Boxes of e-mails from the administration of Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt

On Saturday, the Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star and Associated Press reported that e-mails from the Blunt administration showed that a former deputy counsel had offered advice on the subject of public records retention shortly before he was fired.

The governor’s office has consistently denied that fired deputy counsel Scott Eckersley ever offered the advice on e-mail retention.

The three news organizations had intervened in a lawsuit filed by special assistant attorneys general appointed by a Cole County Circuit Court judge in an attempt to protect records that had been sought in Sunshine Law requests. The Blunt administration had stymied attempts to obtain the records by trying to charge tens of thousands of dollars for them.

On Tuesday, the governor’s office for the third straight day issued a news release calling Eckersley a liar and suggesting that there were errors in the reporting of the e-mail flap. In a news release titled “Truth check” the Blunt administration offers its interpretation of several statements in Post-Dispatch stories that ran in Sunday’s newspaper. None of the statements in the news release actually suggest any factual errors in the Post-Dispatch’s reporting.

For instance, the governor’s office labels as “false” this sentence from Sunday’s story: “The administration contended that a fired staff lawyer never offered advice about the governor’s polity requiring public records, including e-mails, to be retained.”

The news release then labeled this statement, from a governor’s staffer, as true: “TRUE: Rich Aubuchon stated last year, ‘Mr. Eckersley never once voiced a concern, never once wrote an e-mail, never once talked to other employees in the office evidencing any concern that the governor’s office was not complying with the Sunshine Law or any record-retention policies.’”

The Post-Dispatch actually relied on that identical Aubuchon quote in its reporting about the administration’s contention. The governor’s office has now termed the e-mails that show Eckersley did voice such concerns as “communications advice.”

The governor’s news release also labels this sentence from a Post-Dispatch story as false: “And the governor’s then-chief of staff denied the existence of e-mails showing he had engaged in political activities on state time.”

The governor’s news release denies that the then-chief of staff, Ed Martin, was engaging in political activity. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with communicating with coalition groups on issues of public policy,” says the release.

For its reporting, the Post-Dispatch relied on a variety of e-mails from Martin that had a decidedly political tone to them, such as: “We need to beat the living heck out of him,” in an e-mail from Martin referencing Blunt political rival Attorney General Jay Nixon.

The governor’s office also labeled this sentence as false: “Whistleblowers in the Office of Administration had told Nixon’s office that Blunt staffers tried to order that backup tapes be scheduled for destruction.”

According to the governor’s office, “This assertion has been proven untrue in depositions in this case.”

Court documents show that whistleblowers in the Office of Administration have testified in depositions under oath that they believe they were told to schedule backup tapes for destruction.

Blunt administration official Rich AuBuchon has testified in another deposition that he believes those Office of Administration employees misunderstood the directions. The statement in the Post-Dispatch story made no determination as to which position was true, only that the allegation has been made.

Finally, the governor’s office labels this sentence as false: “The e-mail records portray Eckersley as a loyal but sometimes tardy Republican foot soldier.”

In the news release, under the heading “True,” the governor’s office doesn’t dispute any fact in the sentence from the Post-Dispatch story, but says that the story should have said that “the former employee was not only tardy, he was reprimanded for his tardiness.”

The governor’s office has not responded to requests for an interview with Gov. Blunt.