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Capitol Notebook: Lawsuit over public records, auditor’s office dismissed

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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A lawsuit over public records requests made to the state auditor’s office has been dismissed by a state judge.


Iowa District Court Judge Robert Hanson on Tuesday dismissed the lawsuit, which was brought by the Kirkwood Institute, an Iowa-based conservative legal organization, against Democratic state Auditor Rob Sand.


Hanson said the auditor’s office properly applied state law when withholding some documents in a pair of records requests from Kirkwood.


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According to court documents, the auditor’s office provided several hundred pages of email records per the request but withheld nine email strings, citing confidentiality protections in state law.


The judge determined those records “were properly maintained as confidential and withheld,” according to court documents.


“We are committed to transparency, but also to protecting whistleblowers who help us uncover waste, fraud, and corruption,” Sand said in a statement.


“We’ve had everyone from right-wing media outlets to the Democratic National Committee ask for records that could possibly identify tipsters,” he said. “Our answer is the same every time: We must deny requests that would chip away at our ability to protect whistleblowers and save taxpayers money.”

 
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