This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Indicted St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson is asking a federal judge for an emergency order to keep prosecutors from reviewing communications with his attorneys that have recently surfaced after four years of proceedings in the criminal case.

Johnson filed the request for a protective order himself, saying his court-appointed attorney, Rebecca Skordas, had declined to do so. Skordas did not return an email seeking comment.

Johnson's motion and other documents say an FBI computer-evidence expert recently made a new copy of an I Works computer server. Defense attorneys say the contents should have contained several years' worth of missing emails. But the new copy, unlike those previously provided, contained instant messages and recorded phone calls — data Johnson's motion says are private communications with attorneys. 

He is seeking an order to bar the prosecution team from accessing the new evidence until the private attorney-client communications have been removed.

In a separate motion filed Friday, Skordas said the new copy of the server still lacks the missing emails involving Johnson and others from I Works. That evidence could be crucial for their cases at a trial scheduled to begin in February.

"At this juncture, it is clear the government is unable to produce the missing data," Skordas wrote.

Federal prosecutors have said the emails were available in another database provided to the defense. But Skordas said the mailboxes of at least six people related to the criminal case are also missing from that database.