Dick Thornburgh, former United States Attorney General and Pennsylvania governor, released a statement today calling on the Penn State Board of Trustees to have a "public review" of both the Freeh Report and the Paterno Report, for which he was a contributing investigator.
The Paterno report was an investigation that was independently commissioned by the Paterno family in response to the Freeh report.
The statement, which can be found on paterno.com, is a response to Board of Trustees member Kenneth Frazier’s strong support of the Freeh report at Thursday’s Legal and Compliance committee meeting. Thornburgh also called on the board to make public all files and records associated with the Freeh report to "make it easier for everyone to judge the accuracy and thoroughness of his work."
“That some members of the Board of Trustees want to reject our report out of hand, without the benefit of a review or discussion is unfortunate," Thornburgh said in the statement. "We believe the better course would be for the Board to have a public review of both reports. I personally would welcome a chance to discuss these issues with the Board.”
During a meeting of the board Thursday, Frazier said the report contained information that was as thoroughly investigated as possible, given the allotted time frame, as previously reported by the Collegian.
“It is crystal clear that we as a board cannot and should not reinvestigate the Freeh investigation,” Frazier said.
Thornburgh’s statement also comes on the heels of a statement released Wednesday on paterno.com by Scott Paterno on behalf of the Paterno family, which was also a direct response to Frazier’s remarks at the Legal and Compliance committee meeting.
“Mr. Frazier is certainly welcome to his personal opinion, but in his capacity as a member of the Board of Trustees, he should be more concerned with finding the full truth than with defending a clearly flawed report,” Paterno said in his statement.
Paterno also defended the independence of the Paterno report and the contributing investigators.
“To question their independence is to question their integrity,” Paterno wrote.
McGinn and Company, the firm handling media contacts for paterno.com did not immediately respond for comment.
