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Court thwarts Va. probe of climate scholar
A Virginia judge has put the brakes on state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s (R) probe of prominent climate scientist Michael Mann’s research while Mann was at the University of Virginia.
Albemarle County Circuit Court Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr. on Monday formally set aside the AG’s “civil investigative demand” to the university — essentially a subpoena — for certain e-mails and documents.
The AG, a climate skeptic, says he’s seeking the documents to determine if there were potential violations of the state’s Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.
But Peatross ruled that Cuccinelli failed to make the case for demanding the documents. “The Court ... understands the controversy regarding Dr. Mann's work on the issue of global warming. However, it is not clear what he did that was misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia,” his ruling, in setting aside the documents demand, said.
The judge noted that the AG must have "some objective basis" to issue a demand for documents.
Mann is well known for creating the “hockey stick” chart that
reconstructs temperatures over the past millennium and shows a sharp
uptick in the 20th century.
Mann — one of the world’s most prominent climate experts — is among the researchers whose e-mails with other scientists were made public with the hacking of messages last year from the Climatic Research Unit in the U.K. The e-mails prompted allegations from climate skeptics that the scientists manipulated data and sought to squelch dissenting views.
Cuccinelli cited the so-called climate-gate e-mails in pressing for the documents related to Mann’s grant applications.
“The use of manipulated data to apply for taxpayer-funded research grants in Virginia is potentially fraud. Given this, the only prudent thing to do was to look into it,” his office said in May.
But several probes of the e-mails hacked from the U.K. research institute have cleared the scientists of charges of that they were cooking the data to show human-induced global warming. And a Penn State internal probe several weeks ago concluded there is “no substance” to allegations of academic misconduct against Mann.
Mann applauded the judge’s ruling.
“It is a victory not just for me and the university, but for all scientists who live in fear that they may be subject to a politically motivated witch hunt when their research findings prove inconvenient to powerful vested interests,” he said.
Cuccinelli said in a statement Monday that the glass is half full, noting the judge found that the university could be subjected to civil investigative demands. The ruling “has given us a framework for issuing a new civil investigative demand to get the information necessary to continue our investigation into whether or not fraud has been committed against the commonwealth,” the AG said.
The judge’s ruling drew a cheer from the Union of Concerned Scientists and other climate advocates.
“This is a victory for scientific discovery. This ruling makes it clear that when a state attorney general alleges fraud against a scientist, he needs actual evidence to back up his claim,” said Francesca Grifo, director of the union’s Scientific Integrity Program.
“Scientists must be free to do their work without the fear of harassment. Then we all can benefit from the discoveries they make,” Grifo added.
