Lawyers for a former Utah attorney general are asking a judge to dismiss an influence-peddling case against him, arguing prosecutors wrongly obtained thousands of protected emails between John Swallow and his former lawyer.
Attorney Scott Williams argued Wednesday that Swallow can't get a fair trial because defense strategy emails were included in evidence turned over to prosecutors during the investigation.
Prosecutor Chou Chou Collins acknowledged some emails inadvertently made it through investigators' filtering process, but she insisted prosecutors never saw any privileged messages so it couldn't affect his trial.
Swallow is facing 13 charges of bribery, evidence tampering and other crimes.
Swallow and his predecessor Mark Shurtleff both face pay-to-play charges after prosecutors say they accepted money and gifts like spa vacations from businessmen seeking legal protections from regulators.
Both men have any denied wrongdoing.