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To my knowledge, The Salt Lake Tribune never has been accused of trying to unduly influence a judge. Until last week.

The backstory: Reporter Robert Gehrke appeared Thursday before the state Records Committee, advocating for the Utah Attorney General's Office to release documents regarding investigations of San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman.

Last summer, Gehrke filed an open-records request with the A.G., which the office denied in October, taking much longer than the 10 business days mandated by state law. Nor did the A.G. cite a reason for the denial, also required by law.

In essence, the attorney general's office said: We won't provide the records, and we can't say why. The A.G. argued that the law allows such a nonresponse to "protect the reputation of an individual."

Assistant Attorney General Blaine Ferguson took things a step further Thursday, saying that there might not have been any investigation, and therefore perhaps no records exist.

That begs the question: What was everyone doing there Thursday? It is not uncommon for a government agency to deny a records petition on grounds that there are no documents fitting the parameters of a request. So why appear before the Records Committee if there are no records?

Ferguson made an extraordinary motion, asking to defend his office's rejection of Gehrke's request in a private hearing involving only himself and the committee. That's never happened before, and there is no provision in the Government Records Access and Management Act that allows for secret hearings. The whole point of GRAMA is to have a transparent process for the public to gain access to government information.

When it came time for Lyman's attorney Julia Kyte to speak, the proceedings took a turn even more surreal and troubling.

Kyte said that The Tribune was motivated to seek Thursday's hearing in an effort to influence U.S. District Judge David Nuffer, who this week will sentence Lyman in an unrelated case: Two misdemeanor convictions for leading a protest ATV ride in Recapture Canyon, an area closed to motorized use by the Bureau of Land Management to protect American Indian archaeological sites and riparian areas.

Said Kyte, "We do believe, unfortunately, that certain reporters of The Tribune are seeking negative information about Mr. Lyman to effect a harsher sentence."

I agree with her on one point. Yes, it is unfortunate that she believes that, even more so that she would articulate such a theory.

Our records request was made six months before Lyman's Dec. 18 sentencing date. If Kyte's point is that we plotted this story to break a week before sentencing, well, that's absurd. We had little to no control over when our records request would become news. We assumed we would have received the records days after we asked for them, in late July, and determined at that time whether there was a story here.

The Tribune inquiry was based in part on allegations made by former San Juan County Assessor Howard Randall that Lyman used his commission office to lessen tax assessments for himself and clients of his accounting practice — one county official accusing another of malfeasance. That's the sort of thing reporters check out on a daily basis. That's what we do and what readers expect us to do. Randall says Utah attorney general investigators met with him in 2013 to discuss the case.

As for influencing a federal judge, well, we think what we do is important, and we hope our reporting has impact. But even our sense of self-importance has limits. This might come as a surprise to Kyte and others, but we also have a pretty healthy notion of right and wrong.

I can't speak for Judge Nuffer, but I imagine he could say a few things about Kyte's assertion.

Gehrke prevailed Thursday as the Records Committee voted unanimously to deny Ferguson his secret meeting and ruling that the attorney general's office must turn over any investigative documents it has regarding Lyman vis–à–vis Randall's allegations.

But the A.G. can take the argument to state court. We'll know within 30 days whether the fight goes on.

And this week Lyman will receive his sentence in the Recapture Canyon matter. The Tribune's role? To report what happens.

Terry Orme is editor and publisher. Email him at orme@sltrib.com.