After speaking with federal authorities, Oregon AG Rosenblum is taking the state criminal investigation into activities of former governor Retread, his First Squeeze, and others offline; the feds have agreed to share all data with the Oregon AG office, and prosecution is not off the table at the state level - she's just backing off to avoid entanglements that might botch up ongoing investigations. The whole thing reminds me of an old Zappa piece:
I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed 'n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I am the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you
That seems to be the view that a lot of folks in Oregon politics have held. And they're all Democratics.
Dennis Richardson told you so.
Two weeks before the 2014 general election, Richardson accused Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, of breaking federal anti-corruption laws. Richardson, the Republican nominee for governor, made his accusation in a 13-page letter to Oregon U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall calling for a federal investigation.
Retread called it a political stunt, and Multnomah County voted him back into orifice. But just a few months later, Retread's out of office, hiding out in Bend with his First Squeeze, and the federal investigations currently unfolding exactly parallel the points laid out in Richardson's letter.
And while Retread-appointed State COO Michael Jordan has spent well over a week claiming that his removal of two data managers and his order of a criminal investigation by Oregon State Police had nothing to do with Retread's efforts to have thousands of emails deleted from state servers, Jordan's excuses have started unraveling as well:
State data center managers recently placed on leave over unauthorized efforts to preserve evidence found themselves "in trouble" for contacting federal prosecutors scrutinizing former Gov. John Kitzhaber and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, a state email obtained by The Oregonian/Oregonlive reveals.
The Feb. 20 email by Darin Rand, a mid-level manager at the data center, provides a blow-by blow view from inside the facility used to warehouse emails that has become central to the reported leak of Kitzhaber's private emails.
Rand indicates Wells was already in hot water for talking to federal prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is taking part in the Kitzhaber investigation. Rand wrote that he was told he was in trouble for talking to the Oregon Department of Justice about the federal request for state documents.
Jordan himself took steps - in person - to halt securing of data, though he subsequently claimed to be concerned about maintaining data integrity. If there's one thing Michael Jordan knows nothing about, it's integrity.
When Matt Shelby, who used to be a PR flack for Portland Public Schools but was deeply embedded in the Retread cabal, sent an order to IT to delete Retread's emails from state servers, the managers that Jordan subsequently placed on leave balked. And when orders came in from the feds and Congress to maintain all data, a day later, the managers took steps to secure all computers and cell phones at the governor's office - which caused Jordan and his CIO Alex Pettit to rush over in an effort to halt the process.
Jordan denies that that's what motivated his visit.
Jordan and Pettit, along with Shelby and others, are now themselves under federal investigation. Current governor Kate Brown has taken no steps to place any of them on leave.
