Of course the former head of the Wisconsin Republican Party (current head of the national Republican Party) doesn't want to talk about Scott Walker's private email system since his emails were part of it.
Republicans are very busy creating an enormous conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton's private email account. Reince Priebus, head of the Republican Party even says it's a "criminal act" despite the fact that she turned over 55,000 emails. On top of that, every work-related communication she sent was archived automatically when it was received at the State Department for the person it was addressed to.
But, if Reince really wants to talk about private email accounts, let him start by talking about Scott Walkers use of private email to conduct both official business and campaign work. Let him address the fact that there was a secret router and personal lap tops used in Walkers' Milwaukee County Executives office in order to skirt legally required archiving and hiding the extent of campaign and fundraising work done on the taxpayers dime. And then let him talk about the top aides to Scott Walker convicted of misconduct in office for using a taxpayer funded office and salary for campaign work.
Remember, Priebus was head of the Wisconsin Republican Party during that time. His own emails were among those gleaned from the seized computers of Walkers staffers in the first John Doe Probe. The emails themselves had to be forensically extracted since they were deleted and, in some cases, computers were wiped.
Those emails continue to plague Scott Walker as batches of them have been released to the public after the first John Doe Probe concluded. It doesn't matter how often Walker spews the "it's old news" meme. To the public, this is brand new news on what was going on in Walkers office at taxpayer expense.
The racist email exchanges were publically embarrassing, but not unexpected given Walkers history. The "nobody cares about crazy people" email in response to reporting about how Walkers brutal budget cuts were likely responsible for a death at the Mental Health Center showed the callousness of Walkers staff toward the public. And, despite Walkers repeated claims that he "knew nothing", it became more obvious that not only did he know, but participated in the use of private email accounts to skirt archiving laws.
Walker used his campaign email to communicate with his county aides, who frequently used their own private email accounts when interacting with Walker or his campaign — all of which would shield their discussions from the public.
"Consider yourself now in the 'inner circle,'" Walker's administration director, Cynthia Archer, wrote to Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch just after the two exchanged a text message in March 2010.
"I use this private account quite a bit to communicate with SKW and Nardelli. You should be sure you check it throughout the day," she wrote, referring to Walker by his initials and to Walker's then-chief of staff, Tom Nardelli.
Court documents have previously shown Walker's aides set up a secret wireless router in the county executive's office and traded emails that mixed county and campaign business on Gmail and Yahoo accounts.
And then there's the "smoking gun" email from Walker that showed he was well aware of the secret router, private email accounts, and personal laptops.
On May 13, 2010 — three days after prosecutors launched their probe — the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Walker aide Darlene Wink spent much of her time at her county-paid job posting pro-Walker comments online. She resigned that same day, and the next day prosecutors seized her work computer.
That night — in an email previously made public — Walker wrote to Timothy D. Russell, a longtime campaign and county aide. Russell was later convicted of stealing more than $21,000 from a veterans group that Walker named him to head.
"We cannot afford another story like this one," Walker wrote Russell in one previously disclosed email. "No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the work day, etc."
"The significance of this email is that it shows that the county executive would appear to be aware that laptops were used in the county executive's office for accessing things on non-county networks," Budde testified.
(bolding is mine)
Walker, using his own private email, was communicating with a former top aide who no longer worked in his County Executive office to, essentially, get rid of the evidence.
So, Reince, how about it? You can talk about HRCs private emails AFTER you've discussed Scott Walkers. After all, you were a participant in that system and have first hand knowledge.
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