Cleared?

I mentioned yesterday, that the Mengler Report (on AG Swanson's office) was released. For those that have been in a cave for the last few months, AG Lori Swanson hired Thomas Mengler (Dean of Law at St. Thomas University) to investigate the charges of ethics violations in the AG office that had been raised by Amy Lawler (among others).

The Star Tribune touts the report saying it had "cleared" AG Swanson of the charges, but is that really the case? If you actually read the report, the answer is not nearly as clear as the Star Tribune would have you believe. The 3 page Executive Summary goes to great pains to specify that the report only covers one of the charges raised by Ms. Lawler. On that one charge, Mr. Mengler states that he could not find proof that there were ethical violations and that Ms. Lawler was wrong for disclosing "confidential communications" and doing so "diminished the ability of the AG's office" to represent the people of Minnesota . However, it is how Mr. Mengler addresses the other issues that I find to be of greatest interest. Mr. Megler goes out of his way to indicate that he is offering no opinion on any other charges that have been raised by Ms. Lawler and others...that these other charges were "beyond the parameters" of his investigation.

The remaining 16 pages detail out who was interviewed and when and details of the findings. To be sure, Mr. Mengler raises doubt about some of Ms. Lawler's claims, but he does not address any of the other claims that were raised by named and anonymous sources in the Minn Post series of reports. It is apparent that there is much, much more to be said about this story in the days and weeks ahead.