Judge Denies Virginia Attorney General’s Subpoena in Climate Change Inquiry
by The Federalist Society
Posted August 30, 2010, 2:15 PM
Today, a judge in Virginia state court ruled that Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli had provided insufficient reason to subpoena the records of Michael Mann, a professor who is now at Penn State University and who has studied global warming at the University of Virginia and other institutions, to investigate whether Mann committed fraud with regard to state grant money, reports the Blog of Legal Times. While Judge Paul Peatross Jr. stated that the Attorney General's office has the authority to investigate the handling of such money, he determined that the office had not shown it had "reason to believe" Mann had committed fraud.
Attorney General Cuccinelli has responded that his office will provide a new subpoena request to the judge that conforms to the ruling and that the office will decide whether or not to appeal certain portions of the decision.