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Steven Biskupic
Steven Biskupic is an attorney and a partner at Biskupic & Jacobs in Milwaukee, Wisc. Biskupic graduated from Marquette Law School in 1987. He spent the next 20 years as an attorney in the US Attorney's office. In January 2009, he joined Michael Best & Friedrich where he spent four years. In 2012, he left to open his own firm.[1] He is the brother of Vince Biskupic who is an Outagamie County Circuit Court judge in Wisconsin.
Georgia Thompson conviction
In June 2006, Biskupic prosecuted and convicted Georgia Thompson, who was employed as a state purchasing agent under Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle (D). Biskupic convicted Thompson on the premise that she used her official position to give a travel contract to a firm because it donated to Doyle's campaign. Thompson was sentenced to 18 months in prison.[2]
She had served four months when the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals threw out the conviction and took the unusual step of ordering her immediate release during oral arguments. According to Hurley and co-counsel Marcus Berghahn, the prosecution repeatedly indicated they would go easy on Thompson if she implicated Doyle or his Secretary of Administration, Marc Maratta. These offers from the prosecution before and throughout the proceedings prompted some to state that the prosecution was part of a politically motivated agenda.[2]
The opinion, written by Judge Frank Easterbrook who threw out Thompson's conviction, was strongly worded:
| “ | There is not so much as a whiff of a kickback or any similar impropriety... The idea that it is a federal crime for any official in state or local government to take account of political considerations when deciding how to spend public money is preposterous.[3] | ” |
| —Judge Frank Easterbrook | ||
There was speculation by Democrats that Biskupic, a President George W. Bush (R) appointee, had pursued the prosecution out of concern that he was going to be fired for not aggressively pursuing voter fraud. At the time, several other U.S. attorneys had lost their jobs. In 2010, after an internal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, Biskupic was cleared of any ethical wrongdoing. He stepped down from the U.S. Attorney's office in 2008.[4]
Other cases
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Attorney Biskupic prosecuted and convicted seven city of Milwaukee police officers in the brutal beating of Frank Jude Jr. by off-duty officers on the street outside a party. The state had brought charges but was unable to get guilty verdicts at trial.[5]
John Doe investigations
Two John Doe investigations, beginning in 2010 and ending in 2015, were launched by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm (D) into the activities of staff and associates of Gov. Scott Walker (R).[6] Biskupic represented the campaign committee of Governor Scott Walker (R), Friends of Scott Walker, during the John Doe investigations related to Walker.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Steven Biskupic," accessed May 27, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Isthmus.com, "Biskupic tried to 'squeeze' Georgia Thompson," May 17, 2007
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Former U.S. attorney Steven Biskupic cleared in ethics inquiry," May 28, 2010
- ↑ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Jude case shows federal role," March 3, 2008
- ↑ United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Milwaukee Division, "Eric O’Keefe, and Wisconsin Club for Growth, Inc.," accessed February 23, 2015
