US attorney’s office: MDMR records sought by newspaper shouldn’t be public due to grand jury
The U.S. Attorney’s office has asked a federal judge to deny State Auditor Stacey Pickering’s request to authorize the release of Mississippi Department of Marine Resources records that are being sought by a Gulf Coast newspaper.
Gulf Publishing and the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Mississippi, have been fighting Pickering for the records, and Harrison County Chancery Judge Jennifer Schloegel recently sided with the newspaper. But the documents are now in the possession of a federal grand jury, which has been investigating alleged corruption at MDMR.
Pickering asked the federal court on Dec. 5 for the records to be released in response to Schloegel’s rulings that the documents are public records.
AP
12.19
Magnolia Tribune
