DENVER—A federal immigration agent’s claims that he is being singled out for allegedly using a restricted criminal database to support a GOP gubernatorial candidate’s campaign is “ridiculous,” Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter’s spokesman said Wednesday.
Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer was responding to agent Cory Voorhis’ claim that others also improperly accessed the National Crime Information Center’s database during Colorado’s heated governor’s race last year but weren’t prosecuted.
Voorhis, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, provided database information to Ritter’s Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, that was used in a campaign ad featuring an illegal immigrant to whom Ritter had granted a plea bargain for a drug offense while Ritter was Denver’s district attorney.
The man committed a sex crime in California after the plea, and the ad was used to attack Ritter for being soft on crime and illegal immigration.
Voorhis faces three misdemeanor counts of intentionally exceeding authorized access to a computer and obtaining information from an agency of the United States. In a motion asking a judge to dismiss the case, he said he was acting under office guidelines and that information about foreign nationals isn’t covered by laws restricting use of the database.
He also complained that others, including the district attorney’s office, used the database and may have provided information to Ritter’s campaign but weren’t charged.
The FBI and state agents are investigating the case.
“It’s ridiculous,” Dreyer said. “Nobody did anything wrong except Cory Voorhis and he admits that.”
Messages left after business hours for Voorhis’ attorneys were not immediately returned.
Voorhis said he was dissatisfied with Ritter’s handling of cases involving illegal immigrants, which he said made it difficult for ICE agents to do their job. He said that by giving database information to Beauprez’s campaign he was exercising his right to free speech and participating in public debate about illegal immigration.
“A sworn federal law officer admits in court papers that he broke the law,” Dreyer said of Voorhis. “He should be punished, period, end of story.”
Voorhis’ lawyers also allege that an investigator with the Harris County, Texas, district attorney’s office accessed the database at the request of a private investigator under contract with the Colorado Republican Party. The attorneys say that as of late October, investigators had not followed up on that allegation.
Colorado GOP party Chairman Dick Wadhams has said he could not find any party expenditure for a private investigator under a name provided to him.
District attorney’s spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said the office legitimately looked up the illegal immigrant’s name on Oct. 12, 2006, as part of its duty to answer questions surrounding the ad and did not provide confidential information to the media or to Ritter’s campaign.
Then-candidate Ritter was questioned in October 2006 as investigators looked into his claim the database was used illegally. Neither the DA’s office nor Ritter was a target of the investigation.
The federal database is to be used solely for law enforcement purposes.
