The RI Attorney General believes the contract sent by Governor McKee violates the rules

But the attorney general’s office does not enforce government procurement rules — it determines whether crimes have been committed, Neronha’s report said. And in this case, investigators examined whether the award of the ILO contract violated the bribery statute.

“Ultimately, to bring a criminal bribery case, this office requires clear evidence, beyond inference and conjecture, that Governor McKee awarded the state contract to the ILO in exchange for a direct, personal benefit to the Governor,” prosecutors wrote . . “The evidence developed here does not establish that point beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The ILO’s lawyer, former US Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, issued a statement on Tuesday saying: “The Attorney General’s report confirmed what we have maintained from the beginning: there was absolutely no wrongdoing by the ILO group or its staff. We are pleased that this matter has been concluded, and the ILO Group looks forward to continuing its work in support of public education across the country.”

Prosecutors said the key question was whether McKee steered that multimillion-dollar, federally funded state contract to Julia Rafal-Baer’s ILO group in exchange for Chiefs for Change — a group led by Rafal-Baer and close McKee associate Michael C. .Magee – who paid national public affairs firm SKDK to provide services to McKee.

Magee has been a longtime informal adviser and supporter of McKee, a Democrat who championed the charter schools known as “mayor’s academies” when he was mayor of Cumberland, the report said. They worked together at the Rhode Island Mayoral Academies and Cumberland’s Office of Children, Youth, and Learning.

In 2021, Magee served as CEO of Chiefs for Change, a nonprofit education network made up of leaders from state and district education systems, the report said. Rafal-Baer served as Chief Operating Officer of Chiefs for Change and was a close associate of Magee. Chiefs for Change worked with SKDK on education-related projects in Rhode Island in 2020.

The investigation concluded that McKee took steps to ensure that a “School Reopening Contract” would be awarded to the ILO against the findings of the contracting authorities, and that he accepted communications services from SKDK for which he did not pay, prosecutors wrote. “This is clear from the evidence and cannot be seriously disputed,” they said.

But to convict McKee of accepting a bribe, prosecutors must establish a “quid pro quo” — an exchange of this for that — between the person offering the bribe and the official, prosecutors wrote. And the investigation did not find sufficient evidence to prove such quid pro quo beyond a reasonable doubt, they said.

“There were no explicit or implicit references in the communications (emails, text messages) we reviewed, or in the information provided during multiple witness interviews, that such an understanding was present,” prosecutors wrote.

The report states that the prosecution of a bribery charge “will have to rely on a patchwork of circumstantial evidence and inferences surrounding the award of the contract to the ILO and the receipt of SKDK’s services. That is insufficient to meet our heavy burden of proof in a criminal case – beyond reasonable doubt.”

McKee declined to be interviewed by investigators, as did his former chief of staff Anthony Silva, his current chief of staff Antonio Afonso and Rafal-Baer.

Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @FitzProv. Steph Machado can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @StephMachado.