This story reminds me of a favorite movie of mine during my college days, Tommy Boy.
Richard: You have de-railed…
Tommy: Shut up, Richard!
The weekend saw a bit of controversy surrounding Ohio AG Richard Cordray.
The Dayton Daily News reported:
Ohio taxpayers are right in the middle of the civil rights lawsuit that Samuel Joseph — “Joe the Plumber” — Wurzelbacher has filed against three former state employees, charging that they illegally accessed his confidential information through state databases.
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray’s office is defending former state employees Helen Jones-Kelley, Douglas Thompson and Fred Williams. All have denied wrongdoing and asked that the case, filed last March in U.S. District Court in Columbus, be dismissed.
Initially, I wanted to give Cordray the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps state code requires him to defend the former state employees.
Not so much.
He acknowledged that there are exceptions to the requirement that the attorney general represent state employees. For those to come into play, a determination must be made that the employee was acting “manifestly outside the scope of his official employment or official responsibilities, with malicious purpose, in bad faith or in a wanton or reckless manner.”
The state determined there was enough malfeasance “outside the scope of their official employment or official responsibilities, with malicious purpose” to have these folks pushed out or fired.
This is cut and dry.
Richard Cordray does not have to use Ohio taxpayer dollars to defend these folks the state found warranted termination.
But he is.
Strange move, Richard.
