Colorado GOP presses Senate on Villafuerte

Dick Wadhams wants Colorado U.S. attorney nominee grilled on Capitol Hill.

By Karen E. Crummy, The Denver Post, October 27, 2009

Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams on Monday asked the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington to demand answers from Colorado U.S. attorney nominee Stephanie Villafuerte about whether she may have acted inappropriately during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

"Colorado deserves better than a U.S. attorney who apparently might have used her former employer, the Denver district attorney's office, for blatant partisan political purposes to help Gov. Ritter in violation of the law," Wadhams wrote in a letter to committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Villafuerte, currently Bill Ritter's deputy chief of staff, has declined to answer questions from The Denver Post about what types of conversations she had with representatives from the Denver DA's office in the days before and after a restricted federal database was accessed and whether that information was obtained to help Ritter's campaign. FBI interview records do not indicate that she ever was asked about the access by the investigating agent.

Villafuerte, then a chief deputy Denver district attorney, had taken a leave of absence to work on Ritter's campaign. Ritter is the former Denver DA.

The Post reported Friday that statements by Villafuerte and other DA representatives — as described by an agent in recently obtained FBI interview summaries — do not always comport with available records, and the summaries portray the witnesses offering conflicting explanations on some key points.

Villafuerte has declined to speak about the issue over the past two years, and last week, Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said the U.S. Department of Justice has asked her not to talk to the media until after the nomination process is over.

Erica Chabot, spokeswoman for Leahy, declined to comment Monday because the office had not yet received the letter. Calls and e-mails to Sessions' office were not returned.

The judiciary committee received Villafuerte's completed questionnaire two weeks ago and is waiting for further paperwork from Colorado U.S. Sen. Mark Udall before scheduling a committee vote.

Typically, nominees for U.S. attorney are not questioned by the full judiciary committee but do receive a vote from the committee before their nomination moves to the Senate for consideration.

If any committee member wants to submit questions to a nominee, however, he or she may.

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