§ 140B.062.Disclosure and Use of Material and Information

The confidentiality rule, and it is written for a chapter with many investigating offices.

The demand itself, any information obtained, maintained, or created in response, and any documentary material, product of discovery, or other record derived or created during an investigation from it are not subject to disclosure under the Public Information Act and not subject to disclosure, discovery, subpoena, or other means of legal compulsion.

Two protections, not one. The public records exemption keeps the material from open records requests; the second clause keeps it from a litigant in unrelated proceedings who would otherwise subpoena it.

The demand itself being covered is the notable part — the existence of an investigation is confidential, not only its fruits.

Six exceptions follow: by court order for good cause shown; with the consent of the person who provided the information; to an employee or other person under the direction of the issuing office; to an agency of this state, the United States, or another state or foreign country; to a political subdivision of this state; and to a person authorized by the attorney general or local prosecutor to receive it.

The list is one shorter than the older chapter’s. That chapter needs a separate exception permitting disclosure to a local prosecutor under its notice and coordination sections; here local prosecutors are among the offices holding the material, so no exception is required.

The fourth and fifth exceptions are wide. Any state agency, any other state, any foreign country, and any political subdivision may receive the material, with no stated condition and no requirement that they keep it confidential in turn.

Which is why the trade secret designation the production sections require is worth taking seriously.

Use is treated separately from disclosure: the office may use the material as it determines necessary in the enforcement of this chapter, including presentation before court.