"Conservatives stung by talk of John Doe settlement with Scott Walker."

Headline at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Text:

A legal civil war broke out Wednesday among targets of a John Doe probe, as a conservative group sought Wednesday to block prosecutors from having settlement talks with Gov. Scott Walker's campaign.

In a letter sent Wednesday, the Washington, D.C., attorney representing the Wisconsin Club for Growth and one of its directors questioned whether a special prosecutor in the case is negotiating with the GOP governor's campaign to seek concessions that the club might oppose.

Ironic, considering that the probe is over whether the Club coordinated with Walker, but maybe this is a devious ploy to make them look like they don't coordinate!

The club and its treasurer, Eric O'Keefe, filed a federal lawsuit in February against special prosecutor Francis Schmitz and others contending the secret investigation into the 2012 recall campaigns violated their rights to free speech. This month, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa in Milwaukee halted the probe as he considers the group's claims.

I want to see this civil suit go forward. If the prosecutors are violating rights, I want them held to account. And if they're not, I want to hear the federal courts say so. But it's more complicated than that, because it's not as if Walker could settle O'Keefe's claim. But Walker might bind himself not to associate with the Club, when in fact there was a right of association. That is, Walker could unilaterally render the Club's right to associate unusable.

"Let me be perfectly clear: a settlement that seeks, in any fashion, to further the John Doe investigation by violating Mr. O'Keefe's or the Club's speech or associational rights would be a blatant violation of the preliminary injunction," [the Club's lawyer David] Rivkin wrote to Randall Crocker, Schmitz's attorney. "Your client cannot, via settlement or other maneuvers, attempt to circumvent the injunction — at least, he cannot do so without seriously risking a judgment of contempt."

A source with knowledge of the probe confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Wednesday that other conservatives caught up in the probe are worried that the attorney for the Walker campaign, Steven Biskupic, is not being aggressive enough with prosecutors and not acting in their best interests.

But Biskupic and Walker can't talk to the press and explain any of this because Wisconsin law binds those who know about the John Doe investigation to secrecy... which is pretty frustrating, since on the level of constitutional rights, this is all about freedom of speech.

The Wall Street Journal urged Walker not to engage in any possible settlement talks with prosecutors who "need a face-saving legal exit."

"Mr. Walker is facing a rough re-election fight this year, and perhaps he and his lawyers want to remove any chance of a September or October legal surprise," the editorial reads. "Mr. Walker might think he can help himself with a settlement, but he'd be letting down his allies if he did so in a way that lets the bogus theory of illegal coordination survive....Mr. Walker is a hero to many for his fight against public unions, but he will tarnish that image if he sells out the cause for some short-term re-election reassurance."

Rick Esenberg, an attorney and president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, said he was skeptical that the Walker campaign was entertaining making significant concessions to prosecutors. Any talks would likely stem from prosecutors seeking a way to save face after the difficult rulings by Randa and Peterson, he said.

I certainly hope Esenberg is right about that.