The Shumlin administration on Friday released some of the correspondence of Alex MacLean, a top aide who left the governor’s office at the end of 2012 and who went on to work for the developers of Jay Peak as a communications strategist, project manager and investor relations manager.
The newly released emails are all from the period right after MacLean left the administration. Most of the 58 pages of emails center on legislative action. Administration officials had previously described the emails as “transitory.”
Sarah London, general counsel for the administration, had requested that the emails be deleted as part of a larger purge of records in the governor’s office. London asked the state’s tech department on April 8 to delete “all archived email” for five people who worked in the governor’s office prior to January 2013.
The request was made to the Department of Information and Innovation on April 1, but the state archivist, who is in the process of collecting the governor’s records for posterity, was not notified until April 8.
Archivist Tanya Marshall was alarmed by the request and contacted Jim Condos, the secretary of state. London then stepped up calls for the deletion on April 8, a day after the Shumlin administration got word of the charges in the Jay Peak EB-5 case that would be filed on April 12.
The state archivist told the technology department the request was out of compliance with state law.
The Shumlin administration held a press briefing last Monday to explain that any emails relating to the Northeast Kingdom EB-5 projects were already on litigation hold and would not be released to the public. Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell reiterated in an interview that Shumlin administration correspondence with the Jay Peak developers would not be made available unless released by the courts through litigation.
On Friday evening, London released the MacLean emails not related to Jay Peak, not long after the House discussed a resolution introduced by Rep. Chris Pearson, P-Burlington, seeking to release the old emails. The House put off voting on the resolution until Tuesday.
MacLean served as Gov. Peter Shumlin’s campaign manager in 2010 and 2012, and as the secretary of civil and military affairs from 2011 to 2012. She announced her departure after the 2012 election. MacLean left the administration on Jan. 12, 2013, according to an email from Scott Coriell, a spokesman for Shumlin.
