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Missouri’s attorney general, a former law professor at the University of Missouri, plays a starring role in a new legal filing in in Cole County Circuit Court accusing Gov. Eric Greitens of violating state Sunshine and records retention laws.

But it’s likely not a role Hawley relishes.

A couple of weeks ago, Hawley’s office completed into the same topic. At issue is the use of the mobile phone app Confide on the governor’s phone, and those of his top staff members. The five-page document is not so much an investigative report but a legal brushoff that sends a signal that Hawley is too busy running for the U.S. Senate to stand up to his fellow Republican.

As a sign of how proud Hawley was of his Confide investigation, it can’t be found anywhere on his website. He didn’t issue a news release with breathless quotes about how he was standing up for the people, like he does after most investigations.

But at least one person found some legal value in Hawley’s report.

Mark Pedroli.

The Clayton attorney is the one who filed the lawsuit on the governor’s use of Confide on behalf of his clients, the Sunshine Project and fellow Clayton lawyer Ben Sansone. On Wednesday, Pedroli used Hawley’s work to help build his case against the governor.

“On March 1, 2018, the Attorney General released a report regarding an inquiry into the use of Confide by staff of the Governor’s office. The inquiry was limited to the governor’s staff and doesn’t purport to be an investigation of Defendant Governor,� Pedroli writes in an amended petition to his lawsuit.

“Defendant Governor refused to be interviewed by the Attorney General’s office. Defendant Governor’s staff asserted ‘executive privilege,’ therefore, the staff refused to answer any questions about the communications they destroyed with the governor. Notwithstanding all these limitations and testimonial restrictions, imposed by the party being investigated no less, five ‘high level staff members’ inside the Office of Governor admitted using Confide to destroy communications relating to public business. The Office of Governor’s admission goes to the heart of this case. Defendants can no longer argue that this lawsuit is based purely on speculative news reports. The Office of Governor’s admissions, at minimum, create genuine issues of material fact that will preclude defendants from summary judgment.�

The new petition is sort of an extended thank you note to the attorney general.

Thank you, Pedroli says, for making his case.

“I’m ambivalent about the attorney general’s inquiry,� Pedroli said in an interview.

“On the one hand, it’s absurd to suggest the AG can reach a legal conclusion after the governor refuses an interview and the staff asserts executive privilege. On the other hand, the governor’s staff admitted destroying communications about ‘public business,’ the Sunshine law standard. This was obvious to the rest of us, but now it rises to the level of legal admission. If high level staff members of the governor are willing to admit this in an informal interview, imagine what they’re going to admit when they’re under oath knowing other members of the office of governor are also testifying under oath after them.�

At the last court hearing in the case, attorneys for Greitens asserted that there was no evidence — short of a December — that the governor’s office was actually using Confide.

Now there is a document from the attorney general, no less, that says not only were the governor and his staffers using the text-destroying app, but also that they were using it for public business.

The admissions allow a whole new line of questioning for Pedroli, opening up everybody who had an interview with Hawley for a deposition in which they will have to answer questions about who they spoke to and what they discussed while using the Confide app.

Pedroli says the “executive privilege� asserted by Greitens and accepted by Hawley doesn’t exist in Missouri law. The governor is supposed to respond to a series of written questions due next week, under oath, Pedroli says. After that, he expects to seek Greitens’ deposition.

Unlike Hawley, he expects to get the governor to answer his questions, and the attorney general’s shoddy legal analysis might be all the leverage Pedroli needs.