator from Wisconsin, wrote on his X account in response to The Federalist’s story that Kaul’s investigation of Dini and the accompanying raid “were the actions of thugs in boots.”
“Democrats are the danger to our democracy. Case closed,” Johnson said.
“Held Free and Fair”
The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation earlier this month took over the investigation into the Sept. 22 removal of the drop box from Deeney. The conservative mayor flipped to the left when photos showed him carrying out the ballot box, which Dini said was not secured where it had been placed outside City Hall before voting opened ahead of the Wisconsin election. It has since been returned.
As The Federalist reported, Wausau City Clerk Kaitlyn Bernarde reportedly decided to return the box without the approval of the Wausau City Council. After positioning and securing it, Bernard told The Washington Post that she noticed the drop box was missing and notified Theresa Wetzsteon, the Democratic district attorney in Marathon. Wetzsteon told the Post she quickly launched an investigation.
In July, the liberal-led Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned an earlier court ruling that had declared the widespread use of absentee ballots illegal under state law. The new decision left it up to municipalities to decide whether to use the vessels. Many communities have chosen not to hire them.
“The Supreme Court interprets the law, not makes it. That was my logic,” Dini said at a Wausau City Council meeting earlier this month.
Dini could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Joseph Booney, declined to comment on the matter. Earlier this month, the mayor tried to convince the City Council to approve funding for the tape’s security. Council members declined to take the measure.
In an interview with News 9 WAOW in Wausau last week, Kaul said his agency is committed “to ensuring that our elections are conducted freely and fairly and in accordance with the law, and we take seriously any allegations of violations of our election laws “. The attorney general told the news outlet that the Justice Department will forward the findings of its investigation to the Marathon County District Attorney’s Office.
As of Sunday, there were no charges or related documents filed in Wisconsin’s online court database. Officials with the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to The Federalist’s questions about the reported warrant served in the raid.
“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime”
“There’s one person who can answer that right now, and that’s Attorney General Josh Kaul,” Tiffany told McKenna on her show, which airs in Milwaukee and Madison. He said the Justice Department’s investigation, which followed outrage and legal action by left-wing activists and human rights groups, was “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime,” referring to Lavrentiy Beria’s infamous line, “the most ruthless and the most -Joseph Stalin’s ruthless man the longest reigning head of the secret police. As the Oxford Eagle notes, Beria “boasted that he could prove criminal conduct to anyone, even the innocent.”
“And boy, it has a strong flavor of a decade ago when John Doe busted the state of Wisconsin, and we’re seeing the same thing again,” Tiffany added.
The murky John Doe investigations, led by heavily biased Democratic district attorneys in Milwaukee and Dane counties and the now-defunct Government Accountability Council, were struck down as unconstitutional by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2015. The decision, ending the abusive, secret investigations— including the pre-dawn, armed raids on conservative homes in Wisconsin – described as a “perfect storm of wrongdoing.”
Conservative activist Eric O’Keefe, a target of the John Doe investigation targeting then-Republican Gov. Scott Walker and his allies, said the unnecessary raid on the Wausau mayor’s home and seizure of his property brought back many bad memories.
“This is not to be taken lightly. The idea that [the DOJ] we have to take computers and phones before people have a chance to defend themselves, anything for political speech, it’s really bad,” O’Keefe told The Federalist in a phone interview.
Tiffany said the Republican-controlled state legislature has the right to call for an investigation of the attorney general and his supporters.
“I think we on the Judiciary Committee, federally, need to look at this,” the congressman said.
Hear the full interview with Rep. Tom Tiffany on The Vicki McKenna Show.
For more election news and updates, visit selectionbriefing.com.
Matt Kittle is senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast and online journalism, Kittle previously served as executive director of Empower Wisconsin.