On January 10, 2020, award-winning journalist John Solomon filed a lawsuit against the Circuit Attorney’s Office and Kim Gardner for not honoring his Sunshine Law requests. Mr. Solomon had asked for “public records” pertaining to “all records of contacts between Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner and her staff with the following individuals and entities from Jan. 6, 2017 through July 3, 2019: Scott Faughn; Al Watkins; Jeffrey E. Smith; JES Holdings LLC; Jeff Smith; The Missouri Workforce Housing Association; George Soros; Michael Vachon; Soros Fund Management; The Safety and Justice PAC; Open Society Foundation; Scott Simpson; Katrina Sneed; Phil Sneed; State Rep. Stacy Newman; State Rep. Jay Barnes.”
The background is that Mr. Solomon, a Fox News contributor, reporter for the Associated Press, and former editor of The Washington Times, made his first of several requests for these records in July 2019. They all pertain to the prosecution of former governor Eric Greitens. He is obviously trying to ferret out evidence to see whether the prosecution was politically motivated.
The CAO denied Mr. Solomon’s request, citing that the cases against Mr. Greitens had been dismissed and were closed. They also indicated that the communications requested were “privileged work-product.”
Mr. Solomon, of course, did not buy those excuses and brought his lawsuit.
Legal wrangling ensued.
The case came to an abrupt resolution when Judge Christopher McGraugh entered an order on July 31, 2020, granting Solomon a default judgment against the CAO and Ms. Gardner. Judge McGraugh found that the CAO “was reckless, dilatory, and intentional in its refusal to file timely responsive pleadings.” He also awarded Solomon $5,000 in civil penalties and ordered the CAO to pay his attorney fees (which may amount to over $50,000 at this point).
In response, Ms. Gardner hired the Capes Sokol law firm to take over this Sunshine Law case (from her office attorneys who had been handling it). They subsequently moved to have the default judgment set aside. The court has denied the request.
Now it’s November, 2020, and although Mr. Solomon has won his suit, he’s still not gotten the public records he requested over a year ago. Mr. Solomon recently asked the Court to hold the CAO in contempt for continuing to refuse to provide the materials. Judge McGraugh denied that request, but has ordered the CAO to provide to the Court all the documents in question by December 4, 2020. Judge McGraugh will review them to see which documents, if any, are privileged and then, presumably, will release the rest to Mr. Solomon.
Unless, of course, there is an appeal by the CAO — which is standard operating procedure for Ms. Gardner. The Missouri Court of Appeals and Supreme Court are littered with frivolous writs and appeals Ms. Gardner has filed.
Ms. Gardner is not, however, just wasting litigation time. Consider the financial cost of all this: the $5,000 civil penalty against the CAO, Mr. Solomon’s attorney fees the CAO has been ordered to pay (which will only go up with an appeal), and the CAO’s legal fees now that they’ve hired a top legal firm to take over the case from the CAO’s own lawyers. Ms. Gardner expects taxpayers to foot the bill.
Stay tuned. I’m sure there is more to come.