Lt. Gov. McGeachin faces contempt of court complaint over refusal to release task force records

A lawyer for the Idaho Press Club on Wednesday filed a petition against Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin (R) for contempt of court after McGeachin failed to produce public records a month after a judge ordered her to do so. The contempt petition asks a judge to detain McGeachin in jail until she produces the records, which came from a public feedback form tied to McGeachin’s education task force on indoctrination.

The Idaho Press Club, a membership organization for the state’s journalists, filed a lawsuit against McGeachin in July, stating that the lieutenant governor had violated state public records law by heavily redacting responses to a Google Form soliciting public comments.

In August, Ada County 4th District Judge Steven Hippler ruled in favor of the Idaho Press Club and ordered McGeachin to release the unredacted records. Hippler also ordered McGeachin to pay a $750 civil penalty for denying the records “deliberately and in bad faith.”

Since the conclusion of the lawsuit, the three Idaho journalists who requested the task force records have not received those documents. Following Hippler’s decision, Idaho Statesman state politics reporter Hayat Norimine, one of the reporters whose requests were initially denied, again requested an unredacted version of the task force responses. According to the contempt of court documents, McGeachin’s chief of staff Jordan Watters denied Norimine’s request, calling it “the subject of ongoing litigation.”

Read more: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article254436348.html