Attorney General Anthony Brown blocks A Miner Detail from PIA requests for “law letters” signed by Sheriff Charles Jenkins.
On April 5th, 2023, Sheriff Charles Jenkins was indicted for fraud and conspiracy related to the illegal acquisition of machine guns.
On that same day, A Miner Detail submitted a PIA request for “any and all documents with FCSO letterhead which contain the word ‘machine gun’ which were created between August 2015 and May 2022.”
Exactly one month later (the maximum allowed time to respond), Sheriff Charles Jenkins denied the PIA request.
A Miner Detail has appealed this denial all the way to the Public Information Act Compliance Board.
Attorney General Anthony Brown Public Statements
Attorney General Anthony Brown has commented publicly on Jenkins’ indictment to Fox 5.
During the interview, Brown indicates that the General Assembly will be giving themselves the ability to impeach an elected Sheriff.
Despite the appeal, Attorney General Anthony Brown still insists that the records not be disclosed.
The State’s Plea to the PIACB
His employee, Kirstin Lustilla, filed this response to the PIACB.
It is worth noting that Ms. Lustilla also defended Chuck Jenkins from the lawsuit filed by retired Sergeant Amanda Ensor.
The justification from Attorney General Anthony Brown is barely comprehensible.
Instead of addressing the actual FCSO memorandums requesting a demonstration of a machine gun, the AG continuously discusses an ATF database that has nothing to do with the initial request.
A Miner Detail also filed a response, which you can read here.
We took the approach of using Sheriff Chuck Jenkins’ own court filings against the Frederick County Sheriff Office.
Why we Requested the Records
Something does not add up about the Krop/Jenkins indictments for machine gun trafficking.
Based on the PIA response and motions filed in court, Jenkins signed off on 9 FCSO memorandums for FFLs to obtain machine guns for demonstration purposes.
In recent filings, Jenkins pled ignorance on the issue, stating that he was unaware that a demonstration actually had to occur or of any other laws surrounding machine guns.
Who else, besides The Machine Gun Nest, obtained machine guns and did not have a demonstration?
Why were those other FFLs not indicted?
Commentary
Sometimes politics makes for strange bedfellows.
In this case, Attorney General Anthony Brown does not want the public to access government records.
It does not matter that those public records have led to Sheriff Chuck Jenkins’ indictment.
No matter the party, Democrat or Republican, always count on the government to block every public record request possible.
A Miner Detail did reach out to Attorney General Anthony Brown’s office for comment on July 3rd. They did not send a response.
