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Ritter Defends Aide Amid '06 Campaign Questions

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Nov 3, 2009 6:11 pm US/Mountain

Ritter Defends Aide Amid '06 Campaign Questions

DENVER (AP) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Gov. Bill Ritter (File)
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Cory Voorhis Story/Video Archive

Gov. Bill Ritter is defending the White House's nominee for U.S. attorney in Colorado amid questions about whether she helped access a restricted federal database while working on Ritter's gubernatorial campaign.

The Democrat said Monday on his monthly appearance on KOA-AM that he thinks Stephanie Villafuerte, now Ritter's deputy chief of staff, did nothing wrong.

Villafuerte has declined to answer questions from The Denver Post about what conversations she may have had with the Denver district attorney's office around the time the office accessed a restricted federal database to check on Carlos Estrada-Medina. He was an illegal immigrant who received a plea deal when Ritter was Denver's district attorney.

Accessing the database for something other than law-enforcement purposes can be a crime.

Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis was charged in 2007 with accessing the database to check on Estrada-Medina and then providing the information to Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez's campaign, which used it in a 2006 campaign ad criticizing Ritter.

A federal jury acquitted Voorhis, who said he accessed the database with his supervisor's permission, but he was fired.

The Denver Post reports that authorities were aware that the Denver DA's office and a Texas investigator also had run Estrada-Medina's name through the database, but no one in those offices was charged.