March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Campaign inquiry near resolution> `Computergate’ wraps up

AUGUSTA — A six-month investigation into the possible misuse of state computers has ended, and a decision regarding its outcome should be announced within the month.

Assistant Attorney General Tom Warren said Thursday that all interviews regarding the investigation of the potentially criminal campaign activity have been completed, and attorneys assigned to the Maine Attorney General’s Office are simply awaiting an opportunity to confer on the probe.

Warren said conflicting demands on the Attorney General’s Office and the busy schedule of the 117th Legislature’s final months prompted a delay in concluding the investigative work.

“Everybody who had to then review the results of those interviews was stretched into a pencil-thin (timetable),” Warren said. “Now it’s a question of the attorneys in the office — and ultimately Chief Deputy Linda Pistner — reviewing it.”

In March, Maine Attorney General Andrew Ketterer withdrew from the investigation to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest in the case that has earned the nickname “Computergate” around the State House.

The investigation was sparked by the discovery of computer material with campaign overtones after Democrats and Republicans switched offices on the second floor of the State House.

As the “new” majority party in the November elections, the Republicans were entitled to the larger offices — and accompanying computer systems — enjoyed for years by Democrats.

Senate President Jeffrey Butland, R-Cumberland, delivered the computer-held material to the attorney general’s office last December after it was presented to him by Senate Democratic floor leader Mark Lawrence of Kittery.

The Attorney General’s Office has declined to discuss the specifics of the case, but some sources have said the information included radio scripts and a fund-raising letter on behalf of a Republican Senate candidate.

Ketterer, who handed over responsibility of the probe to Pistner, said his recusal stemmed in part from “the campaign of an unsuccessful candidate for the position of attorney general.”

Ketterer, a former Democratic legislator, won his new job by majority votes in the House and Senate, defeating Portland lawyer Kenneth Cole, who was the Republican Party chairman. Some published accounts have linked the material under review to Cole’s candidacy for attorney general.

Using a state computer for election-related purposes is a Class C crime under Maine law, punishable by a $5,000 fine or a jail term of up to five years.

Warren said any continued delay in resolving the investigation likely will be attributed to the difficulty in getting all of the attorneys together to reach a decision as to how the state will proceed.

“I would expect that we will have some action in a month,” he said.


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