Judge: Press Herald can't intervene in Cutler Files case
A federal judge is allowing some previously sealed documents surrounding the Cutler Files website to be made public within the next two weeks, but has put on hold the Portland Press Herald's request to intervene in the lawsuit.
The paper has requested to be an intervener in the lawsuit over the website that attacked 2010 gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler in order to expand public access to documents and information around the case. However, judge Margaret Kravchuk rejected its bid to intervene because she previously ruled that some documents would be made public. Kravchuk said the paper could become involved in the case later. Website co-creator Dennis Bailey was fined $200 last December for violating campaign laws by not disclosing who was behind the site, a move that led the Maine Civil Liberties Union to file a lawsuit on his behalf challenging the requirement that political speakers disclose their identities. The suit asks the court to overrule the commission's decision and revoke the fine. The case is making its way through the U.S. District Court.
Bailey and Thomas Rhoads, the site's other creator, have two weeks to object to Kravchuk's ruling that makes public some documents related to the investigation.
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