AG Lets Go of Lawyer Who OK’d Email Deletions

SEATTLE (AP) — Attorney General Bob Ferguson says a lawyer in his office who knew that the state's expert witnesses in a lawsuit over liability for the Oso landslide were deleting emails is no longer working for him.

Ferguson made the announcement Tuesday after a King County Superior Court judge announced sanctions against the state related to the email deletions. Spokesman Peter Lavallee says Mark Jobson was working as a contractor, and that when his contract expired on Sept. 30 it was not renewed "by mutual agreement."

Jobson did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Ferguson previously acknowledged that Jobson knew for the past year and a half that experts hired by the state to determine the cause of the 2014 slide were deleting emails among themselves. But the office insisted Jobson sincerely believed the emails did not need to be turned over to the plaintiffs and thus could be deleted.