State Supreme Court Gives Attorney General’s Office More Time to Turn Over Pruitt Emails

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has granted a request by the Attorney General’s office to delay a lower court’s order requiring the agency to turn over records sought by a watchdog group.

The Center for Media and Democracy sued the agency in February to force it to handover emails sent during the tenure of former attorney general Scott Pruitt, now administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The AG’s office raised multiple procedural concerns in a Tuesday hearing with a Supreme Court referee. The high court agreed to suspend a Feb. 16 order by Oklahoma County district judge Aletia Haynes Timmons while the agency appeals her decision, which required the attorney general’s office to produce thousands of pages of emails from multiple requests made under Oklahoma’s Open Records Act.

The AG’s office has already produced thousands of emails in response  to one of the left-leaning group’s requests, but the agency says it needs more time to respond to the group’s other requests.

Recently released emails show Pruitt had a close, friendly relationship with fossil fuel companies when he was Oklahoma’s AG. The documents also show he occasionally used a private email account for government business, which contradicts testimony he gave during his Senate confirmation hearings.