Two Mexico Lawyers to Tackle Blunt's Email Lawsuit

Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan issued an order today naming two lawyers in Mexico, Mo. — former Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell, a Democrat, and Louis Leonatti, a prominent Republican — as “special assistant attorneys general” in the e-mail legal battle involving Gov. Matt Blunt.

The two will examine the legal issues raised in the lawsuit initially filed against Blunt by a special investigative team appointed by Attorney General Jay Nixon to determine whether Blunt’s office were destroying e-mails that needed to be preserved under the state open-records and record-retention laws.

Maxwell’s Democratic credentials are well-known. He’s a former state senator and initially got his political start working for former U.S. Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, D-St. Louis.

 Leonatti is close to Sen. Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo. and retired Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo.

Both Danforth and Bond backed Leonatti when he was nominated for a federal judgeship by the first President George Bush. That nomination died when Bush lost to Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992.

Posted: 2008-07-22

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