Missouri Attorney General Appears To Be Using Open Records Requests To Intimidate His Critics

Politics

from the using-public-records-for-evil? dept

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is involved in some questionable use of the state’s public records laws. Following the AG’s dubious decision to sue schools over what he called “illegal” mask mandates, he raised his controversy level considerably earlier this year. He continued this assault on his own credibility by suing schools and educational non-profits that had denied his public records requests seeking documents about mask mandates and one parent-teachers’ organization that had requested the federal government open criminal investigations into parents who threatened violence against teachers and schools over the same mask mandates that AG Schmitt claims are illegal.

Eric Schmitt is more than the state’s Attorney General at this point. He’s the Donald Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for the US Senate in Missouri — something that explains his crusade against school mask mandates, as well as his disdain for educators who deploy “woke policies” and “prioritize politics.” These phrases are, of course, meaningless. It simply means the AG/Senate nominee is against children being exposed to unfortunate facts about history, criticism of Trump Republicans and the things they hold dear (bigotry, cops, etc.), acceptance of people’s sexual identities, and suggestions that there are other condiments than ranch dressing.

His attacks on educators have provoked responses, not all of them welcoming of his onslaught. And that’s where things go off the rails, as reported by Tessa Weinberg for the Missouri Independent.

In April, after Schmitt launched a platform for parents to report “divisive” curriculum in their student’s school, (MSU Associate Professor Jon] Turner mused on Twitter that Schmitt used to be known as a moderate in the state legislature.

“…now as our ATTORNEY GENERAL he is so ANTI-TEACHER I just can’t wrap my mind around the flip-flop,” wrote Turner, a former school administrator and teacher for 25 years. “I’m working to make sure this dangerous, hateful political jellyfish never gets elected to anything again.”

A few days after that tweet, Missouri State University (MSU) got a letter from the attorney general’s office requesting all of Turner’s emails over the previous three months.

Professor Turner viewed this as a “shot across his bow” — an implicit message that the state AG was now keeping an eye on this particular troublemaker. And maybe that’s the intent. The AG’s office, however, is attempting to portray it as nothing more than good AG work.

Contacted about the request for Turner’s emails last week by The Independent, Chris Nuelle, a spokesman for Schmitt, said it was, “a part of a fact-finding process we undertook that was looking into the practices and policies of education in our state.”

Yeah, but fact-finding generally doesn’t mean targeting one specific person’s emails. As the state AG, it seems Schmitt could simply ask the schools to turn over these records without utilizing the public records process, which allows the AG to give the impression he’s not attempting to intimidate schools or critics within these schools.

If the AG felt the schools were somehow breaking the law, he could compel production with subpoenas as part of an investigation. Of course, this would definitely give the impression the AG was targeting educators whose political leanings he didn’t care for, which would result in that much more criticism of him and his tactics. So, it appears he is going the backdoor route with public records requests to disguise his true intent and duck as much criticism as possible. It also keeps him and his office from being sued for violating the rights of educators by chilling their speech.

AG Schmitt should certainly have as much access to public records as anyone else in the state. But he’s in a very powerful position and appears to be using records requests to engage in investigations he and his office won’t publicly announce or put their name on. The targeting of a critic’s emails has very little to do with the objective stated by his spokesperson. It seems far more likely AG Schmitt is trying to see what his critics are saying about him behind his back — a public records equivalent of a Google vanity search.

The entire situation — beginning with AG Schmitt’s decision to politicize school policies by targeting only those that don’t align with his own political leanings and running through his request for a critic’s emails — is incredibly shady. But it’s the sort of thing we’ve come to expect from politicians who’ve decided to hitch their star to an ex-president far too many people have chosen to view as the savior of a nation he couldn’t even win over twice.

Filed Under: eric schmitt, intimidation, jon turner, missouri, open records
Companies: msu