© Santiago Covarrubias/Sun-TimesIn a surprise reversal that ends a marathon legal battle, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has agreed to release a virtual “treasure trove” of his private emails and ban city employees from using their private emails to conduct city business.
After fighting in court to keep his private email accounts completely concealed from public view, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday released a trove of messages from throughout his nearly six years in office and announced a new city ban on using private email to conduct official business.
The records released by his administration showed Emanuel has frequently used a private Gmail account and another personal, unofficial email address — mayor_re@rahmemail.com — to communicate with top aides, business leaders, political supporters, national media figures and others who wanted to discuss city government with him.
Emanuel's reversal followed more than a year of litigation to stonewall Freedom of Information requests filed by the Better Government Association and the
Chicago Tribune. The lengthy legal battle was contrary to Emanuel's campaign promise to shine the light on city government and run a transparent administration.
The end of the BGA's lawsuit followed two Cook County court rulings against the Emanuel administration, with judges finding the emails of public officials are not exempt from disclosure under the state open records law simply because they are on a private email account.
"This is a major victory in the fight for transparency at City Hall," said BGA President and CEO Andy Shaw, comparing Emanuel's actions in evading scrutiny until now to those of Hillary Clinton and other government officials around the country.
Comment: See also: Edward Bernays: Developer of modern mind control & propagandist for the ruling elite