Attorney general says he will fix error in court filing about Journal Sentinel reporter

MADISON - State Attorney General Brad Schimel said Thursday he will correct a court report in which he falsely implied a reporter’s wife had provided information to the Journal Sentinel while working for the state Supreme Court. 

In fact, reporter Daniel Bice's wife, Sonya, did not work for the Supreme Court in the year stated in Schimel's report or even in the building he referred to.

Journal Sentinel Editor George Stanley sent a letter to Schimel on Thursday asking him to remove the false statements. 

Shortly after receiving the letter, Schimel tweeted: 

"Due to revelations from the Journal-Sentinel about its sources, and their identity, which contradict DOJ’s other evidence that formed the basis of the footnote, DOJ has decided to remove the footnote and will notify the John Doe Judge of the clarification."

Stanley said the reasons Schimel gave for deleting the inaccurate information were as false as the footnote itself. 

"The Journal Sentinel did not identify sources, nor did the Justice Department ever have any 'other evidence' to support its false footnote," he said.

The Republican attorney general this week filed a 91-page report on his investigation into how documents were leaked from a now-closed John Doe investigation into GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign. The state Supreme Court shut down the investigation in 2015, finding nothing illegal occurred.

RELATED:John Doe investigation into Gov. Scott Walker gathered millions of pages of records from Republicans

Department of Justice investigators visited the Supreme Court clerk’s office, at 110 E. Main St. in Madison, on Feb. 16, 2017, as part of the leak investigation, and the Journal Sentinel reported on that visit soon afterward.

Schimel’s report included a footnote that stated: “Although DOJ did not announce its visit to the Supreme Court, and was otherwise inconspicuous, the visit was reported by the Journal Sentinel Reporter Daniel Bice, whose wife works in the same office space. DOJ has undertaken no action to determine why a member of the court staff would have reported this visit.”

Sonya Bice had not worked for the Supreme Court for more than a year by the time of the visit from investigators. She never worked in the office space at 110 E. Main St.

In addition, while Sonya Bice worked as a lawyer in the state Capitol for Supreme Court Justice Patrick Crooks, from 2008 until his death in 2015, she did not handle any matters related to the John Doe investigation. 

Similarly, Daniel Bice did not report on any matters before the Supreme Court during the years his wife worked for Crooks.