By Declaration Staff
Oral arguments in our associate editor Dustin Slaughter’s suit to force release of DNC fundraising records are scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. in Room 426 of City Hall.
The state Office of Open Records ruled last month that the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development must release these records. The fundraising report are part of a $15 million “line-of-credit” deal between PAID, which is guaranteeing the credit line on behalf of taxpayers, and the DNC Host Committee.
The Host Committee has appealed the order to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, but the Declaration contends that the Host Committee has no legal right to file this appeal and that since PAID has never contested that these records are public, the court must order the release of these records.
We believe that the Host Committee’s legal maneuvers are simply a delaying tactic to prevent the release of records which the public has a right to access.
As Chapin Cimino, our associate editor’s attorney, wrote in court papers, “the moment for this discussion” about the DNC’s finances “is now – this story is about the convention, and the convention is now… Unlike other cases where the third parties seek to protect their confidential business plans from the marketplace of business, the Host Committee seeks to keep information – public records – out of the marketplace of ideas.”
View the most recent documents filed by our associate editor’s attorney below, as well as those of counsel for PAID and the DNC Host Committee.
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