The FBI says it has given state prosecutors all relevant documents from its investigation of former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff — and even if it hasn't, the Constitution likely bars a state judge from ordering it to turn over more.
The agency made those contentions in court papers filed late Friday in 3rd District Court, opposing a request from Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings. In August, Rawlings asked a state judge to force the federal government to share additional evidence from a probe by the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section. The section's investigation was shuttered in September 2013.
Oral arguments on Rawlings' request are set for Dec. 1.
Shurtleff, who was Utah's attorney general for 12 years, pleaded not guilty in June to five felony and two misdemeanor charges, including counts of accepting prohibited gifts, obstructing justice, extortion or bribery to dismiss a criminal proceeding, and misconduct. A trial is set for May 2016.
Rawlings believes federal prosecutors, who declined to bring their own charges against Shurtleff, may have information that could help him convict the 58-year-old former GOP officeholder.
Shurtleff's attorneys have joined Rawlings' request.
"We have strong reason to believe that the information Mr. Rawlings is seeking from various agencies of the federal government would provide exculpatory evidence related to Mr. Shurtleff," defense attorney Richard Van Wagoner told The Salt Lake Tribune on Saturday.
Federal attorneys say they've already provided "hundreds of thousands of pages of documents (or their electronic equivalent)" to Rawlings.
If he wants more, they contend, federal regulations require him to explain the relevance of the material so the FBI can determine whether the law allows its release. "The state has not yet provided" such an explanation, they say in court documents.
Without it, federal prosecutors contend, the state court has no authority to order the release of additional information — that would be barred under the Constitution's Supremacy Clause and the principle of sovereign immunity.
Rawlings has twice asked the government for more documents from a range of federal agencies, including the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and Utah's office of the US. Attorney, which recused itself from the document dispute. The U.S. Attorney of Colorado is representing the federal government in the case.
Federal attorneys don't disclose the specifics of the requests, other than saying they include "very broad and very general" requests for information and/or material files on about two dozen individuals or entities, and demands for information that originate with Shurtleff's attorneys.
Rawlings has two weeks to respond, but on Saturday said in an email to The Tribune that the government's filing asks 3rd District Judge Elizabeth Hruby-Mills to consider the issue through a "single, narrow" paradigm that is incomplete.
He also called on federal prosecutors to agree to ask a federal judge to unseal a September 2013 court order related to the Shurtleff investigation, to provide additional information to Hruby-Mills.
Rawlings said he can't detail the contents of the sealed order, but his court motion suggests it addresses the information-sharing issues that the state court has been asked to decide.
jdobner@sltrib.com