Investigator steps down from Blunt e-mail probe

~ Daniel Knust said he stepped down because Blunt's staff was unhappy with his involvement.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Before he could even do any work, a former judge has quit a special investigation looking into whether Gov. Matt Blunt has complied with Missouri's open-records law.

Daniel Knust said Wednesday that he stepped down because Blunt's staff was unhappy with his involvement.

Knust was one of three people appointed by Attorney General Jay Nixon to conduct what Nixon said would be an independent investigation into whether Blunt's office has followed the state Sunshine Law and document retention policies.

The investigation came after Blunt acknowledged that he and his staff delete certain government e-mails and a former lawyer in Blunt's office claimed he was fired for advising colleagues about e-mail retention requirements. Blunt's administration claims Scott Eckersley actually was fired for poor performance and doing private work from his state office, among other things.

Blunt and the Republican Party have dismissed Nixon's investigation as a political ploy designed to aid the Democrat's gubernatorial challenge to Blunt in 2008. The same day Nixon announced his investigation, Blunt said he was ordering his administration to come up with a way to retain all government e-mails.

Nixon's office said St. Louis lawyer Chet Pleban has been appointed to replace Knust.

Knust, 60, served from 1979 through 2006 as a Republican associate circuit judge in Webster County.

Yet the Republican Party almost immediately began questioning his loyalty when Nixon announced Nov. 15 that Knust would serve as a special counsel on the investigative team. The state GOP noted the next day that Knust's former clerk is the mother of Craig Hosmer, a former Democratic legislator who is now Nixon's campaign treasurer.

Blunt's legal counsel, Henry Herschel, also questioned the independence of Nixon's investigatory team.

In a letter dated just five days after his public appointment, Knust told Nixon he was resigning. The letter was not received by the attorney general's office until Monday and was released upon request Wednesday.

"It seems the governor's staff is unhappy with my involvement in this investigation," Knust wrote.

Knust said he frequently stepped aside from cases when a litigant wanted a different judge. "This situation seems exceedingly similar," he wrote.

In an interview, Knust said his decision had nothing to do with the merits of any opposition against him. "If somebody's kind of unhappy with you from the outset, there's other people who can do it," he explained.

Blunt spokesman Rich Chrismer said the governor's staff had nothing against Knust in particular.

But "there is no reason to believe that anybody who accepts this partisan assignment from Jay Nixon is interested in a fair, unbiased approach," Chrismer said.

On Wednesday, Republican Party spokesman Paul Sloca alleged Knust was disgruntled with the Blunt family. Knust denied having any problem with or grudge against the Blunts.

Blunt's staff will decide on a case-by-case basis whether to comply with inquiries from Nixon's investigatory team, responding only to "legitimate requests," Chrismer said.

Herschel had indicated previously that the governor's office would hire an attorney to deal with Nixon's investigation. But Chrismer said Wednesday that the governor's office has made no decision yet whether to do so.