A Cheyenne attorney who filed a formal complaint in April against Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray for sharing sensitive voter data with the federal government says Attorney General Keith Kautz is keeping the public in the dark about the status of the complaint.
“We’ve seen nothing from him,” George Powers told WyoFile on Friday. “And his last comment was, ‘I’m not going to talk to you.’”
In the April 13 complaint, Powers alleges that Gray may have broken state law when, in August, he gave the driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers of every registered Wyoming voter to the U.S. Department of Justice. The Justice Department sought that information from all 50 states.
Gray has stood by the decision and said it was made in consultation with the attorney general. As such, Powers asked Kautz to hand off his complaint to avoid a conflict of interest.
“The conflict between your duties to Gray and your duties to the public create an intolerable conflict of interest,” Powers wrote in a May 20 letter. “The law of Wyoming demands that you recuse yourself and refer this matter to an independent special prosecutor.”
Since the complaint was filed in April, Powers says he has written and tried to contact the Attorney General’s office but has yet to “receive a meaningful response.”
The last time he heard from the office was a May 4 email, Powers said.
“This response is not an invitation for further communication,” Kautz wrote. “A prosecutor’s investigation and exercise of prosecutorial discretion are not conducted in the public square. I previously told you that your complaint would be addressed in accordance with our office policies, the law and the Wyoming Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys at Law.”
Powers isn’t certain what will happen now.
“We’re considering options,” Powers said. “But haven’t really been able to decide exactly what the next step would be on our part.”
Kautz did not respond to WyoFile’s request for comment by publishing time, including an inquiry as to the status of the complaint.
Powers is a retired attorney who worked primarily on civil trial and appellate litigation in Wyoming with a focus on medical malpractice, insurance claims and railroad litigation. In 2024, he was a plaintiff in a successful public records lawsuit against the Wyoming Department of Education.
How we got here
Last year, the Justice Department started asking states to hand over election-related records and data, including copies of statewide voter registration lists. The Trump administration has argued its efforts are intended to keep elections secure. At a hearing in March, a Justice Department official said the agency planned to run the collected voter roll data against Department of Homeland Security data.
In response to the federal government, most states either provided publicly available versions of their voter registration lists — i.e., data sets without sensitive information — or refused to provide such records, underscoring the fact that the U.S. Constitution explicitly tasks states, and not the federal government, with administering elections. Many states also raised privacy concerns.
So far, the Trump administration has filed 31 lawsuits against states with both Democratic and Republican chief election officials. Eight of those cases have been dismissed. Wyoming, meanwhile, was the first of 15 states to fully comply.
“What was the big hurry?” Powers asked WyoFile. “Why did Chuck want to be number one?”
Gray did not respond to WyoFile’s request for comment by publishing time. When Powers filed his complaint in April, Gray said the attorney was attempting to undermine his office’s work.
“I stand by my work with the Trump Administration to advance election integrity. I have worked to maintain compliance with the law and these actions have been carried out in close consultation with the Attorney General,” Gray wrote in a Facebook post.
Complaint and correspondence
In his complaint, Powers cited three separate state laws, including one that makes it a felony for an official to violate the election code and another that specifies the confidentiality of certain election records.
According to the statute, “election records containing social security numbers, portions of social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, birth dates, telephone numbers, tribal identification card numbers, e-mail addresses and other personally identifiable information other than names, gender, addresses, unique identifying numbers generated by the state and party affiliations are not public records and shall be kept confidential.”
Powers argues that Gray may have broken this law by sharing confidential records with the federal government.
“When Secretary Gray authorized and directed the officers and staff of the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office to release an unredacted [voter registry list] to the DOJ, he knew that the [list] contained personally identifiable information about the registered voters of Wyoming, which was confidential and not public records,” the complaint states.
One week after Powers submitted his complaint, Kautz wrote him an email.
“Our office received your Complaint of April 13 and a Supplement on April 17, 2026,” Kautz wrote. “We will address them in accordance with our office policies, the law and the Wyoming Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys at Law.”
Records indicate that Powers wrote back several hours later, thanking the attorney general for acknowledging the complaint.
“I look forward to receiving your further response,” Powers wrote. “With regard to the ‘office policies’ mentioned in your email, could you please let me know what those policies are or where I can find them?”
“There are no written policies,” Kautz responded 30 minutes later. “No response will be forthcoming.”
A week later, Powers received a letter from Deputy Attorney General Mackenzie Williams.
“I am writing this letter to refute your claims that the Secretary of State has waived attorney-client privilege as applied to the Attorney General’s advice to Secretary Gray,” Williams wrote on April 27.
The letter did not otherwise address the complaint or its status, including whether it had been referred to an independent party. Since then, Powers said he has not received any more information on his complaint.
“There are specific rules relating to prosecutors as to what they can and cannot say. They have to be very careful not to prejudice the rights of a defendant or a party under their investigation,” Powers told WyoFile on Friday. “On the other hand, the rules do allow for prosecutors to say whether they are investigating, to make broad statements, particularly in matters of high public interest.”
