I smell a rat and I'm not at all surprised.

Me thinks he dost protest too much. He no doubt thinks it's okay that the NSA, IRS--and now DOJ--are meddling in "other" people's business, not his. Even though there's cause, in his case. Oh, the hypocrisy.

A strange use of the word proprietary.
M.Mann is also in a case in British Columbia where the onus of proof may be the other way round.

" Subsequent research by Mann and others has replicated his general conclusions."
Actually the hockey stick is going out of fashion even by the center of alarmism, the UN IPCC, as it has been shown to be wrong. There is evidence that Mann selected the data and chose the statistical technique to fit the conclusion he wanted. What data did he have? How were selections made? Unlike the situation in proper science, all this base data is secret.

I am open to correction about U of Virginia, but Penn State is certainly a public institution. Public facilities, salaries, institutions - yet not subject to the freedom of information laws which would allow the public to benefit.