WAYNE STENEHJEM

The greatest cost of this scandal to our state isn't measured in dollars so much as lost trust in our public servants.

Recently elected Attorney General Drew Wrigley told Forum News Service a report compiled by private firm Planet Technologies concluded that former Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's deleted account cannot be recovered.

Don’t worry, if you don’t like the results, just storm the column like a real American.

Rob Port reports: North Dakota law requires that the state crime lab be separate from Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Attorney General Drew Wrigley wants to change that law, and put BCI in charge of the lab, but one lab employee is saying that would jeopardize the independence of the scientists who work there.

One of the 18 sexual assault kits has gone untested since January 2021, languishing in storage at North Dakota's crime lab for more than 20 months. Attorney General Drew Wrigley, who oversees the lab, told The Forum on Friday that it was the first time he heard about Fargo’s kits waiting that long for testing.

It's time for state officials to get serious about this. There are too many red flags, too many convenient connections between family, political allies, and business partners, for us to believe that this deal was above board.

Did Rep. Jason Dockter, a Bismarck-area Republican, really think that this sort of dealing, assuming it's all technically in compliance with state law, would pass the smell test with the public? If he didn't, he's a fool, and if he did, you have to wonder why he went ahead with it anyway.

"It's obvious that whatever was deleted was deemed more harmful than any heat the deletions might bring. In Wayne Stenehjem's case, Liz Brocker read the tea leaves correctly. Stenehjem's replacement, Drew Wrigley, has chosen to simply look the other way."

"I am only aware of the information reported by the media and there is not anything that has been reported that causes me to believe a crime occurred to make a referral," Julie Lawyer says of the deleted email scandal in the North Dakota Attorney General's Office.