A few days ago, I wrote that Jim Petro, Ohio's Attorney General and GOP candidate for governor, had to know more about Coingate because of the nature of his job. Seems as though Mr. Petro has only been releasing certain records to the public. Could this be a cover-up? http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20050728&Category=NEWS24&ArtNo=50728002&SectionCat=&Template=printart
Here are some excerpts from the Toledo Blade's article:
The Supreme Court ruled 5-2 on July 13 that the coin-fund records are public records and should be made available.
But since releasing the initial three boxes of records last week, Mr. Petro’s office has refused to release any additional records.
“Mr. Petro went to law school and knows what the Supreme Court’s unambiguous opinion means,” said John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade....
State Sen. Marc Dann, a Youngstown-area Democrat, said yesterday that the state’s delay in releasing the records to The Blade is looking like a pattern.
He has been fighting the governor’s office over the release of weekly staff reports.
“The stonewalling that’s going on in these cases is truly reminiscent of Richard Nixon,” he said, referring to the months of delays it took to get information from Mr. Nixon’s White House during Watergate.
Mr. Dann said the attorney general’s office should not be reviewing records to determine which ones to release.
“Whether or not they’re public has already been litigated and won,” he said.
He criticized Mr. Petro, saying he should take more of a watchdog role rather than act solely as the attorney for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.
“At some point you have to hold the attorney general of the state accountable for not standing up to his clients when the law is clear,” he said.
“Nothing could be more clear than a Supreme Court decision ordering the release of certain records.”
I am not a lawyer, but I am wondering if Mr. Petro could/should be held in contempt of court?
