McGinty emails spur courtroom clash between lawyers for Wolf, GOP

HARRISBURG - Gov. Wolf's office and the state Republican Party faced off in Commonwealth Court on Tuesday over a request to release emails of Katie McGinty, the governor's former chief of staff who is now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.

The governor's office is appealing a state Office of Open Records determination that it turn over some materials it withheld in response to a July 2015 right-to-know request from the deputy communications director of the state Republican Party. The request was filed just before McGinty left the governor's inner circle to run for Senate.

The Republicans haven't said what they are looking for. But David Freed, the Cumberland County District Attorney and a former GOP nominee for attorney general, cast the administration's resistance as a bid to help McGinty's campaign to unseat the Republican incumbent, Sen. Pat Toomey.

"This seems to me to be running out the clock," he said Monday during a news conference at state party headquarters.

The Office of Open Records had determined in December that the governor's office had justified withholding some of the emails, but not others.

During Tuesday's arguments before the three-judge panel, a lawyer for Wolf's office contended that the list of more than 100 search terms the GOP had used in its request - including terms like Tom Wolf and Barack Obama - were not sufficiently specific.

"None of those terms identify any business or activity of the Office of the Governor," Thomas Howell told the judges.

Adam Ennis, attorney for the Republican Party, called such an objection "a red herring." He said the governor's office has not met its burden of proving the documents meet the requirements to be exempt from public disclosure.

The judges gave no clear indication which way they were leaning or a timetable for a decision.

klangley@post-gazette.com

717-787-2141 @karen_langley