Facing criminal investigations, Cylvia Hayes asserts Fifth Amendment rights in hopes of keeping emails private

Cylvia Hayes is asserting her constitutional right against self-incrimination in an attempt to block the release of work-relatedemails she sent from her personal accounts.

Hayes asserted that right in a lawsuit filed Thursday against The Oregonian/OregonLive in Marion County Circuit Court. She has been under a state order to turn the emails over to the news organization.

That order is one of the several legal fronts on which Hayes and her fiance, former Gov. John Kitzhaber, are battling. The couple is the target of a joint investigation by the FBI and the IRS, which have sought records from 11 state agencies and organizations, and a separate state criminal investigation.

The lawsuit is the only legal remedy open to Hayes to escape complying with Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum's order that she turn over the emails.

The Oregonian/OregonLive first requested that Kitzhaber's office provide Hayes' state-related emails as questions arose last October about her consulting work and her roles as first lady and as a volunteer policy adviser to Kitzhaber. His staff repeatedly said it was working on complying with the request, but said in January it had no access to Hayes' records.

Rosenblum subsequently granted a petition from the news organization that she order Hayes to provide the records. Rosenblum ruled Feb.12 that Hayes was a public official subject to the Oregon Public Records Law.

As first lady and a volunteer policy adviser, Hayes regularly communicated with state employees and agency leaders through two personal email accounts and one from her Bend-based consulting business, 3E Strategies. In court filings she said she wasn't issued a state email account because she wasn't an employee.

Hayes and her attorney, Whitney Boise, argued in the lawsuit the same point they had made with Rosenblum - that Hayes is not subject to the state public records law because she is not a public official.

Rosenblum concluded otherwise, writing that she was persuaded that the former first lady earned public official status from her "extensive, high-level involvement in the executive branch of Oregon's state government."

The order noted that Hayes had said she asked for a state email but was ineligible without employee status.

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Facing criminal investigations, Cylvia Hayes asserts Fifth Amendment rights in hopes of keeping emails private