Sablan, in a letter to Finance Secretary Eloy Inos, is requesting to inspect:
• All records, including all contracts related to the lawsuit, including contracts executed between the CNMI government and Jenner & Block LLP, and any other private attorneys or law firms involved in the lawsuit.
• All records detailing payments made on the contracts to date, including but not limited to payments made from the governor’s operating account #1011-6250.
• All records identifying the departments, agencies and/or instrumentalities of the CNMI government from which public funds have been reprogrammed to the governor’s operating account #1011-6250.
• All documents subject to the department’s control containing the words or phrases “Jenner,” “Block,” “Jenner & Block,” Jenner & Block LLP,” Jenner and Block, LLP,” or Jenner and Block, LLP.”
Sablan reminded Inos that under the Open Government Act, he is required to respond within 10 calendar days.
She sent the letter on Dec. 11.
Acting Attorney General Gregory Baka earlier said that the law “specifically says you don’t give up stuff that the other side didn’t get in the court.”
According to Baka, “If the [feds] know how much money we have and what percentage we use then the feds could bring a flurry of motions. They could have hundreds of attorneys and they could run us out of court.”
The administration has said it would need $50,000 a month to pay its lawyers in Washington, D.C.
The governor, for his part, announced that he would not use funds for public services to finance the lawsuit.
But he later asked lawmakers to appropriate $400,000 for Jenner & Block.
