From my own mixed-up files

During the trial of Aimee Bock in the Feeding Our Future case I planned on writing a retrospective column once the jury returned with its verdict. That column turned out to be “Inside the nation’s largest Covid fraud” at the Washington Free Beacon.

In connection with the planned column I submitted questions to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on March 3 and posted them on Power Line here (Walz) and here (Ellison). Neither Walz nor Ellison responded to the questions.

However, on March 14, I received an email from Walz’s office directing me to “reach our press team” at another email address than the one to which I had submitted my questions. At the upper left of the message it includes a formal addressee block with my full name and home address that I did not include in my original email. So they received my questions on March 3 but wanted a second chance not to respond, which they took.

I nevertheless wondered about that formal address block. I hadn’t provided them my full name or home address with my emailed questions. I wondered if they have a file on me. In late March I submitted a Minnesota Data Practices Act (akin to the federal Freedom of Information Act) request for “all internal data that refer to me, specifically including data concerning the questions I submitted regarding the Feeding Our Future fraud by email earlier this month.”

This week I received Governor Walz’s response via Walz deputy general counsel Tovah Pentelovitch. Ms. Pentelovitch wrote me:

Mr. Johnson,

This is in response to your March 27, 2025 request. Attached please find the data responsive to your request. We do not have any not public data, therefore we do not need you to provide proof of your identity. Documents have been redacted or withheld pursuant to Minnesota Statutes §§ 13.393 and 13.43.

Our office has elected not to charge for costs related to this request, but we reserve the right to charge for future requests.

Sincerely,

Tovah Pentelovitch (she/her/hers)
Deputy General Counsel
Office of Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan
mn.gov/governor

Ms. Pentelovitch submitted the documents embedded below in response to my Data Practices Act request. The observant reader will note that she has returned my own questions to me a few times over. It was big of the Walz administration not to charge me for them. I thought some readers might find this of interest in a Laughter Is the Best Medicine sort of way.

I have followed up with Ms. Pentelovitch to point out that, given previous Data Practices Act requests I have submitted with somewhat greater effect than this one, I know this response is incomplete. She has since supplemented this response with the documents deriving from those previous requests. I remain in the dark about the Walz team’s file on me.

Scott Johnson – Responsive Data by Scott Johnson