01/28/2019
State Auditor Nicole Galloway today released the following statement after Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled that her office did not violate the Sunshine Law. A politically-connected Kansas City law firm filed the lawsuit on July 17, 2017, on behalf of Missouri Alliance for Freedom, a dark-money organization.
"This lawsuit was intended to have a chilling effect on my efforts to investigate fraud and mismanagement at all levels of government. Those tactics did not succeed. Today's ruling is straightforward: my office has not violated the Sunshine Law. I remain committed to pursuing answers on behalf of taxpayers."
In May 2017, Missouri Alliance for Freedom filed broad records requests related to the audit of the Missouri Department of Revenue and communications within the Auditor's office. The dark-money organization then filed a lawsuit 14 days before the State Auditor's Office was due to deliver thousands of documents. The State Auditor's Office voluntarily provided more than 45,000 pages in documents that required over 400 hours of staff time review.
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