Jensen v. Jensen

This little zinger by the prosecution in the Scott Jensen trial certainly poses a dilemma for Scooter, whose defense begins on Monday.

Jensen has argued in the past that doing political campaign work was just part of the job of being a state legislator, an inseparable part of his duties. Every legislator in a leadership role did the same thing as he did, Jensen has argued, because it goes with the territory.

But after two weeks of witnesses testifying that Jensen knew what was going on and directed staff to do blatant political work at taxpayer expense, in state-owned facilities, with state equipment, on state time, prosecutors closed with this:

Jensen trial: Jensen denied work on campaigns
State investigator testifies at trial

By Mike Miller and David Callender

In a meeting with prosecutors and state investigators, former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen denied any knowledge that fundraising or campaign activities were taking place in legislative offices, a former Justice Department investigator testified Friday.

The testimony by David Collins, formerly the chief white-collar crime investigator for the state Division of Criminal Investigation and now head of the Wisconsin State Patrol, came as prosecutors wrapped up their case against Jensen and former legislative aide Sherry Schultz.

Collins said he and Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard met with Jensen and his lawyers in September 2001, about four months after newspaper articles first appeared alleging that legislative employees were campaigning on state time from their state offices.

In statements that were repeatedly contradicted by prosecution witnesses in his trial, which ended its second week Friday, Jensen repeatedly told investigators that "to his knowledge" no employees - either in his office or in the Assembly Republican Caucus - were doing campaign work except on their own time and using their own personal computers and phones, Collins said.

Jensen told investigators he "made it clear to his staff that they should not, cannot and did not use state resources or state time for campaigning," Collins said.

If Jensen didn't think he was doing anything wrong, why the lies and coverup? That behavior totally contradicts his argument. And the disclosure that Jensen lied to the investigator comes after several witnesses have testified that Jensen is an honest man.

Former State Rep. Steven Foti: "I would consider Scott to be a very honest person."

Jensen staffer Brian Dake: "I believe he's a truthful, honest man."

Former caucus director Ray Carey described Jensen as "a very truthful, honest person."

I believe, and Collins' testimony clearly shows, that Jensen is a big liar.

This week should be interesting.