State election officials in Delaware were found to have direct communication with aides in Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long’s office last year during a scandal involving her campaign finance reports. Emails obtained by The Associated Press show that Elections Commissioner Anthony Albence wanted to keep Hall-Long’s office informed of queries about amendments to her campaign finance reports, which revealed she failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans.
Despite the violations uncovered in a forensic audit, Albence and Attorney General Kathleen Jennings announced they would not pursue criminal charges against Hall-Long or her husband. Hall-Long, who is seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, faces competition from Matt Meyer and Collin O’Mara in the upcoming primary.
The emails revealed that election officials alerted a top aide in Hall-Long’s office about queries from the AP regarding amended filings. Albence also directed his staff to keep the aide informed of updates, and despite having Gmail accounts, it remains unclear how he knew about their personal emails.
After learning of the communication, the AP filed a petition challenging the lack of responsive records provided by the election department. However, despite the findings in the audit, Albence assured Hall-Long that he would not seek criminal charges and advised her to file amended finance reports promptly. Hall-Long has disputed the audit findings and described the reporting violations as mere bookkeeping mistakes.
While Delaware law deems false campaign finance reports as a misdemeanor, Attorney General Jennings cited the possibility of attributing the violations to carelessness as a reason for not prosecuting. Despite this, questions remain about whether Hall-Long will disclose the amended reports before the primary election.
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