Blunt's office objects to e-mail investigation

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- One day after Attorney General Jay Nixon announced an outside investigation into Gov. Matt Blunt's e-mail storage practices, the governor's top attorney on Friday fired back with his own demands.

Calling Nixon's inquiry an unprecedented political ploy, Blunt general counsel Henry Herschel asked Nixon for a written explanation of the attorney general's legal authority to appoint the panel.

"Since you have chosen to waste taxpayer money in support of your political campaign, we feel compelled to hire conflict counsel," Herschel wrote in a letter to Nixon provided to reporters by Blunt's spokesman, Rich Chrismer.

Herschel also asked Nixon, a Democrat and Blunt's likely opponent in the November 2008 general election, to pay for the costs of the governor's outside legal team.

Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said that both the Missouri Sunshine Law covering public records and a second law dealing with Nixon's power to appoint special prosecutors and independent investigators provide the attorney general the needed authority.

"The authority of the attorney general is clear," he said.

On Thursday, Nixon appointed Mel Fisher, a former Missouri State Highway Patrol superintendent and Missouri Gaming Commission executive director, to lead the inquiry.

Blunt has been facing growing scrutiny in recent weeks after he acknowledged that administration officials, including his chief of staff, delete certain internal office e-mails. Nixon's office also has acknowledged deleting certain e-mails as allowed for under the state's record-retention policies. The investigation will determine possible violations of state public records laws.

Fisher, 73, a four-decade state employee appointed to leadership posts by both a Democrat and a Republican governor, said he was troubled by the Blunt administration's public comments.

Fisher said he is politically independent and has "no ax to grind." He also defended Nixon's decision to seek an outside investigation.

"I'm assuming the attorney general has the authority," Fisher said. "If it's challenged, the courts will have to determine that."

Joining Fisher on the task force are Daniel Knust, a retired associate circuit judge from Webster County in southwest Missouri; and Rick Wilhoit, a retired state trooper who led the gaming commission's law enforcement arm under Fisher.

Some Republicans are suggesting that political ties played a role in the appointment of Knust, himself a Republican. They note that one of Knust's former law clerks is related to Craig Hosmer, a former Democratic legislator who is now Nixon's campaign treasurer.

Knust, of Marshfield, called the GOP rumblings a stretch, pointing out that Hosmer's mother was already working as the county probate clerk before he was elected.

"We're a small, rural community," he said. "Virtually everybody is connected to somebody. We're not St. Louis or Kansas City."

Nixon's announcement Thursday came just hours after Blunt disclosed his own plans for a permanent e-mail retention system for state offices that he says goes beyond legal requirements.

The governor said the new policy is a response to "confusion in state government about e-mail retention."

Much of that confusion stems from conflicting statements made by Blunt and his key advisers. Those inconsistencies led Scott Eckersley, a former Blunt staff attorney, to offer legal advice on e-mail retention. Eckersley said he was fired for that gesture.