Connecticut Local Politics

Apparently today is a tribute to the Stamford Advocate’s FOIA skills. From Brian Lockhart:

The U.S. attorney and state attorney general last week said they did not close their investigations into the crash of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s 2006 campaign Web site until after the November election that year.
…
Thomas Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney, said in a statement that the office updated the Lieberman campaign and Blumenthal on the investigation in late October 2006.

“In accordance with our usual practice . . . the Lieberman campaign, as the alleged victim, and the office of attorney general, which had been conducting a contemporaneous investigation . . . were provided with limited information,” Carson said. “The investigation was administratively closed several weeks later.”

When asked for comment, the Attorney General referred me back to this part of his original statement, “Throughout the investigation, there were discussions between my office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding the direction of the federal investigation, but not any conclusions until after the election,” which, to me, seems to indicate that the end of October update cited by the US Attorney’s office contained no conclusions.

Go read the whole article, it has some interesting new information in it. Here is what jumped out at me:

But [Former Federal Prosecutor and current Quinnipiac Law Professor Jeffrey Meyer] could not explain the two-month lag between the FBI’s October e-mail and the announcement from the U.S. attorney and Blumenthal that the case was closed.

Meyer said FBI procedures for opening and closing cases does not necessarily match those of the U.S. attorney.

“But this e-mail sounds pretty final,” Meyer said. “There’s really no expectation there’s going to be any further development and looking into the issue.”

For me, one question (for the US Attorney’s office) remains: What is the explanation for the two months between the October 25th email from the FBI and the closing of the investigation, given that there seemed to be nothing left to investigate?