State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser needs to check with his former colleagues at the attorney general's office. Based on a story in the P-I last week, , Esser issued a press release Monday that said Gov. Christine Gregoire knew when she was attorney general that the Department of Corrections was giving inmates conditional release to ease overcrowding.

Esser said:

"Gov. Gregoire is either deliberately misleading the public or dangerously ignorant about the longstanding policies of her own administration. How can Governor Gregoire be 'outraged' about a policy she's known about for at least four years? After spending 38 years in state government, she should know better. Gov. Gregoire needs to come clean and tell Washingtonians what she knew about her administration's early felon release policy and when she knew it."

Republican lawmakers have been trying to make hay of it, too.

Gregoire, as I reported below, told reporters Monday she first heard about the policy the day it broke in The Seattle Times.

To follow up, I talked to people at the attorney general's office. That's where Esser worked until he left last month to become party chairman. There is no evidence that Gregoire, as attorney general, knew about the policy, said Janelle Guthrie, spokeswoman for Attorney General Rob McKenna. McKenna didn't know about the policy, either, she said. (UPDATE: Guthrie wants to clarify that she found no evidence that Gregoire knew in talking to people in the AG's office. But there has not been a complete and thorough search to say unequivocally that no evidence exists.)

I also talked to Scott Blonien, head of the AG's criminal division. He served the same role under Gregoire. He earlier worked for Republican AG Ken Eikenberry. Blonien supervises the attorneys who are assigned to the Department of Corrections. He told me that he did not know about the policy and has no reason to believe that Gregoire, or anyone else in the office at the time or since, knew either:

"I was the main conduit of information ... and I have no knowledge of ever having heard before that there was a policy at the Department of Corrections that allowed for wholesale release of offenders because of bed-space issues. ... To be honest, I don't know how she would know that, and I don't know how she'd know that without me knowing that, just by my relationship with the Department of Corrections and my relation to then-Attorney General Gregoire."

Blonien added that there is no reason why the AG should know. The Department of Corrections does not need AG approval for its policy decisions. The attorneys assigned to the department are there to give advice, if asked. "The attorney general's office has no supervisional authority over the Department of Corrections," he said.

Any time there's a controversy like the one over release of inmates, it's important to know who knew what and when they knew it. Gregoire does now oversee corrections and is ultimately responsible for what happens there. But I am yet to find any evidence pointing to Gregoire knowing about the policy while she was attorney general. As I said, it's important to get the answers and it's worth continued questions. But Republicans are not likely to get much traction from an allegation refuted by officials in the office of the state's most powerful elected Republican.