"The state Government Accountability Board’s top officials proceeded with a secret probe into coordination between Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and conservative political groups for months without authorization..."

"... from the six retired judges who run the board, court records unsealed Friday allege. The documents filed by a target of the investigation also allege that the board voted to end its involvement in the probe in July but that staff continued to work on it."

ADDED: This strikes me as the ultimate in bullshit:

... David Deininger, the retired appeals court judge who chaired the board during the launching of the John Doe investigation, defended [GAB chief counsel Kevin Kennedy and Jonathan Becker, administrator of the agency’s ethics and accountability division].

Deininger... said he didn’t recall exactly when the board was made aware of the investigation, “but something of this magnitude would have been brought to our attention at the earliest opening. They would know this would have been something the board needed to be up to speed on from the get-go." 

He also vouched for Kennedy and Becker, saying impartial administration of election laws was their “modus operandi." "They are professionals and they have always been so," Deininger said.

The GAB is enforcing the letter of the law on its targets. You cannot defend them by saying but they are good people who mean well and who never departed from the spirit of the law. Sticklers must be judged by stickler standards.