Governor’s office forced to reveal why it spent $368K on private law firms

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HARRISBURG — An ethics investigation. Federal and state grand jury probes. Advice on taxes.

These are the reasons the administration of former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf spent tens of thousands of public dollars to hire private law firms — information that both Wolf’s office and, for the past two years, top lawyers for Gov. Josh Shapiro have furiously fought to keep secret.

The information was turned over to Spotlight PA late last month as part of a long-running court dispute over redactions the governor’s office had made to legal bills paid with taxpayer money. In response to a public records request, the office originally released documents that showed which firms it hired and how much those firms charged, but it blacked out the reasons the private law firms were hired.

The unredacted records show top lawyers in the Wolf administration hired two firms to represent high-ranking administration officials, including two of the governor’s chiefs of staff, as well unnamed witnesses in various state and federal investigations.

Another private law firm was hired to provide representation in an investigation launched by the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission into the actions of a high-ranking Wolf aide.

The governor’s office had argued the information was privileged, but Spotlight PA appealed the redactions to a state appellate court, which sided with the news organization.

Shapiro spokesperson Manuel Bonder said in a statement Tuesday that the administration had asserted protections from disclosure that have a long legal precedent.

“We are pleased that the Court has clarified the limits of these privileges and requirements, and as a result, ensured the Commonwealth can provide this material without running afoul of any such requirements,” Bonder continued.

Spotlight PA, together with LNP | LancasterOnline, first requested the information in January 2022, when Wolf was still governor. The public records request was filed with Wolf’s Office of General Counsel, which handles legal matters involving the governor’s office and state agencies.

The news organizations asked for invoices and other financial documents for spending on outside law firms from 2019 through 2021.

In response, the general counsel’s office provided copies of 45 invoices submitted by six outside firms that totaled $367,538.

In every invoice, officials redacted the subject line, making it impossible to know why they were spending taxpayer money to hire the firms. They also blacked out other portions that provided details on the work conducted by the private lawyers.

The general counsel’s office, first under Wolf and later under Shapiro, argued the information was exempt from disclosure due to, among other things, attorney-client privilege. The news organizations appealed, first to the Office of Open Records — an independent state agency — and later to Commonwealth Court, where they were represented by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

A three-judge panel on the court last year sided with the news organizations and directed the governor’s office to unredact subject lines in multiple invoices. After reviewing in private several of the redacted invoices, the judges concluded the information in the subject matter lines of those records was not protected from disclosure. The panel also instructed the Office of Open Records to review other invoices requested by the news organizations to determine whether those too had to be disclosed.

Last month, the Shapiro administration provided 105 pages of invoices with the subject lines unredacted. While the new records provide details about why the private firms were hired, they still leave many questions unanswered.

One law firm, Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel, provided representation in 2018 for “Katie McGinty as witness in a state grand jury investigation,” the unredacted invoice says. The invoice does not specify what the state grand jury was investigating.

McGinty was Wolf’s chief of staff for the first six months of his administration in 2015, later resigning to unsuccessfully run for the U.S. Senate. She could not be reached for comment. Obermayer officials did not respond to emails seeking comment.

In 2018 and again in 2021, Obermayer also represented unnamed witnesses in a federal investigation, both in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the unredacted invoices show. It is not known whether those were the same or two separate investigations, nor could Spotlight PA determine the exact nature of those probes.

At least one federal probe was unfolding during that period. In late-2019, the Associated Press reported the FBI was investigating how Wolf’s administration had come to issue permits for construction of a massive pipeline to carry natural gas liquids across Pennsylvania. At the time, the bureau had interviewed several former and current state employees.

No charges were filed.

Obermayer in 2019 also provided legal counsel in a state ethics investigation involving Wolf’s onetime deputy chief of staff, Yesenia Bane. The commission investigated allegations that Bane, who oversaw issues involving the Department of Environmental Protection, used her position to benefit her husband, a gas industry lobbyist, or his clients.

The commission ultimately found there was insufficient evidence to charge her with violating the state ethics act.

Also starting in 2019, another law firm, Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg, was hired to represent Wolf’s chief of staff, Mary Isenhour, in an unspecified grand jury investigation. One source with knowledge of the matter said Isenhour was not summoned to testify before a grand jury panel.

Another firm, the unredacted records show, was hired to provide advice from 2019 to 2021 “in the matter of Department of Justice.” Again, the invoices do not specify the federal matter.

Perhaps the most surprising redaction was one involving the administration’s hiring of Blank Rome in 2018 — surprising for the comparatively mundane reason for contracting with the private law firm.

The reason, according to the unredacted invoice: tax advice.

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