Lost Ogle Joins Fight For Fallin E-Mails
Satirical website wants papers from Okla. governor
By SEAN MURPHY, AP
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Attorneys for the satirical local news website The Lost Ogle asked an Oklahoma County judge on Monday to force Gov. Mary Fallin to turn over documents that her office claims are privileged.
In a motion for summary judgment, the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union asked District Judge Barbara Swinton to order disclosure and the right of inspection to about 100 pages of materials related to the governor’s decisions on health care that she is withholding from the public.
Swinton’s clerk tentatively scheduled a hearing on the motion for April 25.
The Lost Ogle joined with several news organizations, including The Associated Press, in a request for documents from the governor’s office related to her decisions to reject a state health insurance exchange and Medicaid expansion under the federal health care law. The ACLU of Oklahoma is representing The Lost Ogle’s parent company, Oklahoma City-based Vandelay Entertainment, LLC.
Fallin’s office released tens of thousands of pages of emails and other correspondence but withheld 31 documents consisting of 100 pages of materials that her General Counsel Steve Mullins determined to be part of “executive and deliberative process privileges.”