Renewed lawsuit seeks Blunt's e-mails

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A bipartisan pair of prominent lawyers renewed a lawsuit Monday seeking e-mails from Gov. Matt Blunt's office while asserting it has violated Missouri's open-records law.

The amended lawsuit also renews an assertion that someone acting under the control of the governor's office sought to destroy backup e-mail records to avoid complying with a Sunshine Law request by The Associated Press.

The lawsuit seeks court rulings on whether e-mails are subject to Missouri's open-records and document retention laws and asks a judge to order Blunt's office to provide its e-mail records at no cost to investigators.

The new version of the lawsuit was filed by former Democratic Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell and Republican lawyer Louis Leonatti. They were appointed by a Cole County judge as assistant attorneys general on the case after Blunt's office objected to the legal authority of an investigative team chosen by Attorney General Jay Nixon.

Nixon initiated a probe last fall into whether Blunt's office is complying with Missouri's Sunshine Law and document retention policies. That came after former governor's office attorney Scott Eckersley claimed he was fired after advising the office it wasn't following record retention laws.

Blunt has acknowledged that he and others routinely delete some e-mails but has denied that the governor's office has violated Missouri's open-records law. The Republican governor's office has repeatedly characterized the Nixon-initiated investigation as political while asserting that its own e-mail deletions are no different from what has occurred in the attorney general's office and elsewhere.

Nixon, a Democrat, is running for governor. Blunt announced in January that he is not seeking re-election.

Last month, Cole County Judge Richard Callahan ruled that Nixon's lead investigator, Mel Fisher, had no legal authority to sue the governor's office on behalf of the attorney general. But the judge subsequently appointed Maxwell and Leonatti to the investigation and delayed the dismissal of the lawsuit to give them time to decide whether to continue or drop the case.

Maxwell, speaking for the duo, said it seemed Fisher's investigation had "been hampered" by the governor's office and its attorneys. In determining the case should go forward, they largely adopted the assertions in the original lawsuit filed on behalf of Fisher by St. Louis attorney Chet Pleban.

"Our goal is let's get the facts, let's understand what the policy is in the governor's office and whether or not that policy was followed" in regard to retaining e-mails, Maxwell said.

Blunt spokeswoman Jessica Robinson said the office has never denied access to any e-mail unless is it protected under state law, and has charged reasonable amounts.

"As we have said, the court made an excellent decision in dismissing the political lawsuit filed by Jay Nixon's operatives, and since Mr. Maxwell has indicated this is basically the same lawsuit, we expect to prevail again," Robinson said in a written statement.

Eckersley has filed a separate wrongful termination and defamation lawsuit against Blunt and several past and present governor's office employees. Blunt has defended Eckersley's firing as legitimate.

Eckersley described Monday's decision to press forward with a government lawsuit as "great news."

Shortly after Eckersley went public last fall with his claims, the AP submitted a Sunshine Law request Oct. 31 seeking e-mails retrieved from the state's electronic backup files that were sent or received by Blunt, Eckersley and several top governor's office employees.

In response to that request, the state Office of Administration set aside the backup e-mail tapes so they would not automatically be reused as part of the state's standard 60-day retention cycle.

While using less specific wording than the original lawsuit, the renewed suit similarly asserts that someone acting under the authority of the governor's office told the state's information technology director that the backup tapes should be placed back in the regular rotation. That would have effectively destroyed the sought-after e-mail records.

But employees refused to do so, thus preserving the records, the lawsuit says.

Earlier this year, Blunt's attorney told Nixon's special investigators it would cost nearly $541,000 to obtain the e-mails sought from the backup system. Blunt's office has told the AP it would cost about $23,625 to retrieve, review and produce the e-mails the AP sought on Oct. 31, plus additional copying fees of 10 cents per page.

Neither Nixon's investigative team nor the AP has paid the bill.

The amended lawsuit claims the e-mails already have been restored from the backup tapes at the direction of the governor's office, using state money. The suit said the governor thus has forfeited his right to charge fees for the e-mails. The suit also contends the governor has no legal authority to charge the attorney general for records needed in an investigation.