Walker Calls $320K He Spent On Attorneys’ Fees Over Past 6 Months ‘Old News’

Gov. Scott Walker said the revelation that he spent $320,000 on criminal defense attorneys during the last six months is old news and won’t change voter’s perception of him.

A finance report filed by Walker’s campaign on Monday shows Walker paid the fees to defense lawyers in Chicago and Wisconsin as part of an investigation into illegal coordination with advocacy groups.

Walker, who faces a tight race for re-election in November, said it’s water under the bridge.

“Most people view this as old news,” he said. “They see that this was money spent on something that’s been resolved months and months ago and a story that’s been out several times in the past. There’s nothing new in it today. This is just a reporting of the money that’s spent.”

Walker said he doesn’t know how the money was spent or why the legal bill was so high.

Despite raising more than double what Democratic challenger Mary Burke did in the last reporting period, Walker said the legal bills are a financial burden for his campaign.

“Any time you take money away from resources that you could otherwise spend communicating with the voters is a challenge,” he said.

While Walker downplayed the money spent on legal bills, his political opponents did not. Democratic Party spokeswoman Mellissa Bauldauf said Walker has now spent more than $1 million on criminal defense since taking office, and she expects that number to grow.

“The bipartisan investigation isn’t over yet,” Bauldauf said. “We have every reason to believe (Walker) will spend tens of thousands of dollars more on his defense, but as it stands he’s the only sitting governor in Wisconsin history to ever require a criminal defense fund, and this amount on its own, I think, is completely staggering.”

The next campaign finance report from the Walker and Burke campaigns are due August 4.