West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey does not have to release emails and other documents that could shed light on Morrisey's role in his office's lawsuit against drug giant Cardinal Health, a company his wife lobbies for, Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King has ruled.
Morrisey has fought for two years to keep the emails confidential. The Charleston Gazette filed a lawsuit against the attorney general after he refused to release the documents to the newspaper, which requested them under the state Freedom of Information Act.
"We are pleased that the court made the right call on this case," Morrisey said in a prepared statement. "As we have consistently stated, we have followed the law and gone much further than the law requires in order to operate with the best ethical practices.
"From the beginning, this case has been politically motivated and an unnecessary burden on this office and a drain of taxpayers' resources. We are glad we can move on and continue doing the state's work."
After reviewing the records in private, King concluded that seven of the eight documents weren't public records.
King wrote that the only public record - a May 16, 2013, email between Morrisey's former chief deputy, Dan Greear, and Charleston lawyer Jim Cagle - contains a single reference to the Cardinal Health lawsuit, but does not show if Morrisey played any role in the case. Cagle is handling the Cardinal Health lawsuit for Morrisey's office.
In previous filings, Morrisey's office had described the email as "highly sensitive."
According to King's order, "[Morrisey] is not mentioned" in the first part of the email. The order does not say if Morrisey's name shows up elsewhere in the email.
In a previous filing, the Attorney General's Office acknowledged, "The second portion of the email mentions [Morrisey], but does not mention the Cardinal Health litigation specifically."
In his order, King wrote that Morrisey also could withhold the email because it is "clearly protected ... by attorney-client privilege."
King ruled that Morrisey didn't have to release three additional emails and several "to-do lists" because "they deal with [Morrisey's] private decision regarding his own responsibilities under the West Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct."
Morrisey has said he hired a private lawyer in 2013 to advise him if he could take part in the Cardinal Health lawsuit "in the future." The lawyer advised him that the Cardinal Health lawsuit didn't pose a conflict of interest, according to Morrisey's former spokeswoman. Morrisey has refused to reveal the lawyer's name.
The Gazette had asked the judge to review Morrisey's emails and other documents and to order the attorney general to release any records that would show he continued to oversee the Cardinal Health case after repeatedly stating that he had recused himself from the lawsuit.
The Gazette recently combined with the Charleston Daily Mail to form the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Morrisey has asked a Putnam County judge to require the Daily Gazette Co. to turn over information about the joining of the newspapers. The judge asked both sides earlier this month to meet and decide what seems reasonable to turn over.
Morrisey inherited the Cardinal Health lawsuit from former attorney general Darrell McGraw, who alleged that the drug wholesaler helped fuel West Virginia's problem with prescription drugs by shipping an excessive number of pain pills to the state.
Cardinal Health, the nation's second-largest drug distributor, later contributed to Morrisey's inauguration party, and the company's executives wrote checks to Morrisey's campaign before and after the November 2012 election.
Morrisey's wife, Denise Henry, is a longtime Capitol Hill lobbyist for Cardinal Health. The drug wholesaler has paid Henry's lobbying firm, Capitol Counsel, $940,000 since Morrisey took office in January 2013. He has said he stepped aside from the Cardinal Health lawsuit that month and appointed Greear, his top aide, to manage the case for the Attorney General's Office.
Reach Eric Eyre at ericeyre@wvgazette.com, 304-348-4869 or follow @ericeyre on Twitter.