A judge on Monday thwarted Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s bid to investigate whether a former University of Virginia professor fraudulently obtained public research money by cooking up climate change data.
Cuccinelli, a global warming cynic, sought documents relating to the research of climate scientist Michael Mann, who was behind the so-called “hockey stick” graph in last year’s “Climategate scandal.”
But Albemarle County Circuit Court Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. said Cuccinelli provided no “objective basis” that Mann defrauded taxpayers.
“It is not clear what [Mann] did that was misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the commonwealth of Virginia,” Mann ruled.
However, the judge said Cuccinelli could investigate the matter, provided that his subpoena shows a “reason to believe” that Mann had committed a crime. Peatross added that Cuccinelli must limit his inquiry to just one of the five grants in question because the rest involved federal funding.
Even with the setback, Cuccinelli vowed to try again.
“While this was not an outright ruling in our favor, I am pleased that the judge has agreed with my office on several key legal points and has given us a framework for issuing a new civil investigative demand to get the information necessary to continue our investigation into whether or not fraud has been committed against the commonwealth,” he said.
U.Va. officials cheered the judge’s decision, and Mann, who now works at Penn State University, called the ruling “a victory for scientists who live in fear that they may be subject to a politically motivated witch hunt.”
The professor has been widely cleared of manipulating information to showcase a swift spike in the earth’s temperature.
Critics cited Cuccinelli’s refusal to drop the matter as nothing more than a political stunt.
“Mr. Cuccinelli can continue to go down this road again and again until he’s blue in the face,” said Michael Halpern, program manager for the Scientific Integrity Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “There is simply nothing there. And if [scientists] have the concern that every single e-mail they write can be taken out of context, they’ll think twice about asking the tough questions of their colleagues.”
Cuccinelli has hardly been a wallflower this month. In recent weeks, a judge allowed the conservative attorney general’s lawsuit over federal health care legislation to move forward, and Cuccinelli also wrote an opinion that state law enforcement officials can ask the legal status of anyone stopped or arrested, that the state can regulate abortion centers and that holiday displays may be permitted on public grounds.
