Cuccinelli: Statement regarding Climate-gate investigation

Edited by Chris Graham
[email protected]
 

The office of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli today released a statement on the civil investigative demand made by the office of the University of Virginia for information for an investigation of former UVa. researcher Michael Mann’s work on climate change.

The statement;

“Our ordinary policy is to not comment on open investigations for the sake of the investigative process as well as for the individuals involved. Because our Civil Investigative Demand was made public by someone other than the attorney general’s office, we have confirmed that the CID online on The Hook web site is authentic.

“The revelations of Climate-gate indicate that some climate data may have been deliberately manipulated to arrive at pre-set conclusions. 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.

“This is a fraud investigation and the attorney general’s office is not investigating Dr. Mann’s scientific conclusions. The legal standards for the misuse of taxpayer dollars apply the same at universities as they do at any other agency of state government. This is about rooting out possible fraud and not about infringing upon academic freedom.

“The attorney general is working with the University of Virginia to get this investigation resolved quickly with the least disruption to the university as possible. UVA has asked for a deadline extension (to July 26) to turn over the documents requested through the CID. UVA also asked for a reduced scope for the amount of documents requested. Both were considered reasonable requests and were agreed to by the attorney general.

“In addition, UVA has requested to hire outside counsel for this matter. This is another accommodation the attorney general has agreed to.

“Currently, we are not going to comment any further on the pending investigation.”