The University responded Wednesday to the latest round of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's climate research-related Civil Investigative Demands by filing a request that the latest demand for University documents be dismissed.
Officials from the attorney general's office are seeking information about whether climate researcher and former University professor Michael Mann might have manipulated data to apply for a University grant, said Brian Gottstein, the director of communications for Cuccinelli's office.
This is Cuccinelli's second attempt to obtain Mann's documents. The University has resisted the requests, and two earlier CIDs were rejected by Judge Paul Peatross, Jr.
The Office of the Attorney General argues that Mann may have committed fraud against taxpayers by publishing faulty research conducted through state-funded grants, while the University maintains that the most recent CID argues on the same grounds that Peatross already found insufficient. University filings also argue that Cuccinelli is targeting Mann because he disagrees with his academic research.
"I'm pleased that the University of Virginia has chosen to continue to stand up to Mr. Cuccinelli and his misguided witch hunt," said Mann, who is now a professor at Pennsylvania State University.
According to a press release from the attorney general's office, the new CID is narrower and includes new information that the judge requested. Cuccinelli is also appealing the ruling on the two original CIDs.
Meanwhile, Mann and the University are gathering support against Cuccinelli's efforts.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a Cambridge, Mass.-based group, released a press release Thursday declaring support for Mann and the University.
"Scientists are proud of U.Va. for standing up to this relentless rubbish," Francesca Grifo, director of UCS's Scientific Integrity Program, stated in the press release. "This investigation has never been about fraud or the facts. Cuccinelli is abusing his power to fight a public relations war against scientific findings."
The University has spent $350,000 fighting the litigation, with all attorneys' fees being paid out of private funds, University spokesperson Carol Wood said. The CID work, meanwhile, has all been in-house, Gottstein said, and total out-of-pocket expenses for the state are less than $1,000 so far.
According to the attorney general's office, the "hockey stick"-shaped graph of climate change referenced in Mann's research was based on suspect data, and the way Mann spliced data from different sources was potentially misleading, Gottstein said. The situation was no different, he said, from one in which a private vendor would submit false receipts for state reimbursement.
The attorney general's office would need to argue not only that Mann was wrong but that he was deliberately manipulating data to prove fraud.
"Using taxpayer dollars on a research project and ending up with bad data is just faulty research, not fraud," Gottstein said.
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