Prosecutor: Inquiry into deleted North Dakota attorney general emails nearly complete

BISMARCK — A state’s attorney is hoping to report his findings by the end of February related to an inquiry into the deletion of former Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s 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 state’s 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 Stenehjem’s administration. Enget said he plans to tackle that portion of the report separately.

“There’s obviously two different issues here,” he said.

Typically, when a state’s 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 Stenehjem’s 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 Stenehjem’s deleted account could not be recovered.

Enget said once the Mountrail County State’s Attorney’s Office makes a decision on the email portion of the report, he will notify Burleigh County State’s 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 — 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.

“I’m slogging my way through it – I guess that’s probably the best way that I can put it,” Enget said.

The deletion of Stenehjem’s emails was discovered after North Dakota media requested public records related to the Attorney General’s Office’s 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 State’s Attorney’s Office, but Brocker now works there.

This story was originally published on NorthDakotaMonitor.com