(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is suing the Des Moines Register over the paper’s public records request for email conversations among the governor’s staff and a West Des Moines city councilwoman who is president and C-E-O of Lutheran Social Services in Iowa.

Reynolds says her lawsuit is a move to protect the use of executive privilege for all Iowa governors of the past, present and future. According to the lawsuit, the governor’s office provided over 800 pages of documents to The Register, but withheld four documents “containing candid private advice and counsel from her most senior advisors.” The lawsuit reveals the newspaper had asked for emails with and about the head of Lutheran Social Services in Iowa. It indicates The Register gave the governor’s office a deadline of today, April 25th to produce the four documents.

A spokesman for the governor says she is confident the judicial branch will recognize governors have a constitutional executive privilege in Iowa to receive confidential communications and work product from their closest advisors.