Dear John,

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has been stonewalling the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) for almost five years now to keep his extensive dealings with the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) secret from Ohio voters and the public.

But we’re not giving up!

Last week our attorneys appeared before the Ohio Supreme Court arguing in defense of an appellate court ruling granting us the right to depose Yost and force him to show records of his RAGA dealings to the court.

RAGA is a far-right, pay-to-play operation backed by the likes of Koch Industries and Leonard Leo that sells Big Oil and scores of other powerful corporations access to the Republicans who serve as the highest law enforcement officers in their states.

Yost has made the blanket claim that everything RAGA-related is “unofficial business” and therefore exempt from public scrutiny, despite the organization’s role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the multi-state litigation it has coordinated to fight everything from climate regulations to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 

In his oral argument last week, CMD’s attorney Jeff Vardaro told the Supreme Court justices that giving Yost the power to determine that “entire categories of what should be public records are not public” and “refuse to testify about what the records were about” would “take the [Ohio] Sunshine Act and turn it into a black box.” 

The problem isn’t just in Ohio. Ever since the New York Times’ 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation exposed the way RAGA works, RAGA and red state AGs across the country have systematically hidden the influence operation behind an online members-only portal, private emails, and sweeping exemption claims.

That’s why, for the past decade, CMD has fought in the courts to expose RAGA’s influence peddling. In 2017 we won the release of thousands of pages of RAGA-related information about Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt’s dealing with the oil and gas industry when he was nominated by Trump to head the Environmental Protection Agency. And when former Wisconsin AG Brad Schimel refused to make public his efforts to overturn the ACA, we won a consent agreement confirming that private emails and RAGA’s online portal are subject to the state’s Open Records Law.

Now, five years into our Ohio fight, Yost is hinting at a run for governor — while still trying to keep his activities as attorney general in the shadows. Last week’s Today in Ohio podcast questioned why the AG has been working so hard to keep these records secret and predicted that the case will likely follow him into his gubernatorial campaign.

Regardless of the outcome in Ohio, with your help CMD will remain in this fight for the long haul.

In this era of concentrated wealth and power, Sunshine Laws are an essential tool for exposing influence and corruption.

We cannot allow public officials to use legal parlor tricks to hide their dealings with powerful special interests from the public when there’s so much at stake, from our rights and protections to the air we breathe and the water we drink.  

Thank you for all that you do,

Team CMD

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