Jay Reiff, who ran Mike Easley's successful gubernatorial campaigns in 2000 and 2004, spent nearly three hours testifying Wednesday before a federal grand jury investigating
activities surrounding the Democratic governor.

When he and attorney Michael Weisel emerged from the courthouse, Weisel confirmed that Reiff was there testifying before a grand jury that has been looking into former Governor Mike Easley's activities for several months.

"In response to subpoena, he did appear before the grand jury and fully and completely answered all their questions for several hours," Weisel said.

He did not give any details about the questions Reiff was asked. Reiff also declined to comment as he left the federal courthouse in Raleigh.

The State Board of Elections tried to subpoena Reiff for an investigative hearing last month, but Chairman Larry Leake said at the time the state's subpoena couldn't compel him to testify because he was working outside of North Carolina.

Weisel said Reiff was working in Virginia at the time, but had several interviews with board staff and made himself available to be called as a witness.

During last month's hearing, the election board presented documents identified as fundraising strategies written by then-Easley campaign officials suggesting that the Democratic Party begin handling some contributions dedicated to Easley.

A memo from Reiff from May 2000 said they could move "any or all expenditures" from the campaign to the party and pay for them with contributions to the party, a move that some have charged was an attempt to get around limits on campaign donations.

State law allows a donor to give unlimited money to a party, but only as much as $4,000 to an individual candidate per election.

Subpoenas also were issued to six current or former officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to appear starting Wednesday before the grand jury, which has been hearing testimony for months in a wide-ranging probe of activities involving Easley - who left office in January - and his wife. No one has been charged with wrongdoing by federal authorities.

The U.S. Attorney's Office also has sought information and records about air travel Easley and his family took while he was governor after several businessmen acknowledged giving Easley dozens of airplane flights, many of which were free or weren't reported on campaign finance reports.

A state trooper who previously led Easley's security detail testified before the grand jury in May but the patrol said travel records from 2005 are missing. Gov. Beverly Perdue's administration asked in August for an independent panel of three attorneys to investigate what happened to them.

Democratic consultant Joe Sinsheimer, a critic of Easley, wrote a letter to Perdue on Wednesday in part asking that results of that panel and two previous patrol reviews about the missing documents be made public.

"There are a number of positive and immediate steps you could take as governor to help restore confidence in state government," Sinsheimer wrote.

Perdue, speaking to reporters after a public appearance in Raleigh, said the panel is working hard but state officials are still waiting for data from a computer hard drive given to federal investigators that once contained Easley travel information.

"We really are trying to do as much as we can do as quickly as we can do it," Perdue said.

Easley and others testified before the State Board of Elections three weeks ago. The board ordered Easley's campaign committee to pay $100,000 for dozens of unreported flights and asked state prosecutors to determined whether crimes were committed by Easley or others.