AG MUM ON CRONY AID(E)

AG MUM ON CRONY AID(E)

State Picks Up Bjork Legal Tab

By Michael Horne

Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager issued a rather testy press release on Tuesday stating she “in 2003 convinced legislative leaders to agree to terminate funding of legal services when charged with a crime. The legislature has done just that. Not a penny has been spent on the legal fees of wrongdoers since the agreement was made. … There is no ‘loophole’ in the agreement, as has been alleged by some who apparently are unfamiliar with the agreement, the law, or both.”

(That last sentence was a slap at Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, who hopes to beat Lautenschlager in the September primary election.)

Although “not a penny has been spent,” certainly many thousands have been spent by the government defending three legislative aides implicated in the legislative caucus scandal – Tanya Bjork, Raghu Devaguptapu and Doug Burnett.

Bjork, a former aide to Sen. Brian Burke, received $24,128 in taxpayer-funded legal advice, and has not been required to reimburse the state.

I called Lautenschlager’s office twice to ask spokesperson Kelly Kennedy if the attorney general planned to seek repayment of fees from the trio, and received no reponse.

Maybe that’s because Lautenschlager is a wee bit too close to the characters involved.

Bjork is married to Scott Tyre, a Madison lobbyist who represents, among other clients, the American Petroleum Institute, General Motors Corporation, and Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI).

Tyre served as the head of Lautenschlager’s inaugural committee when she took office three years ago.

How convenient!