Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include input from the Attorney General’s office.
More emails about Louis Freeh’s investigation into Penn State may soon be available to the public.
Three Commonwealth Court judges unanimously approved a request to review “all letters, emails, memos, reports, transcripts, audio recordings or video recordings” between the attorney general and Freeh Group staffers between November 2011 and December 2012.
Penn State alumnus Ryan Bagwell has been fighting for the release of the emails since December 2013, appealing several denials from the Attorney General’s office.
Bagwell is a driving force behind the Penn State Sunshine Fund, an organization that has fought with some success for the release of other documents related to the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal and subsequent investigation.
“There are a lot of questions about where Louis Freeh’s conclusions came from, with one theory being the attorney general shaped a lot of those conclusions,” Bagwell says.
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was hired by Penn State to investigate the handling of the Sandusky scandal. Released in 2012, the Freeh report concludes that top university officials repeatedly hid knowledge of Sandusky’s crimes from the public, law enforcement and other university leaders.
Bagwell previously obtained a limited number of email exchanges between attorney general staffers and members of Freeh’s investigative team through a request he made in December 2012. The emails mostly consist of congratulations and thanks for a “great job in tough conditions,” as Freeh Group consultant Thomas Cloud wrote in June 2012 to then-attorney general staffer Randy Feathers.
Bagwell says these emails suggest a “very close relationship that shows how willing they were to assist each other.” He believes the additional records he requested will confirm his view that the attorney general’s office influenced the outcome of the Freeh report.
Bagwell says the process of requesting documents from the Attorney General’s office is complicated by the fact that the office handles its own records requests and appeals, rather than going through the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records.
In his request to the Commonwealth Court, Bagwell writes that he was informed the records he’d requested were not public information because they included details about a criminal investigation, but was not given further specifics to support the decision.
A brief filed by the Attorney General’s office in Commonwealth Court states that Bagwell’s request included documents he had been previously denied and documents that were not records in the Attorney General’s office.
The filing also notes that Bagwell’s request was denied because parts of his request were too vague and didn’t refer to specific documents, while other parts of his request asked for documents that are protected by the Investigating Grand Jury Act of Pennsylvania.
Thursday’s court decision – signed by Judges Anne Covey, Dan Pellegrini and Mary Leavitt – says that the Attorney General’s appeals officer may have been correct to deny Bagwell’s request, but adds “conclusory statements themselves are not sufficient to justify an exemption of public records.”
The Commonwealth Court will determine which – if any – of the requested documents should be released. Bagwell is unsure how long that may take.
Representatives for the Attorney General’s Office note that no decision has been made, and that the office did not oppose review by a judge. They declined further comment.
“I really hope that a case like this will make [Attorney General] Kathleen Kane’s office do a much better job of fairly deciding its own Right-to-Know Law appeals,” Bagwell says. “You shouldn’t have to go to court every time you file a public records request.”
Representatives from the Freeh Group could not be reached for comment.
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