Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams says the Emailgate probe is still ongoing by the Police Service and information will only be released when investigations are over. This follows calls from Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar that the police should make public the findings of their investigations which started since May 21, 2013. However, even though 22 months have passed since the issue broke, Williams said Deputy Commissioner of Police Glenn Hackett was not through with his investigations.
“Whatever information has to be released will be released by him. I do not have any updates on this,” Williams said. Asked what was taking so long, Williams said he could not divulge any information. “As you know I was out of the country for a week so I do not know what is the latest with the probe. You will have to speak to the DCP,” Williams said. Several calls were made to Hackett’s cell phone but they went unanswered.
Last week, the Police Service said it received communication from the Internet service provider, Google, through the Central Authority of T&T, about the questionable series of e-mails, purported to have been exchanged between Persad-Bissessar, former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, Minister of Local Government Surujrattan Rambachan and former national security minister Gary Griffith between August to September 2012.
Saying the “voluminous” information was still being analysed by the investigators to determine authenticity, Williams assured that the “outcome of the investigation will be made public in due course.”
The purported e-mails which were disclosed in Parliament on May 20 by Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley in his no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister. All e-mails for the period relating to the accounts anan@gmail.com; kamlapb1@gmail.com; anand@tstt.net.tt; captaingarygriffith@hotmail.com; surujrambachan@hotmail.com and roodal@tstt.net.tt have been made available to the police through the office of International Affairs of the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice.
A computer disk as well as a certificate of authenticity, dated January 21, 2015, signed by Google’s custodian of records, was also handed over to the police. On July 23, 2013 Persad-Bissessar and Ramlogan filed pre-action protocol letters against Rowley. Persad-Bissessar’s attorney Israel Khan SC later called on the police to clear the air as to whether the so-called e-mails existed, adding the entire country wanted to know whether the allegations of criminal conspiracy were true or false.