Cox never claimed to be an engineer - they didn't even accuse him of that - Sounds like the DOT just doesn't like it when someone questions their hired hand.
Wild guess - the email was archived on backup drives - and the state of Alaska didn't have the 'extra' hardware to restore the archives quickly - plus I am sure the "redacting" process took a LOT of time....and of course, they delayed as long as they could, just in case everyone forgot about it...
So, is it just Software they are pirating? or are the creating knock-offs of all sorts of products (Cell phones, MP3 Players, etc) - my guess it the % of software pirating isn't that much higher than the % of other product knock-offs...