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A lease involving the Attorney Generalโs Office that is tied to a state lawmaker is under scrutiny by a special prosecutor. (Amy Dalrymple/North Dakota Monitor)
STANLEY, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) โ A stateโs attorney is hoping to report his findings by the end of February related to an inquiry into the deletion of former Attorney General Wayne Stenehjemโs emails.
The emails were subject to a Montana Division of Criminal Investigation probe requested by Attorney General Drew Wrigley in 2022. Wade Enget, the Mountrail County stateโs attorney, agreed to review a 131-page report detailing findings of the investigation in early January after multiple other prosecutors declined to take the case.
The report, made public in September, also looked into an over-budget building project pursued by Stenehjemโs administration. Enget said he plans to tackle that portion of the report separately.
โThereโs obviously two different issues here,โ he said.
Typically, when a stateโs attorney is asked to review a case, their job is to decide whether or not to file charges.
Enget said because the circumstances surrounding the Montana report are so unique, he has other options at his disposal, too. He stated he could not clarify what those options are.
Stenehjem served as attorney general from 2000 until he died in January 2022. Immediately after his death, Liz Brocker, his executive assistant, told IT staff to wipe Stenehjemโs email account. According to the Montana investigation, Brocker has said she was following orders from Troy Seibel, then chief deputy attorney general.
Seibel resigned that March. After he left, some of his emails were permanently wiped, too, under the direction of Brocker.
Previously, a tech consultant determined that Stenehjemโs deleted account could not be recovered.
Enget said once the Mountrail County Stateโs Attorneyโs Office makes a decision on the email portion of the report, he will notify Burleigh County Stateโs Attorney Julie Lawyer by letter. Lawyer is the prosecutor who referred the case to Enget.
While his goal is to wrap up the email portion of the case by the end of the month, Enget said he still has some work left to do โ including reviewing some legislative history related to the open records law and public officials.
The prosecutor did not have a timeline for when he expects to make a decision on the building side of the case.
โIโm slogging my way through it โ I guess thatโs probably the best way that I can put it,โ Enget said.
The deletion of Stenehjemโs emails was discovered after North Dakota media requested public records related to the Attorney Generalโs Officeโs building project, which included several business deals involving Rep. Jason Dockter, a Bismarck Republican. The project exceeded projected costs by more than $1.7 million.
Ordinarily, the Montana report would have been referred to the Burleigh County Stateโs Attorneyโs Office, but Brocker now works there.
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