2010.08.31
Will Cuccinelli now launch a probe of the Albermarle judge?
AP Photo | Steve Helber
You’ve got to keep your eyes on Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli if you’re on his bad side.
If you’re the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and he disagrees with your ruling (upheld by the Roberts Court, btw) on whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant?
He will threaten and petition your butt.
If you’re the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and you’re charged with administering a complicated health-care reform law passed by Congress that Cuccinelli opposes?
He will sue your butt.
And if you’re a climate scientist in Virginia — or even if you were one in Virginia years ago — and Ken Cuccinelli doesn’t like the way you set up your global-temperatures-through-history graph while you were at the University of Virginia?
He will investigate your butt for fraud, and serve subpoenas on your former employer, a state agency, which will then have to hire lawyers to defend itself against the office that is supposed to defend the agency.
Did you catch that? The Attorney General represents universities in litigation. Except this time, the office is forcing UVa to burn through taxpayer money by hiring private lawyers to defend the university against the AG.
All of which is enough to make one wonder what the attorney general’s next move will be, now that a Circuit Court judge in Albermarle County has torpedoed the AG’s witch hunt against climate scientist Michael Mann.
Judge Paul Peatross | Readthehook.com
It was truly a fishing expedition, Circuit Court Judge Paul Peatross ruled in his 6-page opinion released Monday, when Cuccinelli served upon UVa a civil investigative demand for all university documents related to $466,000 Mann procured through five grants when he was a researcher at UVa from 1999-2005.
Oops — four of those grants were federally funded, the judge ruled, which means Cuccinelli may not continue investigating them under the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.
The judge also dismissed Cuccinelli’s subpoena against a single state-funded grant, but allowed the AG to redraft that subpoena to attempt to comply with the law. In the first pass, the AG’s office failed to state an “objective basis” for believing Mann had committed any fraud.
Which has got to pretty embarrassing for any lawyer. It would be like a prosecutor charging somebody with a crime, without bothering to state any probable cause the suspect committed it.
So it’s redo time.
Through a spokesman, Cuccinelli said his office would redraft the subpoena to comply with the law.
But I wonder: will he also now launch an investigation against Judge Peatross?
999 out of 1,000 lawyers would tell you, figuratively, that such an action would meet the legal definition of insanity.
But we’re talking about Ken Cuccinelli, you know? Given his style and history, such an act would not necessarily be outside the realm of possibility. And he has an army of lawyers and support staff to pull something like that off, if he was so inclined.
To be sure, Cuccinelli is not always a legal version of Don Quixote. He’s not always tilting at shadowy conspiracies.
Sometimes our attorney general can be amazingly forgiving. Or perhaps he merely looks the other way under certain circumstances.
For example, if you’re the head of a phony veterans’ charity that has scammed $2.2 million from Virginians, and if you have given Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign $55,000?
The man who called himself Bobby Thompson, founder of the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. He's charged with fraud in Ohio, but disappeared.
He will not investigate your butt.
No siree.
The IRS and five other state attorneys general can investigate the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. Five other AGs can probe its vamoosed founder, Bobby Thompson, who (allegedly) assumed another guy’s identity then passed out hundreds of thousands in political donations to right-wing pols, and who gave Ken Cuccinelli’s campaign more than any other in the whole country.
But not Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. (He will allow the Virginia Department of Agriculture to look into your butt).
If you are Thompson, Cuccinelli will defend your butt almost until the cows come home, long after some of his political allies are holding their noses, running for cover and giving away the money you gave them, too.
Grudgingly, and eventually, even Cuccinelli will give your campaign cash away, too.
But he will not investigate your butt, or charge your butt, or cast completely valid but negative aspersions on your butt.
He knows who his friends are.
Your butt is safe in Virginia, if you’re on Ken Cuccinelli’s good side.
Ken Cuccinelli’s got your butt covered.
“Except this time, the office is forcing UVa to burn through taxpayer money by hiring private lawyers to defend the university against the AG”.
Uh, no. UVa could have chosen to comply.
Comment by BobH — August 31, 2010 @ 12:58 pm
I am skeptical of Cuccinelli’s background preparation in the sciences. What happened? Did it NOT happen during his early years in private school? Did his school’s curriculum NOT include how scientists go about testing hypotheses? Was he ignored by the school’s science teachers? Did his eighth science project fail to place in the science fair? There has to be something more?
