The Waukesha County prosecutor on Friday declined to pursue charges against former president Donald Trump’s fundraising committee and state Rep. Janel Brandtjen over allegations that the two illegally funneled money to county Republican parties in an effort to oust Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in 2022.
The Wisconsin Ethics Commission earlier this year recommended felony charges against Brandtjen, R-Menominee Falls; Vos’ 2022 primary challenger Adam Steen’s campaign committee; workers for Trump’s fundraising committee Save America; three Republican county parties; and several others over the alleged scheme.
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Those charges were later forwarded to several county prosecutors, including Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper.
Opper said in a letter to the commission she is declining to prosecute the matter based on insufficient evidence.
“I am simply concluding that I cannot prove charges against her,” Opper said in a statement. “While the intercepted communications, such as audio recordings may be compelling in the court of public opinion, they are not in a court of law.”
“This decision does not clear Rep. Brandtjen of any wrongdoing, there is just not enough evidence to move forward to let a factfinder decide,” Opper continued.
County prosecutors in Chippewa, Florence and Langlade counties had previously informed the commission they will not be prosecuting the matters, with some citing conflicts of interest due to their active involvement in their respective county Republican parties. The commission last month referred charges to prosecutors in the neighboring counties of Racine, St. Croix and Waukesha.
If district attorneys decline to pursue charges, the commission can forward the matter directly to Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul.
The alleged scheme highlighted the animosity some Republicans still feel toward Vos, who resisted calls from the former president and election deniers to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election that Trump lost. That led Steen to mount a GOP primary challenge against Vos in 2022, coming about 250 votes short of ousting the longtime Assembly speaker.
Wisconsin law prohibits campaign donations over $1,000 to Assembly candidates, but it allows county parties to donate an unlimited amount. Still, Wisconsin law prohibits people from directing their donations to a candidate through a committee that doesn’t belong to the candidate. Candidates also are prohibited from accepting money they know was routed through an external committee for their purpose.
The ethics commission’s February report alleges Steen and his campaign committee told people who wanted to contribute more than $1,000 to his unsuccessful effort to oust Vos in 2022 to instead donate to the Langlade County Republican Party with the numbers “63” written in the memo line of the donation, referring to the district Steen was hoping to win.
By seeing the district number, the party “knew to forward those funds or to use them for in-kind contributions to Friends of Adam Steen,” the report states.
Steen and his campaign also directed a $5,000 donation from Save America, Trump’s joint fundraising committee, through the Chippewa County Republican Party, the commission alleges. The party returned the donation because some members feared a campaign finance violation, the allegations state.
The ethics commission further alleges that Brandtjen, a state representative who has become isolated from many fellow GOP Assembly members, spoke with Steen about the scheme involving the three county parties, though the complaint doesn’t specify what they discussed.
She also facilitated contributions from Trump’s joint fundraising committee to the three Republican parties that partook in the scheme, the ethics commission alleges.
“Nothing in this decision should be interpreted as a conclusion that the actions of Rep. Brandtjen were lawful nor laudable,” Opper wrote in the letter. “I do not reach such a conclusion. I am simply concluding that I cannot prove charges against her.”
If district attorneys decline to pursue charges, the commission can forward the matter directly to Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul.