Pleban

St. Louis lawyer Chet Pleban says that no report will be forthcoming by today’s deadline from the investigative team of Mel Fisher and Rick Wilhoit, who had been hired more than a year ago by then-Attorney General (and now Gov.) Jay Nixon to probe the e-mail preservation practices in the office of then-Gov. Matt Blunt.

The lack of a report largely reflects a dispute between the team, Pleban — who had been representing them — and the two court-appointed lawyers, Joe Maxwell and Louis Leonatti. The lawyers had overseen the settlement approved earlier this month by Circuit Judge Richard Callahan.

However, Leonatti also recommended to Fisher, in correspondence over the weekend, that Fisher not submit a report.

That settlement between the two lawyers and the administration of now former Gov. Blunt  avoided any finding of wrongdoing but guaranteed that thousands of Blunt’s office e-mails that had been under wraps would become public.

Part of the settlement called for the investigators to produce a report by today. Blunt and his staff were to have five days to provide a written response.

But Pleban said in a telephone interview that Maxwell and Leonatti maintain that he no longer represents Wilhoit and Fisher, apparently because of a court determination that Nixon had some sort of conflict. Pleban disagrees, and said he was reappointed by Nixon last October to be the investigative team’s lawyer.

In any case, Pleban said, Wilhoit and Fisher want to know who does represent them and do they have legal protection.

“Fisher and Wilhoit believe they’ve already been threatened with litigation related to the release of the report and its contents,” Pleban said.  So they want to hold off submitting a report until they know they have legal protection.

Leonatti’s weekend e-mail to Fisher made a similar point. “…I don’t believe that you should publish a report unless you have an immunity and someone that wil defend you,’’ Leonatti wrote. “This either has to come from the Attorney General’s office or from the Circuit Court.”

Leonatti was unavailable for comment Monday.

 The implication: The report might get the team in legal hot water from the former governor or former members of his staff.

There’s also disagreement over whether Leonatti and Maxwell have the power to revise any Fisher-Wilhoit report before it becomes public. Apparently, the lawyers believe they have that power, Pleban said, adding that the team found such tinkering “unacceptable.”

Pleban said that Maxwell and Leonatti also have denied the investigative team any access to a post-deposition interview that the lawyers had with former Blunt chief of staff Ed Martin. The lawyer for another former Blunt aide, Henry Herschel, has declined to report phone calls from the investigative team, Pleban added.

In a recent interview, Attorney General Chris Koster spokesman Travis Ford said that the new attorney general didn’t foresee any further action by his office, as a result of the court settlement.

The team’s role ends with its report to Maxwell and Leonatti, Ford said.

Ford said that Koster would honor any outstanding bills from the investigative team. Don’t know what that means for any bills from Pleban.