Greg Abbott was ordered to release some of his Emails with Elon Musk. Most are blacked out.

Months after fighting to keep secret the emails exchanged between Texas Gov Greg Abbott s office and tech billionaire Elon Musk s companies state leaders circulated nearly pages to The Texas Newsroom The records however reveal little about the two men s relationship or Musk s influence over state establishment In fact all but about of the pages are entirely blacked out Of those that were readable a great number of were either already constituents or provided minimal information They included old incorporation records for Musk s rocket company SpaceX a couple of agendas for the governor s committee on aerospace and aviation emails regarding a state grant awarded to SpaceX and an application from a then-Musk employee to sit on a state commission One is an invitation to happy hour Another is a reminder of the next SpaceX launch The documents were provided in response to a inhabitants records request by The Texas Newsroom which questioned Abbott s office for communications with Musk and the businessman s employees dating back to last fall Abbott s and Musk s lawyers fought their release arguing they would reveal transaction secrets potentially intimate and embarrassing exchanges or confidential legal and policymaking discussions Abbott s spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris declared the governor s office rigorously complies with the Texas Community Information Act and releases any responsive information that is determined to not be confidential or excepted from disclosure Open leadership experts say the limited disclosure is emblematic of a larger transparency dilemma in Texas They pointed to a state Supreme Court decision that allowed companies to oppose the release of records by arguing that they contain competitively sensitive information The ruling experts commented made it harder to obtain records documenting interactions between governments and private companies Tom Leatherbury who directs the First Amendment Clinic at Southern Methodist University s Dedman School of Law revealed companies took advantage of the ruling Among the bulk prominent examples of the ruling s effect on transparency was McAllen Texas refusal to disclose how much money was spent to lure pop star Enrique Iglesias to the city for a concert The city argued that such disclosures would hurt its ability to negotiate with artists for future performances Eventually it was revealed that Iglesias was paid nearly half a million dollars Related Elon Musk loves Texas right-wing social policies at least that s what Greg Abbott says The difficulty has been exacerbated Leatherbury added by the fact that the Office of the Attorney General which referees constituents records disputes does not have the power to investigate whether the records that companies want to withhold veritably contain pact secrets Corporations are willing to assert that information is confidential commercial information and more governmental bodies are willing not to second-guess the company s assertion Leatherbury stated Leatherbury has performed pro bono legal work for The Texas Newsroom Musk and his companies representatives did not respond to questions about the records One of the richest people in the world Musk has invested heavily in Texas He s relocated a large number of of his businesses headquarters to the state and hired lobbyists who successfully pushed for several new laws that will benefit his companies As part of an effort to track Musk s clout in the state Capitol The Texas Newsroom on April inquired Abbott s office for communications with employees from four of the businessman s companies SpaceX car manufacturer Tesla the social media site X and Neuralink which specializes in brain nanotechnology The governor s office explained it would cost to review the documents which The Texas Newsroom paid After the check was cashed lawyers representing Abbott s office and SpaceX each sought to keep the records secret SpaceX s lawyer sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dated June saying that publicly releasing the emails would hurt its competitive advantage Abbott s constituents information coordinator Matthew Taylor also petitioned Paxton s office for permission to withhold the documents arguing they included private exchanges with lawyers details about policymaking decisions and information that would reveal how the state entices companies to invest here Taylor explained a few of the records were protected under an exception to populace records laws known as common-law privacy because they consisted of information that is intimate and embarrassing and not of legitimate concern to the general Releasing the Musk emails he announced would have a chilling effect on the frank and open discussion necessary for the decision-making process Ultimately Paxton s office mostly sided with Abbott and Musk In a Aug opinion Assistant Attorney General Erin Groff wrote that numerous of the documents could be withheld Groff however ordered the release of chosen records determined to be either not highly intimate or embarrassing or of legitimate population interest A month later the governor s office published pages of records the vast majority of which were entirely redacted A few records included a note that appeared to explain why A note on page for example cited the exemption for competitive bidding records for redacted pages Names and emails of Musk s employees were also removed The fact that a governmental body can redact more than pages of documents that are directly related to a major business s events in Texas is certainly problematic noted Reid Pillifant an attorney specializing in populace records and media law Pillifant has represented a coalition of media outlets including ProPublica and The Texas Tribune in lawsuits seeking the release of inhabitants information related to the May mass shooting at an Uvalde Texas elementary school He and other experts revealed such hurdles are becoming more common as provision and court decisions have weakened the state s masses records laws Four years after the Supreme Court decision legislators passed a new law that was meant to ensure the release of basic information about ruling body deals with private businesses But open regime experts mentioned the law did not go far enough to restore transparency adding that specific local governments are still objecting to the release of contract information Moreover lawmakers continue to add carve-outs to what qualifies as inhabitants information every legislative session Just this year for example legislators added the following exceptions to populace records and open meetings laws information relating to how establishment entities detect and deter fraud and discussions during community ruling body meetings about certain military and aerospace issues Even with the increasing challenges of accessing populace records Leatherbury and Pillifant were stumped by the governor s decision to release thousands of pages only to black them out fully Leatherbury explained that the governor s office may have desired to show the volume of records responsive to the request They requested you to see what little you could get in the context of the entire document even though that s kind of meaningless he mentioned The Texas Newsroom has demanded the Office of the Attorney General to reconsider its decision and order the release of the Musk emails There is little other recourse to challenge the outcome If a member of the residents believes a regime agency is violating the law they can try to sue But the experts noted that a latest Texas Supreme Court decision made it more formidable to enforce the constituents records law against the governor and other executive officers Now Leatherbury stated it s not clear how challenging such a records decision would work Every Texas citizen should care about access to these kinds of records because they shed light on how our masses leaders are making big decisions that affect the land where people live and how their taxpayer dollars are being spent Pillifant noted Read more about this topic It s all to help Elon How Musk s shadowy army of lobbyists cajoled Texas lawmakers Why Greg Abbott refuses to release his emails with Elon Musk Texas Republicans were reluctant to redraw the state s congressional maps before Trump The post Greg Abbott was ordered to release particular of his Emails with Elon Musk Bulk are blacked out appeared first on Salon com