A political operative who guided former Gov. Mike Easley's two campaigns for North Carolina's top office testified yesterday before a federal grand jury investigating activities surrounding Easley, the Democratic former governor.
Jay Reiff arrived with attorney Michael Weisel shortly before 9 a.m. and left 21/2 hours later. Weisel told reporters that his client fully answered all the jury's questions. He would not go into detail on what questions Reiff was asked.
Reiff, who was campaign manager for Easley's winning 2000 and 2004 gubernatorial campaigns, also declined to comment as he left the federal courthouse in Raleigh.
The State Board of Elections tried to subpoena Reiff for an investigative hearing last month, but Chairman Larry Leake said at the time that the state's subpoena couldn't compel him to testify because he was working outside of North Carolina.
Weisel said that Reiff was working in Virginia at the time, but had several interviews with the board's staff, and made himself available to be called as a witness.
During last month's hearing, the election board presented documents identified as fundraising strategies written by then-Easley campaign officials suggesting that the Democratic Party begin handling some contributions dedicated to Easley.
A Reiff memo from May 2000 said they could move "any or all expenditures" from the campaign to the party and pay for them with contributions to the party, a move that some have charged was an attempt to get around limits on campaign donations.
State law allows a donor to give unlimited money to a party, but only as much as $4,000 to an individual candidate per election.
Subpoenas also were issued to six current or former officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to appear before the grand jury starting yesterday.The grand jury has been hearing testimony for months in a wide-ranging probe of activities involving Easley -- who left office in January -- and his wife.Federal authorities haven't charged anyone with wrongdoing
The U.S. Attorney's Office also has sought information and records about air travel that Easley and his family took while he was governor, after several businessmen acknowledged giving Easley airplane flights, many of which were free or weren't reported on campaign finance reports.
A state trooper who previously led Easley's security detail testified before the grand jury in May, but the patrol said that travel records from 2005 are missing.
In August, Gov. Bev Perdue's administration asked for an independent panel of three attorneys to investigate what happened to them.
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