The Virginia Supreme Court threw out Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s efforts to seize emails from a University of Virginia professor researching climate change.
The high court told Cuccinelli, a global warming skeptic, that his second attempt to commandeer records from Michael Mann did not fall under his authority. Mann, who Cuccinelli charged with using false data to obtain government grants for research, now works at Penn State and has never been found to have committed any wrongdoing by independent investigators.
Cuccinelli was obviously disappointed in the decision.
“From the beginning, we have said that we were simply trying to review documents that are unquestionably state property to determine whether or not fraud had been committed,” Cuccinelli said. “The court effectively held that state agencies do not have to provide state-owned property to state investigators looking into potential fraud involving government funds.”
