The judge also ordered that the administration file a privilege log with the court within 10 days from April 14, and this will determine if the disclosure or disposition of the requested information should be allowed later on.
Wiseman held a hearing on April 9 on Sablan’s petition for mandamus.
He issued a two-page order releasing only a portion of the requested documents but did not explain why.
“At the hearing, defendant objected to producing the following documents: 1) the engagement letter; 2) billing documents and statements sent to CNMI…; 3) payments made by CNMI attorney…. According to defendant, these were the only requested documents that he was objecting to produce pursuant to the Open Government Act,” said Wiseman.
“Therefore, defendant[s] [Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and Finance Secretary Eloy Inos] [are] hereby ordered to produce all other requested documents, except the three listed above, to plaintiff [Sablan] within seven days of the date of this order,” Wiseman added.
The governor’s lawyers filed the lawsuit on Sept. 12, 2008 in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.
On Oct. 13 of the same year, Sablan requested the governor to give her copies of (1) all contracts related to the lawsuit; (2) documents detailing payments made on the contracts; (3) documents identifying the sources of funding for the litigation; and (4) documents identifying the departments of the CNMI government that might have had funds reprogrammed due to the litigation.
She made a similar request in Nov. 2008 to Inos which acting Attorney General Gregory Baka denied.
But Baka acknowledged public funds had been used to pay Jenner & Block.
He said certain public records are exempted from the Open Government Act if they are relevant to a controversy to which the CNMI government is a party like the ongoing lawsuit it filed against the federal government.
