LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s office refused Thursday to release documents about his relationship with a Hot Springs woman, saying they are exempt from disclosure under the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

The attorney general’s office also declined to release telephone records Thursday, saying they are “working papers” that can be withheld.

McDaniel has not spoken with the media since he announced Tuesday that he had a relationship with lawyer Andrea Davis in 2011. He married his second wife, Bobbi McDaniel, in 2009.

He has no public events scheduled until after Christmas. He’s letting spokesmen answer questions about the ramifications of his actions.

A campaign spokesman for McDaniel has said McDaniel still plans to run for governor in 2014. She would provide no new details about the relationship Thursday.

Since Davis and McDaniel met in 2010, Davis has represented clients in five cases when the attorney general’s office represented the state,attorney general’s office spokesman Aaron Sadler said.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette had requested all correspondence between, or about, McDaniel, Davis or her ex-husband, Dr. Frederick N. Day III. The newspaper also requested McDaniel’s phone records since the relationship began.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Brad Phillips cited what is called the working papers exemption in denying both requests.

Arkansas Code Annotated 25-19-105(b)(7) states that “unpublished memoranda, working papers, and correspondence of the Governor, members of the General Assembly, Supreme Court Justices, Court of Appeals Judges, and the Attorney General” are exempt from disclosure to the public.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock mass communications professor Bruce Plopper said his interpretation of the law is that only the items listed in the statute are exempt.

“I do not think the phone records are working papers,” Plopper said.

Sadler said the office does not plan to comment on its denial of access to the phone records.

News of the relationship first came from an Oct. 31 Garland County Circuit Court filing in a child-custody case between Davis and her ex-husband.

McDaniel said in a news release Tuesday that he met Davis during the 2010 campaign. He said he had limited interaction with Davis in 2011, some of which was inappropriate.

Davis represents a group of parents in an ongoing federal suit against the state over the Arkansas School Choice Act.

The attorney general’s office represented the state Department of Education in the school choice case at the time the “inappropriate” interaction occurred. Assistant Attorney General Scott Richardson is the office’s lead attorney in the case.

“The [attorney general] never discussed school choice with Ms. Davis at any time,” Sadler said.

The Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct state that disclosure of a personal interest with opposing counsel is required if there is a significant risk that representation of the client will be materially limited. The notified client has to specify in writing that the situation is acceptable.

The rules do not define “significant risk,” “materially limited” or who decides if a relationship could cause problems.

Sadler said the attorney general does not think his relationship with Davis limited the office’s ability to respond to Davis’ litigation against the state.

“At all times since the inception of this particular case, the attorney general has instructed and expected his office to protect the interests of the state and the legislation in question, and it continues to do just that. The attorney general never discussed litigation with Ms. Davis, and his interaction with her posed absolutely no risk to the state’s interests in the case,” Sadler said.

The attorney general was involved in three other cases in 2011 and 2012 with clients represented by Davis, Sadler said. Three cases were before the Arkansas Veterinary Medical Examining Board. The other was a deceptive trade practices act case. He said the office won each case.

Senior and assistant attorneys general handled each case without direct involvement by McDaniel, Sadler said. McDaniel did not discuss those cases with Davis nor did he disclose the relationship to the state agencies being represented, Sadler said.

McDaniel also played no role in the ongoing state police investigation of a homicide in Davis’ driveway, Sadler said.

No one has been charged in the Feb. 29 death of Maxwell Anderson.

According to a police report, Anderson was shot and killed by Davis’ brother, Matthew Davis.

Andrea Davis is the person who reported the shooting. She and her brother were handcuffed and taken in for questioning, but were later released. State police are still investigating.

“The [attorney general] has no jurisdiction or role in the investigation into the death of Maxx Anderson, and he has no knowledge of the incident itself or the status of the investigation,” Sadler said. “The [attorney general] has never spoken to Ms. Davis about the Maxx Anderson matter.”

He said no one has requested that the attorney general appoint a special prosecutor. The attorney general does not have the authority to do that, he said.

Sadler said McDaniel’s office was one of several contacted by the Garland County Circuit Court for assistance in retrieving Davis’ children from Day after he took them to New Jersey. Sadler said Davis was referred to New Jersey law enforcement officials.

It is fairly common for elected officials to use the working-papers exemption to justify withholding records.

In 2008, the mother of a Little Rock murder victim dropped a lawsuit against McDaniel when his office gave her documents that he initially claimed fell under the working-papers exemption.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee repeatedly invoked the working-papers exemption to withhold a wide range of documents.

In 2006, Huckabee used taxpayer funds to pay the state Department of Information Systems to destroy, or crush, the hard drives on governor’s office computers during the transition to Gov. Mike Beebe’s administration.

In 2006, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sued Huckabee to force him to comply with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act by releasing the resignation letter of former Board of Parole Vice Chairman Larry Zeno and the results of an investigation into his conduct.

The newspaper won.

In 2005, when Beebe was attorney general, he stated in an opinion that not every document possessed by an office that can claim the exemption is properly classified as a memorandum, working paper or correspondence.

In 1998, Attorney General Winston Bryant wrote in an opinion, “There is no support in the law for the proposition that the mere possession of a record by the governor’s office transforms that record into the governor’s “working paper.’”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/21/2012