Governor's former attorney sues in e-mail deletion controversy

A former deputy attorney for Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt has filed a lawsuit alleging that he was wrongfully fired for bringing to light a plan to deliberately delete e-mail messages from the state executive’s office in order to keep it away from the media and the greater public.

The Kansas City Star reports that Scott Eckersley has sued the governor and some of his staffers charging defamation, wrongful discharge, violations of the Sunshine Law and violations of the whistleblower law in the wake of Eckersley firing last September. 

Eckersley says he was terminated and then a campaign was launched to discredit him after he repeatedly advised the governor’s staff that deleting e-mail messages violated the state’s open records laws.