An Oklahoma County district judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the EPA to turn over thousands of communications to a watchdog group.

The decision comes ahead of Pruitt's confirmation to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, which is expected to take place on Friday.

The order is the latest turn in a lawsuit against Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt brought by the Center for Media and Democracy earlier this month. The group charges that Pruitt violated the Oklahoma Open Records Act for declining to make public official documents it has requested since 2015.

Judge Aletia Haynes Timmons instructed Pruitt's office to hand over the emails to the group by Tuesday. The Oklahoma attorney general has 10 days to comply with the group's other records requests, Timmons ruled.

The center has sought correspondences between Pruitt's office and Koch Industries, other mining and drilling companies, and the Republican Attorneys General Association, which Pruitt chaired. As of Thursday's hearing, the office had produced 411 of the 3,000 emails that have been requested, according to the group.

Timmons found "there was an abject failure to provide prompt and reasonable access to documents requested" by the group.