The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office has declined to file criminal charges against county employee Chris Liebenthal after finding evidence of “extensive political blogging” on his work computer.
Deputy D.A. Kent Lovern said that’s because the state’s criminal statutes do not address blogging about politics by public employees. Campaign laws are specifically designed to prohibit fundraising or the solicitation of funds, not the activity at the heart of the complaint filed by Citizens for Responsive Government (CRG).
The CRG said in a release prosecutors declined to press charges because of a “narrow” interpretation of the statute.
Liebenthal attorney Mike Maistelman wrote in an e-mail that none of the allegations – even if proven true – would rise to a criminal level.
"This is nothing more than the complainant trying to spin a story that they lost," Maistelman said.
Liebenthal’s on-line work includes the blog Cognitive Dissidence.
See a letter from the DA’s office on the case:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/2010_06_12_Foscato_Letter_re_closure.pdf.
– WisPolitics.com
