Under Josh Hawley, Missouri Attorney General's office broke transparency laws on purpose

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
"A judge ruled on Monday that the Missouri Attorney General’s Office “knowingly and purposefully” broke state public records laws when now-U.S. Senator Josh Hawley was in charge.

Cole County Judge Jon Beetem ordered the Missouri Attorney General to pay a $12,000 penalty for failing to turn over public records requested by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) in 2017.

Beetem found that employees in the attorney general’s office used private email accounts to discuss public matters, and then tried to excuse themselves from producing those records by claiming they were not in the attorney general’s office’s custody.

The ruling is troublesome for the Missouri Attorney General’s Office because it has the responsibility to enforce the state’s public records law, known as the Sunshine Law. And the office’s policy prohibits its employees from conducting public business on private emails.

Yet that’s what Beetem found that employees of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office did when they corresponded about public business on private email addresses with political consultants hired by Hawley as he prepared to launch a bid for U.S. Senate in 2018."...