Emails and documents obtained through an Open Records Act request show that Mayor Michael Coleman's spokesman, Michael Brown, coordinated a media strategy of stonewalling any public or non-establishment media requests on the matter, except for friendly "credible media" (meaning the Columbus Dispatch), and predetermining the outcome of their investigation even before law enforcement had fully investigated the matter. What makes this all the more incredible is that the Mayor's office wasn't even involved in the issue - it was a County Commission matter and a County Commission board the guy sat on (he was forced to resign because they discovered - only after my report - that he is not a US citizen, and therefore was not eligible according to Ohio law to be there in the first place). Mayor Coleman also appointed CAIR national vice chairman Ahmad Al-Akhras, a business partner to Abukar Arman and one of Mayor Coleman's closest advisors, to the City Community Relations Commission and several other government boards.

The County Public Information Director admits in an email exchange that she had established a "proactive media strategy of not responding", essentially stonewalling. A memo I posted with her handwriting shows her telling one of the county commissioners that she would not respond to an information request from one of our talk radio personalities. She even admits to trying to get the Columbus Dispatch off they story. This from someone who gets paid to provide information to the public. She sat on my Open Records request more than a week after she gave essentially the same information to a Dispatch reporter.