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Washington State Auditor's Office Turns Over Documents In Federal Probe

Austin Jenkins
/
Northwest News Network
Federal agents hand-delivered a subpoena to the Washington State Auditor's office on March 6 seeking unspecified documents. The U.S. Attorney's office in Seattle is not commenting.

The Washington state Auditor’s office says it’s turned over documents to the Department of Justice in response to a subpoena.

The Thursday announcement followed news that federal agents searched the home of State Auditor Troy Kelley this week.

The subpoena was hand delivered to the state auditor’s Tumwater office on March 6th.

“I believe it was two agents they asked for certain documents,” agency spokesman Thomas Shapley said.

Shapley said he hasn’t seen the subpoena and doesn’t know what documents were requested, but he said the materials were delivered to the feds this week.

On Monday, federal agents searched Kelley’s Tacoma home. Neighbor Cassandra Hafen says agents swarmed the street.

“You could just hear banging on the door,” she said. “Police open up and nobody opened up so they breeched the door and everyone went in.”

Hafen said the agents put up black tarps over the windows and spent several hours inside.

Kelley, a Democrat who was elected auditor in 2012, did not respond to requests for comment. His office says he’s on a family vacation in California.

The Washington State Republican Party called Thursday for Kelley to resign his office. Shapley said resignation has not been discussed.

“If you’re asking if there’s been a conversation between him and me regarding his staying in office, absolutely not,” Shapley said.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Seattle said it is the policy of the Department of Justice to neither confirm nor deny the existence of investigation unless or until a case is filed in court.

During his 2012 campaign for state auditor, Kelley defended himself against civil allegations of theft and fraud relating to his private business dealings.

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy, as well as the Washington State Legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia."