Missouri gov will turn over email

Gov. Matt Blunt will give the Missouri attorney general’s office thousands of pages of email records to settle a lawsuit against his office alleging he "knowingly and purposely" violated open records laws by deleting email messages.

In addition to the special investigators questioning Blunt’s office’s email retention practices, news media organizations had sought access to his email messages and some joined in the lawsuit. The news groups received the same email records in November.

A related lawsuit was brought by a former deputy attorney for Blunt who charges he was wrongfully terminated in 2007 for bringing to light the office’s plan to deliberately delete email. That suit is ongoing.