Port: The deleted emails saga has been a master class in how to lose the public’s trust

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MINOT, N.D. — How do citizens lose faith in their government?

This is how.

Former North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem passed away.

Weeks after his successor, Drew Wrigley, was appointed to the office, we learned that there was a massive budget overrun for a new office space project that wasn’t reported to the Legislature.

Then, when I and others filed records requests to investigate that situation, we found out that the email accounts for Stenehjem, and his deputy Troy Seibel, were deleted by IT officials on no greater authority than the command of Stenehjem’s long-time executive assistant Liz Brocker.

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