An Austin-based lobbyist has sued the group behind the secret videotaping of Capitol insiders in an attempt to compel it to reveal its major donors and other detailed financial information.
Steve Bresnen issued a statement saying he is suing the American Phoenix Foundation and its co-founder Joseph Basel alleging the group broke laws that require nonprofits to make financial documents available for public inspection.
“A nonprofit corporation is not a plaything for kids and political hacks,” Bresnen said. “The fact that Joe’s real business is as a political consultant violates every principle of journalistic ethics (he tells contributors that APF trains ‘journalists’) and raises the potential for conflicts of interest with the nonprofit’s authorized purpose.”
The group claims to have amassed more than 800 hours of footage of lobbyists and lawmakers secretly videotaped at popular Austin hangouts, such as the W Hotel. Describing itself as an initiative to train citizen journalists, the foundation said it would reveal its findings this summer, which it said included corruption and sexual misconduct.
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In his suit, Bresnen said he approached Basel and Wetmore at the Capitol and handed them a request to view the documents. Wetmore responded on June 5, saying the request was “delinquent and in error” and asking for copying fees.
He added that most of the requested documents – including federal Form 990 tax filings – were available online. In a statement to the Chronicle on Monday, Basel added, “he’s just going for a fishing expedition and abusing the legal process to harass our team. It reflects his profession: abusing the law and using privileged access to protect special interests.”
Bresnen has asked the court to compel Phoenix to provide access to the nonprofit’s books and records, including “the dates and amounts of APF’s contributions over $5,000 for the last three years.”
See here and here for some background. I don’t have anything to add here, I’m just going to enjoy the heck out of this. Please, oh please, let this at least get to the taking depositions stage.