FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Progress Michigan
December 1, 2015
Contact: Sam Inglot, 616-916-0574, sam@progressmichigan.org
Progress Michigan Files New FOIA Request to Attorney General
New request a response to Schuette’s office admitting he and staff used personal email to conduct state business
LANSING — Today, Progress Michigan filed a new Freedom of Information Act request with Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office seeking emails sent from personal email accounts of the Attorney General and top staffers. The FOIA is in response to the release of documents by the Attorney General’s office and a memo to the public from Schuette’s communications shop admitting that the Attorney General uses his state email account for political purposes and the personal emails of top staff to conduct state business.
“It’s important to get all emails to and from personal accounts now that we know the Attorney General blurred the lines of ethical and legal email use,” said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan. “We didn’t request personal emails the first time because we hoped that the top law enforcement officer in the state would use proper email procedures. I understand the Attorney General is a fan of musical lyrics so to put it in his parlance and quote The Who: ‘we won’t get fooled again.’”
The FOIA was filed via email today with the Attorney General’s office and is similar to an earlier FOIA seeking disclosure of conversations between the Attorney General’s office and lobbyists. The request follows a Pulitzer Prize winning work published in the New York Times showing cozy relationships between numerous Attorneys General across the country and high-powered lobbyists.
“The Attorney General can try and use intimidation tactics, high fees and other political games, just because we are attempting to hold him accountable to the people of Michigan, but we will simply take his advice and ‘shake it off’,” Scott continued. “Michiganders want accountable elected officials and if Schuette tries to stymie our efforts, we’ll push back anyway, anyhow, anywhere.”
A copy of the FOIA request can be found below or at this link.
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Attorney General FOIA 12/1/15 by progressmichigan