Comment by Sally Betsy — August 31, 2010 @ 1:31 pm
This is good, give us some more. Also delve into the General Assembly, there are a bunch of losers there.
Comment by Jim Stevens — August 31, 2010 @ 1:44 pm
“four of those grants were federally funded,”
The government can’t see them because the government paid for them. Interesting.
Comment by Henry — August 31, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
Great article, Dan. You have a terrific way of wrapping it up in a nice little package that we can all understand. That’s why you are my favorite “Metro reporter”!
Comment by Lynda K — August 31, 2010 @ 2:00 pm
Yeah Dan, kinda like the Obama Administration and Attorney General Holder – If you are a Black Panther intefering with our voting process and even get caught on camera, that’s okay (why not? Obama was the beneficiary of those tactics) but if you are the State of Arizona trying to enforce the immigration laws of the United States that already exist and have been on the books for years, they will sue you. Thanks for opening that Pandora’s Box – which hand are you holding your ass in this time????
Comment by Dublin Dawg — August 31, 2010 @ 2:12 pm
BobH is right. UVa could have chosen to roll over and comply with a ham-handed, overly broad extra-legal (per the judge’s ruling) broadside by Cuccinelli’s office.
Nobody “forced” them to spend the money.
And in the same sense, nobody forces doctors to defend themselves against frivolous lawsuits. But they do, and there are costs involves, and it raises malpractice premiums for those docs, and perhaps some costs overall in the health system.
In that light, Bob H, here’s a question for you: do you place any legitimacy whatsoever in doctors’ claims that frivolous lawsuits force them to overtreat patients?
Comment by Dan Casey — August 31, 2010 @ 2:16 pm
Believe it or not, Ken Cuccinelli got his undergrad degree from UVa, in engineering. So he must have some background in the sciences. Which makes his dumb investigation even harder to believe.
Comment by Dan Casey — August 31, 2010 @ 2:20 pm
Henry,
Back when Cuccinelli was in the General Assembly, the senators and delegates could have taken the time to write the law (perhaps) so that they could investigate misuse of federal grants. But they chose not to do that. Now KC is no doubt wishing they had.
Comment by Dan Casey — August 31, 2010 @ 2:22 pm
I guess UVA has a good reason to hide that data from view.
Comment by Henry — August 31, 2010 @ 2:29 pm
It would cost the university to comply, too, Henry. Remember, he’s seek ALL documents, correspondence, emails etc. stemming from 5 grants, paid over 6 years, between 1999 and 2005. Why should they have to spend the money to go back and spend the money to retrieve that stuff based on an unwarranted demand (per the judge’s ruling, of course) by an out-of-control attorney general?
But there is ANOTHER good reason for them not to comply: it sends a message to every other state university out there, such as Virginia Tech, that you don’t have to let Ken Cuccinelli push you around with his bizarre flights of fancy.
Comment by Dan Casey — August 31, 2010 @ 2:43 pm
To answer your question Dan:
Malpractice and fraud are 2 totally different scenarios so your comparison doesn’t make any sense to me.
If UVA was so smart, they would turn over everything that the AG is requesting and then let him look silly for the fishing expedition. The way they are handling it now is like they have something to hide. Thou dost protest too much methinks!
UVA’s stance is similar to one taken by a DNA “expert” in California on the Roger Keith Coleman case. The state of Virginia wanted DNA tested but wanted the results sealed so it could decide whether the results were to be given to the press. The DNA scientist disagreed with that stance saying it should be public. Virginia asked for the evidence back so it could send it to another DNA expert. The California expert refused and had possession of the evidence. He would not give it back despite having no legal grounds for possession.
Finally the DNA got tested and despite being on the cover of Time magazine and Larry King live and being the poster child for death sentence opponents as an innocent person wrongly executed, guess what?
Roger Keith Coleman was guilty as hell. He conned them all knowing that his DNA was in the evidence all along. You see, Coleman himself never sought to vindicate his innocence via the DNA route. That was all done by the gullible death penalty opponents.
Likely the same crowd that doesn’t want the truth about the science of Global Warming out there objectively viewed and scrutinized.
