Ellison’s deputy chief of staff and spokesman is John Stiles. Stiles handles media inquiries for Ellison. I sent two questions by email to Stiles yesterday. I asked how big an advance Ellison got on the book and whether he has committed to contribute the royalties to any charitable organizations. Stiles had no comment.

I also asked Stiles about the book’s quotation of United States District Judge Patrick Schiltz from a sealed transcript in the Blue Grand Jury investigation. Judge Schiltz was investigating the illegal leaks of grand jury information in the Chauvin case to the New York Times and the Star Tribune. He thought the leaks must have come from the state or federal prosecutors or members of their team with access to the leaked information.

Insofar as is relevant here, everything in the Blue Grand Jury investigation was sealed. Ellison nevertheless quotes Judge Schiltz at page 96 speaking at a hearing in the investigation. I separately wrote Stiles to ask how it is that Ellison thought he was free to quote from what must be a sealed court transcript.

[That should require an outside counsel investigation into misconduct by the Attorney General, especially considering his personal compensation from the book in which the quote appears. I doubt Tim Walz has the testicular fortitude to order one, however. Also, Scott has spent the past week doing a deep dive on Ellison’s new book, which only sold a few hundred copies in its first week despite high-profile publicity in the mainstream media. Peruse through Scott’s archives to see a number of issues with this book and its claims. — Ed]