"The records should be ready and released to you by early next week," officials eventually told Gallo on Jan. 22, a few days after she reported the criminal division head of the Louisiana Attorney General's office had his pay docked for participating in "inappropriate" conversations.

Then the attorney general's office came back with new arguments — and a lawsuit.

"You have demanded information which will compromise the rights of our employees and could lead to litigation over the violation of those rights," staff for Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) wrote Friday in a letter to Gallo, a 28-year-old reporter at the Advocate and the Times-Picayune.

The letter added: "Allegations of sexual harassment that turn out to be unsupported, inaccurate and unfounded can destroy marriages, damage employee's children, wreck families and ruin reputations."