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Report Details Affair That Led to US Atty’s Downfall

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The federal prosecutor whose accusation of sexual harassment led U.S. Attorney for Oregon Amanda Marshall to resign told investigators he reported her behavior because it was interfering with his ability to eat, sleep and work, and he worried about losing his job.

The prosecutor and Marshall started their extramarital affair in the summer of 2013, and it lasted a year. When it ended, Marshall drove by his home multiple times, berated him at a concert and sent unwanted text messages and emails, according to a report from the Office of the Inspector General.

"I can't deal with this anymore," the prosecutor wrote Marshall in September 2014. "Please stop."

New details of the affair and its aftermath are included in the report obtained Thursday in a Freedom of Information Act request.

The office released a summary of the investigation last month that didn't mention Marshall by name, but said a U.S. attorney violated sexual harassment laws and lied about the relationship when confronted.

Marshall, who resigned in May 2015 amid rumors she had stalked a subordinate, acknowledged the report was about her. She said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive last month that she failed the government, Oregonians and her family and would "spend the rest of my life trying to make amends."

The more complete report released Thursday redacts the name of the assistant U.S. attorney with whom Marshall had the affair.

Marshall and the prosecutor said their relationship was professional until they had drinks at a work-related celebration in August 2013 and then went to a Portland nightclub.

The prosecutor told investigators Marshall became angry after hearing he didn't see them becoming a couple and eventually getting married.

"Marshall acknowledged to the OIG her misplaced belief that she and (the assistant U.S. attorney) had a future together," the report states.

Marshall acknowledged the affair made things difficult at work. The man sought a promotion and obtained it October 2013. Marshall said she participated in the interview, but abstained from making the selection.

"Marshall said she felt her relationship with (the man) put her in a difficult position because (he) would sue her if she did not promote him and other applicants might sue her if she did," the report states.

The subordinate, meanwhile, described the affair (both were married) as awkward and its aftermath as worse. He told investigators that Marshall threatened to disclose their affair, made inappropriate comments to him during management meetings, and sent harassing messages via text, email and Facebook.

Moreover, he told investigators that Marshall berated him and a date at an August 2014 concert and sent inappropriate text messages after he ignored her at conference in San Francisco.

Marshall told investigators the two had sex in San Francisco, and she drank heavily after she was ignored at the conference. She said she misplaced her room key, stayed out all night and later noticed she had texted and emailed him several times.

The report says an examination of Marshall's work phone revealed 251 messages between the two, including "numerous incidents" of Marshall sending harassing notes when the affair was over.

Investigators found the subordinate sent three messages asking Marshall to stop, but Marshall insisted she was never told to leave him alone.

The report said Marshall lied about the nature of the relationship when confronted, violated instructions not to have contact with the assistant U.S. attorney and tried to impede the investigation by telling the subordinate that he was the subject of the probe and should not speak with the inspector general.

"Seems far more interested in investigating you than me," Marshall wrote in a Facebook message to the subordinate on March 5, 2015. "Don't talk to him. Get a lawyer. I denied everything. Said I was angry, sick, scared, had a neurologist disorder and psychological disorder, etc...I don't want this. I wish you wouldn't have told."

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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