From the DPVA:
Yesterday Virginia Senator Donald McEachin filed a lawsuit in Richmond’s Circuit Court seeking to compel Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to provide documents proving that he was “walled off” from the case involving former Governor’s Mansion chef Todd Schneider and Cuccinelli’s gift and trip benefactor Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams.
The suit followed a Freedom of Information request seeking information to support a memo that Cuccinelli’s campaign provided to The Washington Post seeking to convince Virginians that he had no knowledge of the case, in which the Attorney General’s office was prosecuting someone who held damaging information about Williams and Star.
A thorough reading of that memo does not offer any tangible proof that Cuccinelli was indeed walled off from the case, and now his office is responding to McEachin’s suit by saying they can’t provide documents supporting the memo,because they do not exist.
As this lawsuit moves forward, Virginians are forced to consider two unpleasant potential realities about their Attorney General:
- Ken Cuccinelli possesses documents involving his role in the Todd Schneider/Star Scientific case and provided them to his campaign while denying members of the public the same information.
- Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign constructed an account of his role in the case that seeks to exonerate him from an inexcusable conflict or interest, but neither the campaign nor his office can prove that the information in that memo is even true.
If Ken Cuccinelli’s government staff “walled him off” from his prosecution of someone who possessed damaging information about his largest benefactor Jonnie Williams, it shouldn’t be difficult for him to prove it. Given the multiple abuses of the public trust that have defined his tenure, even Cuccinelli should understand why “just take my word for it” isn’t going to cut it on this one.
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