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Late last year, the Eureka Republican started and then — under fire — abruptly halted an ill-conceived project that would have damaged the Capitol’s architectural beauty in the interest of more office space. He did so without any of the required public process.

Now he’s ending his first session as speaker by doing severe damage to the integrity of the institution he’s supposed to lead.

Last week, Mr. Jones — or one of his minions — in the Missouri House in an attempt to hack into a secure state computer server under control of the Office of Administration. The OA handles much of the internal computer security for the executive branch of government.

OA records obtained in a Sunshine Law request show that the mystery hacker took 23 shots at cracking the OA security. The hacker used a user name and password that had been given to a federal law enforcement official as part of an investigation into potential disability fraud.

That official, Keith Schilb, a special agent with the Office of Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, had requested a copy of the list of Missourians who hold conceal-carry weapon permits to compare with a disability database. He wanted to determine if people claiming a mental health disability .

To get Mr. Schilb the information he requested, the Office of Administration set up a secure FTP server and sent him a user name and password.

That user name and password were made public by Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, last week after he received the email as a result of a subpoena he served Mr. Schilb asking for records relating to his investigation.

Here’s the outrage: For more than a month now, Mr. Schaefer and Mr. Jones have been accusing law enforcement officials, from Mr. Schilb to the Missouri Highway Patrol to Gov. Jay Nixon, of violating state law, because under Missouri law, the CCW list is a closed record.

They have ignored in law for law enforcement to obtain the records as part of an investigation. Indeed, Mr. Nixon never broke the law, nor did the state patrol, nor did Mr. Schilb. Each of them was following the mandates in the state and federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act to share such information, including the Department of Revenue-controlled CCW list, as part of a state or federal investigation.

But in attempting to show that one of them broke the law (which, to repeat, they didn’t) Mr. Jones or his mystery hacker might have. In fact, he might have broken several laws.

Between 9:58 and 10:08 on the morning of May 2, somebody using a House computer typed in Mr. Schilb’s password information 23 times to try to open the folder on the state computer thought to contain the CCW list.

Twenty. Three. Times.

Mr. Jones, who refuses to name what is possibly the most inept hacker ever, even after a Sunshine Law request from the Office of Administration, justifies the attempted hack by saying it was part of the ongoing “General Assembly� investigation into whether state officials broke the law by making the same CCW list available to law enforcement officials.

Let’s unpack that a bit.

First, if we suspend disbelief and assume that Mr. Jones is being serious, he is suggesting that it’s against the law for actual law enforcement officials to try to obtain the list in the course of an investigation, but it’s not against the law for him or some unnamed House employee to do the same thing. Doug Nelson, the commissioner of the Office of Administration, asked House leaders to preserve records in the computer breach, and further asked for the legal justification for such a breach.

Mr. Jones has refused to answer on both accounts.

This is unacceptable. It is time for the people who care about the integrity of government in Missouri to put partisanship aside and get to the bottom of the first actual example of possible law-breaking in this sordid Department of Revenue political witch hunt.

If Mr. Jones is telling the truth, one of two legislative committees is responsible for the computer hacking. One, in the House, . If the hacking was done on behalf of Mr. Barnes’ committee, than he should say so, and the records should be made public.

The other committee is the one in the Senate run by Mr. Schaefer. Try as he might, Mr. Jones has no power to compel Mr. Schaefer’s committee to do anything.

Here’s what Mr. Jones and those around him must realize: As much as he wants to be in the executive branch, he isn’t there. He’s not the governor. He’s not the attorney general. He’s the speaker of the House. It is a powerful job, but not that powerful.

Somebody in the House likely violated , which describes the crime of computer tampering. That somebody used a password that didn’t belong to him or her and tried to access private state information housed on a computer to which he did not have legal access. The law makes no exception for a “General Assembly� investigation, which may or may not exist.

If Mr. Jones refuses to follow the Sunshine Law and hand over the public documents that allow the Office of Administration to figure out who tried to hack into its computers, he has broken the public trust.

If he refused a reasonable attempt to preserve records of the hacking, he’s participated in a cover-up.

If he tries to justify his mistake at the expense of other state lawmakers, and those lawmakers don’t do something to protect their institution’s integrity, they will have only themselves to blame.

Mr. Jones and Mr. Schaefer started this Department of Revenue circus in a sucking-up contest. Each was courting extremist Republican primary voters for a possible run at statewide office. The curtain has now been pulled back, but the circus rolls on.

One branch of government trying to hack into another branch of government’s computer system is not a joke. It’s not an investigation. It’s not a small matter.

It’s time for Mr. Nixon to use the full power of the office for which Mr. Jones lusts. Any attempt to gain access to a secure state computer using fraudulent means must be investigated.

Twenty-three times on May 2, somebody in the Missouri House did this.

Missourians deserve to know who it was.