GOP lawmakers accuse Kaul of DOJ hiring violations

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Republican state lawmakers say Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul sidestepped state law to bring on several attorneys whose pay was bankrolled by private foundations.

But Kaul and other Democrats have defended those agreements and accused GOP lawmakers of staging a “partisan stunt” during a year in which Kaul is seeking reelection.

A newly created Special Committee on Oversight of the Department of Justice voted 4-2 on Tuesday to accept a report on the DOJ’s actions, with Republicans in favor and Democrats against.

Wisconsin’s Senate majority leader launched the special committee about two months after Kaul announced he was running for another four-year term as attorney general. Republican Eric Toney, who is currently the Fond du Lac County district attorney, is also running for attorney general.

The committee’s recently adopted report zeroed in on legal fellows, who did work for Wisconsin’s Department of Justice, even though their pay was funded by outside organizations. Those lawyers were known as special assistant attorneys general.

Such arrangements “open up the Department of Justice to influence from outside partisan interests,” state Sen. Mary Felzkowski, R -Tomahawk, said during a committee meeting Tuesday.

Republicans also alleged the DOJ circumvented “checks and balances” and violated state law. According to the report, “no statute authorizes DOJ to deputize and empower attorneys paid by third parties to act with the authority of assistant attorneys general.”

The report also asserted the positions appeared to amount to “gifts from a third party,” which would have been prohibited under Wisconsin law.

In an interview with WPR, Kaul pushed back, asserting the agreements were legal. He noted that DOJ sought advice and a got a go-ahead the Wisconsin Ethics Commission before bringing on an embedded fellow.

“What this committee has really come up with is a lot of nothing,” Kaul said. “It’s very clear that this is not about serving the interests of the state, but rather this is the committee carrying water for special interests.”

In 2019, the DOJ brought in a legal fellow under a two-year agreement with funding from the Public Rights Project. The organization’s legal advocacy focuses on issues, including “reproductive, voting and workers’ rights,” according to its website.

During Kaul’s second term, the DOJ used a total of two legal fellows who were assigned to focus on enforcement of environmental laws using money from the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center at the New York University School of Law. That center received funding from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a major Democratic donor.

The most recent fellow was brought on in 2024 with a $90,000 annual salary that was paid for by the Environmental Impact Center.

Among other recommendations, the report calls for the “immediate termination” of those types of agreements, including with the PRP and the Environmental Impact Center.

The DOJ is not currently using any of those fellows, Kaul confirmed during testimony before the committee earlier this year.

“We don’t currently have fellows — that came up previously — so it’s sort of a surprising recommendation to see in there,” Kaul said.

A lawsuit is ongoing in Calumet County Circuit Court after multiple farming interest groups sued the Wisconsin DOJ over its use of an environmental prosecutor funded by the Environmental Impact Center. The suit alleges such an arrangement isn’t authorized by state law and that it violates the separation of powers principles that are laid out in Wisconsin’s Constitution.

“(That’s) another reason that this this committee was a waste of taxpayer dollars,” Kaul said. “This issue is going to be resolved in court.”

Republican lawmakers have asserted that, if Kaul wanted additional legal positions, he should have requested that lawmakers approve them through the state budget process.

The report’s other recommendations include strengthening “checks and balances” over such positions and clarifying when the use of such attorneys counts as a “gift” under state law.

It also calls for new legislation to “ensure that only state employees, approved and authorized through the legislative branch, can prosecute Wisconsin citizens.”

Last year, a group of Republican lawmakers introduced a proposal that would have limited the Wisconsin DOJ’s ability to use outside lawyers.

That bill died when state legislators adjourned earlier this year. It never advanced to a committee hearing in the GOP-controlled Legislature — and Democrats say that proves Republicans were never serious about the proposal.

“I feel the word oversight in the committee title is really a joke,” said Sen. Melissa Ratcliff, D-Cottage Grove.