A federal judge has ruled against The Associated Press in its effort to remove a gag order on e-mails in which Gov. Linda Lingle's former chief of staff was blackmailed over his relationship with a woman in the Philippines.

U.S. District Judge Michael Seabright said that Bob Awana has a right to privacy because he was the victim of the blackmail.

"The public interest lies in treating a crime victim with fairness and with respect to privacy," Seabright wrote in his order, dated Monday.

Awana was Lingle's top adviser before his abrupt June 28 resignation when the case came to light.

He has not been charged with a crime, but public defender Pamela Byrne has said he arranged for women in the Philippines to go on dates with him and businessmen from Hawai'i in exchange for favors, including money and trips.

Rajdatta Patkar, an Indian national who had been living in Tokyo, pleaded guilty to the extortion, and officials said he has left the United States after completing his one-year sentence with credit for time served.

The AP had asked Judge Seabright to remove a gag order on the e-mails to help verify whether the case involved official government misconduct on state trips to the Philippines in 2005 or 2006.

Seabright said previously in court that he had not seen the e-mails himself, and that they were not part of the public record because the case didn't go to trial.