MINNEAPOLIS _ U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison is petitioning the state Court of Appeals to keep his divorce file sealed until he and his former wife are given a chance to redact "confidential information" from the documents it contains.
The file is expected to be unsealed Wednesday, following a District Court order issued Friday by a Hennepin County Family Court referee. The petition filed Monday by Ellison, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate for attorney general, and his ex-wife, Kim Ellison, seeks to delay that order, arguing that it gave them no chance to protect "sensitive medical and financial information" before it becomes public.
Moreover, they argue, the referee is on vacation and unable to address their request to protect certain documents.
"If the Court of Appeals does not issue an immediate stay or writ of prohibition, Mr. and Ms. Ellison will be without a remedy to protect sensitive medical and financial information," the petition says.
A writ of prohibition is an extraordinary remedy used when a court is acting outside its authority or in an unauthorized manner, which the Ellisons did not demonstrate, the Star Tribune's response to the petition states. In the response filed Tuesday, the newspaper argues the contents of the divorce file is of significant public interest and the court should not delay its unsealing.
"In any event, their concerns are over-wrought," the response states, as a court administrator has been tasked with reviewing the file and withholding certain information, like financial source documents, that are protected from disclosure.
The motions follow allegations by Ellison's ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan, that he tried to drag her off a bed during an argument in 2016. He denies the allegations.
The referee had ruled in response to a legal effort to unseal the divorce file by the Star Tribune and Alpha News, a right-leaning news website. Divorce files are typically public, but courts will usually agree to seal them if both parties agree on it.
