For the third time in eight days, Mayor Brandon Scott and his law department have filed an emergency motion to the Maryland Appellate Court seeking to block full access to city records by the city inspector general’s office.

Despite having lost its first two appeals before the high court, the city last night filed an “Emergency Motion for Protective Order” to bar Baltimore IG Isabel Mercedes Cumming and her staff from accessing records containing potential attorney-client or work-product material associated with the IG case.

Separately, the city was hit on Monday with a contempt of court motion by Cumming’s lawyers.

The city has not yet legally responded to the contempt motion, but in a statement on X on Monday, Scott stated, “As we have said all along, we will always follow the law. But let’s be clear about what’s happening here. This is showmanship, not integrity.”

UPDATE: The city has hired Baltimore attorney William H. “Billy” Murphy Jr. to represent the mayor and City Council in the contempt proceeding.

The city’s new motion to “protect” attorney-client information comes at the same time the city has reportedly restored database and server access to the watchdog agency, but is still in the process of responding to over 60 subpoena requests for information.

The motion appears aimed at taking away the access the Scott administration claims it has given the OIG under a new claim that it is technologically impossible to “wall off” or separate out privileged attorney communications and work product.

On September 21, Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Pamela J. White ordered full restoration of database access  that the city had blocked since January after Cumming’s office began investigating a Scott youth diversion program as well as a senior administration official.

Cumming’s lawyers, who filed a lawsuit last February saying the city is thwarting the IG’s mission to root out waste, financial fraud and corruption in city government, have objected to the latest appeal by saying “there is nothing to protect.”

“As noted by the Appellate Court,” her lawyers wrote last night, “Judge White’s order bars the inspector general from disclosing any privileged or confidential information.”

What’s more, the OIG’s own rules prohibit public disclosure of privileged attorney information – in fact, all investigations conducted by the watchdog are “internal” and submitted to the mayor’s office.

• For The Brew’s full coverage of the dispute.

Key information, such as the identification of personnel under investigation, is not disclosed in the abbreviated “public synopsis” available to the public and media.

A synopsis report by the OIG in March, however, revealed that the SideStep youth program administered by the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Engagement and Safety (MONSE) had committed a major data breach and submitted fraudulent invoices.

Responding to the latest motion, Cumming’s lawyers said the Scott administration, “unable to prevail on the record, now attempts to manufacture new (and disputed) factual issues never raised or decided.”

“The [new] motion rests entirely on a new affidavit asserting a purported technological inability to ‘wall off’ privileged files and a supposed inability to detect the OIG’s access – assertions the City never presented to the circuit court and that the OIG did not have an opportunity to rebut,” they asserted.

Following the Appellate Court’s dismissal of the city’s second appeal, Cumming’s office asked Judge White on Monday to hold Scott and the City Council in contempt for failure to comply with her order to restore online access to the OIG.

In a statement to The Brew last night, the mayor’s office said that “we are still working with the Office of Inspector General to ensure all access and permissions are functioning as needed.”

Reportedly, access has been restored. The mayor’s office has not responded today to questions about the online status.

Cumming declined to address the issue, citing ongoing litigation.