BISMARCK, N.D. – Republican North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley has dismissed bipartisan calls for an independent investigation into possible violations of the state’s open records laws by his office.
Wrigley says his office’s investigation found no criminal wrongdoing. He says he considers “the matter closed.”
Meanwhile, North Dakota lawmakers are pledging a possible overhaul of the state’s open records laws after an assistant to Wayne Stenehjem ordered his emails deleted a day after he died, erasing more than two decades of historic and legal documents.
Wrigley says he’s disappointed that the emails were erased and that Stenehjem himself would have wanted them preserved.
Bismarck GOP Rep. Glenn Bosch, who heads the Legislature’s Information Technology Committee, said the issue of open record retention will be placed on the panel’s agenda when it meets next in September.
“I think everybody in the Legislature wants us to look at this and fix what needs to be fixed,” he said.
Grand Forks Democratic Rep. Corey Mock, who sits on the Legislature’s IT committee, said it was ironic that the agency charged with enforcing open records laws, “purged public records without any oversight.”
Mock said the attorney general’s office now has likely lost “credibility to render a fair judgment to a public entity” that may be accused of open meetings or records violations.
“I think they are on thin ice,” he said.
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