This just in, via Adam Reilly‘s and David Bernstein‘s real-time reporting on Twitter: the judge hearing Tim Cahill’s lawsuit against his treacherous ex-consultants, has just ordered the continuation of an injunction against Weaver, Yob, and Meldrum with respect to “genuinely confidential” materials. As I understand it, this means that if they have evidence of impropriety regarding coordination between the Cahill campaign and the lottery, for example, they are allowed to disclose that to the Attorney General or whoever. But if they have Cahill campaign strategy stuff, they can’t disclose that to anyone.
That seems very sensible to me. If the Cahill campaign was doing something wrong (and I reiterate that as of now, there’s no evidence of that – UPDATE: via Bernstein: “Oooooohh… Emails look bad-shulman etc. talking about lottery ads.” – he meant Strother, a Cahill strategist), this lawsuit shouldn’t shield that information from being disclosed. But it seems obvious that there’s at least some implied confidentiality obligation in a campaign consulting contract with respect to campaign strategy, fundraising and voter databases, etc. That seems to be what the judge has concluded.
The defendants have also been ordered to supply within four days a list, under oath, of all campaign information they have already disclosed. (Or maybe all information that is in their possession regardless of whether it’s been disclosed or not – not sure of the details on that one.)
Finally, the Cahill campaign’s request for expedited discovery (i.e., to take depositions of Baker’s campaign manager and others) has been denied. Though apparently the judge might revisit that ruling if the list to be filed by the defendants suggests that there was contact between the two camps.
Developing…
