* From WMAY…

A judge has ordered Governor Bruce Rauner to cooperate with an investigation into whether he and top staffers conducted state business on private emails.

WMAY’s watchdog partner, the Better Government Association, has been pushing to see emails between Rauner and top communications staffers on how to deal with media inquiries.

Actually, no. The BGA originally FOIA’d all e-mails sent to or by Gov. Rauner and communications guys Lance Trover and Mike Schrimpf from January 12-19, 2015. That includes, by definition, e-mails that reporters sent to Trover and Schrimpf along with the replies.

The governor’s office found over 3,500 e-mails and asked the BGA to narrow the scope of its request. The BGA narrowed it to January 13, 2015 - the day after Rauner was inaugurated.

* So, what the heck is going on here? From the BGA…

A Cook County judge Monday opened the door to examining whether Gov. Bruce Rauner and top officials in his administration used personal email to conduct public business.

Acting on a lawsuit filed by the Better Government Association, Circuit Court Judge Kathleen M. Pantle ordered the governor’s office to cooperate with the watchdog group in determining whether emails discussing government business could be found on personal email accounts of Rauner and two top aides.

The BGA lawsuit, filed in July 2015, seeks business related emails sent on selected days during Rauner’s first month in office to or from the governor, his then Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Mike Schrimpf and Communications Director Lance Trover. […]

In her ruling, Pantle said she will personally review the disputed emails to determine whether they should become public.

What’s more, her order requires the governor’s office and the BGA to “engage in discovery” on whether emails on personal accounts of the three involved discussions of public business. That decision came in response to an argument from the BGA questioning the thoroughness of a search for emails that did not include personal accounts used to transact public business.

So, apparently they’re trying to figure out whether Rauner and some people in the governor’s office are sending government-related e-mails on private e-mail accounts.

I gotta admit it will be interesting to see what they dig up on Rauner because he supposedly doesn’t do e-mail any longer and has no state e-mail account.

But the target date of that FOIA is, as mentioned above, the day after the swearing in. I imagine people still didn’t have fully functioning offices yet. Whatever they find might not mean much.

I checked my in-box and I can’t find a single government-related e-mail from Trover or Schrimpf that was sent from their personal G-Mail accounts. All the government-related e-mails I’ve received have been from their state accounts.

* In the meantime, does this mean that the BGA wants to gain access to off the record exchanges between the governor’s office and reporters? The governor’s people say that’s one reason why they’re resisting the FOIA. I asked Andy Shaw, and he sent me to his group’s attorney Matt Topic, who e-mailed me a few hours later…

We aren’t aware of that being an issue in our suit one way or the other, but I’m not aware of any legal basis under FOIA to withhold off-the-record statements in emails by government officials simply on that basis, regardless of what account was used.

So, in other words, if I ask a question off the record and/or receive an off the record response, that’s FOIA-able.

I don’t think I love that idea.

…Adding… I think some may be unclear on this. If I send an off the record question or whatever to someone’s private e-mail account, is that really fair game for FOIA? I haven’t done so with Trover, but seriously? You should be able to access that correspondence, too?

…Adding More…  I really think off the record reporter conversations are (or should be) exempted from FOIA. From the exemption list..

Business trade secrets or commercial or financial information that is proprietary, privileged or confidential and disclosure would cause a competitive harm to the person or business.

So, I truly don’t see how anyone can think that confidential, off the record conversations which could put commercial media outlets at a competitive disadvantage are FOIA-able.