Harrisburg, Pa. — Gov. Tom Wolf’s office responded on Monday to the Republican Party of Pennsylvania’s Right to Know request regarding the redistricting litigation. In so doing, they granted access to the contract for outside counsel. The response claimed there were no records of official communication between the Governor’s office, Democrat Supreme Court Justices or their retained expert, and/or the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
The Governor’s office denied a request for access to records of communications between them and their redistricting expert, Moon Duchin, based upon attorney-client and attorney work product privileges and an exception within the Right to Know Law regarding internal, pre-decisional deliberation.
In response, Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Val DiGiorgio made the following statement:
“When given the chance to be transparent with how taxpayer dollars were used to create a constitutional crisis, the Governor’s office chose not provide legitimately sought-after information.
“While we consider appeal options, and additional Right to Know requests, we urge the Governor’s office to release any communications they had with Moon Duchin and live up to their self-proclaimed transparency values.
“While we are pleased to see there was no official communication between the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and the Governor’s office, the timing of the $250,000 donation made to his reelection campaign remains suspect and leaves open speculation about non-requestable private communications with this outside special interest group.”
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