Gleick’s lawyer, John Keker [who defended former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow] : "Dr. Gleick looks forward to using discovery to understand more about the veracity of the documents..."

Climate scientist admits duping skeptic group to obtain documents - The Washington Post

Penn State University professor Michael E. Mann, one of the scientists whose e-mails were exposed in 2009, said in an interview “there isn’t a moral equivalence” between Gleick’s behavior and the climate-gate hackers because the people who took the East Anglia e-mails used them to “distract policymakers” from curbing the nation’s carbon output.

“These actions may very well have mortgaged the future of our children and grandchildren,” Mann said. “They never came forward to apologize.”

Mann is currently the subject of a lawsuit brought by Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli II (R) seeking to obtain e-mails Mann wrote while teaching at the University of Virginia between 1999 and 2005. The Virginia Supreme Court has heard arguments in the case, and is expected to issue a ruling soon.

Gleick’s lawyer, John Keker [who defended former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow] , suggested that any legal action by Heartland would become another front in the long-running climate battle.

“Dr. Gleick looks forward to using discovery to understand more about the veracity of the documents, lay bare the implications of Heartland’s propaganda plans and, in particular, determine once and for all who is truly behind Heartland and why,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Richard Lindzen, an atmospheric scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has questioned whether climate change will cause effects as severe as some predict, said he has been struck by “the viciousness” of his opponents. But Lindzen feels obligated to keep questioning what Gleick and others say about climate change impact “because they’re lies, it’s that simple. What would you do if people were truly misrepresenting things, and it has consequences for society?”