That’s not a joke.
As a substitute, the governor’s workplace argued the information have been protected by “common-law privacy”—a authorized doctrine that, as some attorneys say, is normally reserved for private well being data or particulars about minors, not conversations between elected officers and billionaires with large enterprise pursuits within the state.
“Section 552.101 encompasses the doctrine of common-law privacy, which protects information that is (1) highly intimate or embarrassing, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person and (2) not of legitimate concern to the public,” Abbott’s public data coordinator, Matthew Taylor, wrote in a letter to the Texas lawyer normal’s workplace.
Then-President-elect Donald Trump listens to Elon Musk as he arrives to observe SpaceX’s rocket Starship raise off for a take a look at flight in Texas in November 2024.
Which may sound believable—if it didn’t additionally appear to be a dodge.
“Embarrassment” is an odd excuse for hiding messages between one of many nation’s strongest Republican governors and the world’s wealthiest man. Musk’s corporations are deeply concerned in state coverage, and Abbott has brazenly allied himself with Musk, selling him as a logo of Texas’s pro-business, anti-regulation stance.
As ProPublica notes, the privateness exemption cited by Abbott’s workplace is never used to dam information about high-profile authorities dealings. It’s normally invoked to cover issues like medical information, not secret communications between public officers and politically related billionaires.
That solely provides to the thriller.
Since then, Musk’s Texas operations have expanded. Tesla, SpaceX, and X are actually or will quickly be headquartered within the state. Voters lately accredited turning Starbase—SpaceX’s launch web site in South Texas—into an official city. And as Musk has moved additional proper politically, Abbott and different Texas leaders have stored paving the best way for his enterprise ventures.
