Bob Fletcher provides missing terrorism briefs to City Pages

City Pages

Fletcher provided these terrorism briefs to City Pages to prove he wasn't lying

​Former Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher has given City Pages a batch of documents he says are some of the terrorism briefs he has been accused of lying about creating.

The documents--some marked "Confidential Law Enforcement Only"--outline investigations of anarchist and protest groups prior to the 2008 Republican National Convention.

"Those are, in fact, domestic terrorism briefs," Fletcher told City Pages.

While Fletcher was still in office, Twin Cities Daily Planet reporter Karen Hollish submitted a data practices request asking for records of counter-terrorism investigations referred to in a chart from a 2009 budget document.

She specifically asked for the 78 "Terrorism Information Briefs" that the chart estimated had been compiled since 2005.

Her request was never granted.

Fletcher claims that the documents he provided to City Pages prove he didn't lie about terrorism briefs, as alleged in this TC Daily Planet story

​Once newly elected Sheriff Matt Bostrom took office in January, his public information officer Randy Gustafson finally sent a response. He wrote that he could not locate any written record of terrorist investigations or the "Terrorism Information Briefs."

"They never existed," he told her. "It is a very big lie."

Fletcher was quick to defend his terrorism work, saying that because the new sheriff had let go a key member of his homeland security team, it was no wonder he had no record of the investigations. Fletcher said the terrorism briefs were often paperless, and could have come in the form of emails or oral presentations.

Since then, City Pages has been trying to track down hard evidence that those briefs exist.

In a 2010-2011 budget document, Fletcher's office claimed to have distributed terrorism briefs to 65 partner organizations.

But neither the St. Paul nor Minneapolis police have any memory of receiving any terrorism briefs from Fletcher.

Same goes for the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department and the state troopers.

The Minneapolis FBI would only confirm that a member of the sheriff's department has been serving on the Joint Terrorism Task Force for years.