Governor’s attorneys want hold on some Confide lawsuit documents

Attorneys for Governor Eric Greitens want a hold on delivering documents related to a lawsuit over his office’s use of a message-deleting app until after the special legislative session ends.

The lawyers representing the governor’s office filed a motion on Wednesday to put a halt to the ongoing discovery process in a lawsuit over Confide until 30 days after any “legislative proceedings” end, while allowing Confide to continue to produce documents.

Ben Sansone and Mark Pedroli sued the governor’s office after The Kansas City Star reported about the use of Confide. The app automatically deletes messages once they are read, which Pedroli claims is a violation of the state’s open records law, called the Sunshine Law. The governor’s office has said it used the app during Greitens’ transition into the governor’s office in late 2016 and early 2017.

The new motion claims Pedroli has made numerous requests for documents and conversations that go outside the scope of the lawsuit, including information related to Greitens’ criminal cases in St. Louis and the state legislature’s consideration of possible punishment. Attorney Barbara Smith accused Pedroli of making the requests in order to provide the documents to people handling the other cases.

“The Sunshine law was not designed to be a political sledgehammer, nor to authorize wide-ranging fishing expeditions into the private communications of a sitting Governor and his senior staff members so that they can be funneled to other cases,” Smith wrote.

Pedroli issued a subpoena to Confide in April for records it may have of the governor’s communications using the app. Smith wrote that discovery involving the company should continue to see if any records even exist.

The Attorney General’s Office cleared the governor’s office of wrongdoing after investigating, based in part on no records existing of the Confide communications. Greitens’ staff members said any records from Confide were “transitory” records, which don’t require retention like other public records. The governor’s office banned the use of Confide.

Smith requested the judge issue an order banning the use of Confide to “alleviate any concern about the ongoing use of the application.”

The Cole County court also allowed Pedroli to subpoena Caleb Jones, a former Columbia state representative and member of Greitens’ administration. Jones was the governor’s deputy chief of staff when he took office. Jones will be deposed in Columbia on June 1, according to the subpoena.