The legal and political maneuvering in regard to former Houston Congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is hard to keep up with, so I rely on Kuff and others to keep me informed of what’s going on in that ongoing saga. However, this Austin American-Statesman article on a seemingly innocuous aspect of the legal battle caught my eye.
Seems as if the Chronicle filed a request in March under Texas’ open records law for vouchers, travel receipts, budget documents, memos and e-mails in regard to the expenses of Travis County DA Ronnie Earle’s investigations of DeLay and related cases of DeLay’s associates. Earle rejected the Chronicle request and appealed to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who ruled that that the law requires disclosure of “information in an account, voucher, or contract” relating to the expenditure of public monies.
Rather than simply complying with what appears to be a straightforward open records request and ruling, Earle announced this past Monday that he had sued Abbott in an attempt to avoid public disclosure of the information, claiming that such a release “could adversely effect public safety.”
Release of travel receipts “could adversely effect public safety”? (I think Earle meant “affect”). H’mm. Stayed tuned on this one. Kevin Whited has more here. Hat tip to Letter of Apology for the link to the article.