scrutiny, and allegations of scientific malpractice. An investigation by Pennsylvania State University determined on 3 February 2010 that there was no evidence of misconduct by Mann. In January 2010, Ken Cuccinelli took office as Virginia's elected Attorney General. He is a conservative Republican party politician who alleges that the evidence of global warming has been skewed by scientists. The following month he filed suit seeking to overturn a finding of the United States Environmental Protection Agency that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. Civil Investigative Demand Cuccinelli's office served a formal Civil Investigative Demand (CID) on the University of Virginia on 23 April 2010, requiring the university to produce information and documentary materials by 27 May 2010. The civil investigative demand was equivalent to a subpoena but did not require the Attorney General to file a lawsuit or to obtain the intervention or permission of a court so that he could make the demand. The CID referred to an investigation by the Attorney General into "possible violations" by Mann of the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (FATA). Information required related to Mann having sought grants funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and any data or communications Mann had made in connection with five named grants for scientific research. The university was instructed to produce documents dating from January 1999 to the present, including all emailed or written correspondence from, to or relating to Mann and 39 named climate scientists as well as research assistants, secretaries and administrative staff, anything connected with applications for the grants or payment of the grants, and all "documents, drafts, things or data" generated in carrying out the grant assisted research. They also required all "computer algorithms, programs, source code or the like" created or edited by Mann and stored by the university. Where documents were no longer held by the university, the CID required details of who had destroyed or removed them, and their authority for doing so. On May 4 Cuccinelli described the request as part of an "open inquiry" into whether Mann had made "knowing inconsistencies" when applying for research funding. Cuccinelli said, "In light of the Climategate e-mails, there does seem to at least be an argument to be made that a course was undertaken by some of the individuals involved, including potentially Michael Mann, where they were steering a course to reach a conclusion". He added, "Our act, frankly, just