Comment by BobH — August 31, 2010 @ 3:43 pm
OK docs, there you have it from BobH.
If you are negligent, or if you are even wrongly accused of negligence, don’t you dare roll over when those evil malpractice attorneys hit you with a lawsuit. Fight! For your right! To praaaaaaac-tice! (Cue the Beastie Boys).
On the other hand, if you commit fraud, or even if you wrongly are accused of fraud, BobH says you should roll over, even IF THE ACCUSING AGENCY DOESN’T STATE A CAUSE OF ACTION. You must roll over, just like UVa did not. Or you are dumb or something. BobH says so.
Comment by Dan Casey — August 31, 2010 @ 3:53 pm
#12 Good golly, BobH, the Coleman case has absolutely nothing in the world to do with this.
As for just handing it over, Dan has already rightly pointed out that it would cost the university tens of thousands of dollars to round it all up, and it would cost them and every public university in the state in reputation, a loss that almost certainly would eventually result in fewer research dollars. Top researchers do not want to go to universities where their work is challenged in a political wild goose chase AND private companies do not want to fund research at a place that will just hand over information to a third party.
Comment by gdad — August 31, 2010 @ 4:57 pm
What the hell does an executed murderer have to do with a Cooch asking UVa for old paperwork?
Survey says…nothing.
Comment by Kristen — August 31, 2010 @ 5:20 pm
He probably should have him investigated. Most judges need to be investigated. They should have random investigations done on them yearly,they are human and make mistakes all the time. Their mistakes can be a lot more costly.
Comment by diane — August 31, 2010 @ 6:45 pm
BobH, you’re so inconsistent. The government is full of crooks, idiots, and heathens, except when they want to take action you agree with. Then, the accused are spineless, guilty and deserve to be hung and the government can do no wrong. I appreciate and respect civil, consistent discourse about issues. However, when you contradict yourself from day to day, you have no credibility. Admittedly, it happens with others on here too. In this case, it is you. It is the problem with dogmatism and partisan politics. You get so wrapped up in defending your party or guy/gal that you forget what you really believe in.
Comment by Geoff — August 31, 2010 @ 9:49 pm
From Slate re: Cuccinelli’s abortion clinic opinion:
http://www.slate.com/id/2264948/
From the second to last paragraph:
“But maybe the real story here is Cuccinelli’s unyielding effort to use his office to nudge the governor and state workers to sidestep the democratic process. Don’t forget that it was by way of an opinion letter that Cuccinelli advised Virginia’s public colleges and universities last March that they must rescind their policies banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. It was by way of an opinion letter—again to Delegate Marshall—that Cuccinelli determined that Virginia police may inquire about the immigration status of people they stop, a power also sought in the controversial new Arizona immigration law. And it is via another opinion letter to Marshall that Cuccinelli announced this week that local governments might endorse sectarian religious holiday displays on public property. It must be convenient to have every last one of your formal legal opinions conform to your fondest personal hopes and dreams.”
Comment by Lori — September 1, 2010 @ 9:46 am
Geoff,
I don’t even post on this BLOG day to day. What was that about credibility? Does your test work on you?
Comment by BobH — September 1, 2010 @ 9:55 am
Note BobH’s crystal clear explanation of what a convicted murderer has to do with the Cooch and this case.
Comment by gdad — September 1, 2010 @ 10:24 am
Dan #8
Actually engineers tend to be the group most ate up with dumba$$ and most inclined towards woo.
If you see a list of scientists or college graduates who are also climate change deniers – check their degrees: a significant portion will be engineers. If you see a similar group of ‘educated’ Americans who also support the teaching of creationism in schools – check their degree fields. Again, there will be a disproportional number of engineers.
Geoff #17
It’s worse than that, BobH knows that the Gov’t is full of crooks idiots and heathens even when he wants them to act on his behalf, he is just willing to be a hypocrite when they are working on his behalf and turn a blind eye.
Like Beck saying a year ago that the constitution should not be messed with and that the libs only want to screw with it when it suits them, then a month ago Beck is on about changing the 14th to remove the born here= citizenship clause or now to change religious freedom.
Government is full of useful idiots. And when they are serving his agenda BobH accepts it but when they are helping other people he wants to scream about it.
Comment by VVArlock — September 2, 2010 @ 9:07 am