SEATTLE — The Washington State Auditor’s Office on Tuesday released copies of the documents it turned over as part of a federal investigation involving elected auditor Troy Kelley, but they seemed to shed little light on the matter.
The office provided the documents in response to public records requests from The Associated Press and other news organizations. They included the emails and work projects of a part-time employee, Jason JeRue, who also worked in private business with Kelley before his election.
Federal agents searched Kelley’s home in Tacoma two weeks ago, and early this month a grand jury issued a subpoena for records related to JeRue, including any emails about Kelley’s former escrow services company, Post Closing Department, which was accused in a federal lawsuit of keeping $1.2 million owed to a customer. Tax fraud investigators have also sought records related to his old business, and the FBI has requested records of his expenses from the time he served as a state representative.
Kelley, a Democrat who was elected auditor in 2012 after six years in the Legislature, has said he did nothing wrong. His office is charged with rooting out fraud and waste in state and local governments.
He and JeRue have a long history, dating to the late 1990s, when they worked together at First American Title Co. of Los Angeles. They were both laid off in 2000 as part of what the company described as corporate restructuring, and both sued for wrongful termination. The company accused them of conspiring together to further each other’s specious legal claims, and their cases were dismissed.
They went on to work together at Post Closing Department.
A review of JeRue’s emails did not immediately turn up anything that appeared to relate to the investigation. JeRue’s emails consist largely of mundane office banter, with updates on website features and gossip about baseball, dogs and medical travails — there were few if any emails directly with Kelley. The only emails sent from his account since the office was served with the grand jury subpoena March 6 seem to have been “read receipts” concerning earlier emails.
The documents include a series of text messages indicating that JeRue and Matt Miller, his supervisor, talked by phone on March 9 — the Monday after the auditor’s office received the subpoena. The texts don’t indicate what they discussed.
Miller is one of Kelley’s top executives and managed his campaign for auditor.
Miller and JeRue didn’t text again until March 16, the day Kelley’s house was searched. In those messages, the pair arranged another phone call. It isn’t clear if they knew about the search at the time of their messages, and the messages don’t state the purpose of the phone call.
JeRue has not responded to requests for comment. Miller did not immediately return an email sent after hours Tuesday seeking information about his conversations with JeRue.
The documents say JeRue was hired as a technical writer and generally worked about 2 hours per day, but sometimes more, from his home in California. His tasks included compiling information about audits being conducted in other states, spreadsheets of media contacts, and links to news stories about the work of the auditor’s office. He also advised the office about a redesign of its website.
JeRue was hired at Kelley’s behest, according an email from Diane Perry, the auditor’s deputy director of administration.
“I had thought we would coordinate his start date with one of his trips up here, but both Jason & Troy referred to his ‘medical appointments’ and I’m not sure what that means,” she wrote on March 5, 2013, in the early days of Kelley’s administration. “I think Troy would like to get him on board soon …. This is not a high priority but eventually Troy is going to want Jason hired.”
