JEFFERSON CITY – Attorneys appointed by a Cole County judge have refiled a lawsuit against Gov. Matt Blunt asking the judge to protect back-up tapes that contain e-mails sought by various media outlets, including the Post-Dispatch.

The lawsuit alleges that Blunt and his administration can’t be trusted to protect the public records and seeks a ruling that they be provided to investigators free of charge.

Last month, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan ruled that a similar lawsuit filed by St. Louis attorney Chet Pleban on behalf of Attorney General Jay Nixon lacked proper standing. Callahan appointed two attorneys, Democrat Joe Maxwell and Republican Louis Leonatti, to determine if the lawsuit had merit. The two attorneys had until Tuesday to file the case.

The filing repeats the allegation some unnamed person – at the direction of the governor’s office — asked the Office of Administration to recirculate the backup tapes, which would have destroyed the documents on them.

Maxwell and Leonatti also ask Callahan to rule that the state’s open records law, or Sunshine Law, applies to the governor’s office, and that the attorney general has the authority to investigate this ongoing controversy.

The suit names Blunt, Richard AuBuchon (the former deputy commissioner of the Office of Administration; Dan Ross (the state’s information technology director); Blunt attorney Lowell Pearson; Office of Administration commissioner Larry Schepker, and Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.

The suit also names two unnamed state employees.

The suit doesn’t allege Carnahan did anything wrong, but suggests she might ultimately be the custodian of records for the governor’s office.