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Dispatches from public radio's correspondent at the Oregon Legislature. This is a venue for political and policy coverage of the state government in Salem and its impact on the people of Oregon.

Kitzhaber Email Leaker Gets Settlement

Office of the Governor
Former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber resigned on February 18, 2015.

The state of Oregon has agreed to a nearly $300,000 settlement with the data manager who leaked personal emails belonging to former governor John Kitzhaber.

As part of the settlement, Michael Rodgers has left his position and has agreed not to sue the state.

Last winter Rodgers refused to delete Kitzhaber's emails from a state server. He then released those emails to Portland's Willamette Week newspaper.

The question became who had released those emails to the media. The answer came later on in the spring when Willamette Week revealed that Rodgers had agreed to go public with his story.

We also learned that Rodgers was not going to be charged criminally for releasing those emails but that an internal state investigation was ongoing.

Kitzhaber and former First Lady Cylvia Hayes remain under a federal influence peddling probe.