politics

Some Kitzhaber Emails Weren't Archived With The State

By John Sepulvado (OPB)
Nov. 19, 2015 10:02 p.m.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown's office said Thursday there are some emails from former Gov. John Kitzhaber that never made it into state archives because of a technical error.

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Oregon Department of Administrative Services spokesman Matt Shelby said non-archived emails would have been sent from Kitzhaber's private email accounts to other private email accounts. That includes emails to private accounts owned by his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes.

"There's no record of Kitzhaber's office asking us to change the forwarding system," said Shelby.

The only thing coinciding with the emails disappearing was Kitzhaber receiving a new state laptop.

"I don't know how moving from one machine to another would take out the function, but that's the only thing we can find," Shelby explained.

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Related: New Batch Of Emails Shed Light On Kitzhaber's Final Days As Governor

Brown's office said some of the missing emails cover the time period when Kitzhaber was facing increasing scrutiny and allegations that he and Hayes used their government positions to enhance her personal consulting business.

A spokesperson for the governor's office said the emails do still exist, however, and Kitzhaber possess them.

Though many more emails remain to be released in an ongoing investigation of the former governor, Brown's office released more than 15,000 pages of emails Thursday from two accounts used by Kitzhaber for state business during his time in office.

This is in addition to the more than 30,000 pages of emails released by Brown in early September and October.

In a press release, Brown said she released the emails in response to several public records requests.

Kitzhaber resigned in February, and was replaced by Brown, who was serving as secretary of state at the time.

Editor's note: The audio for this story incorrectly stated the number of emails released Thursday. Roughly 4,300 emails, which equates to more than 15,000 pages, were released by Gov. Kate Brown's office Thursday.

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