A website at the heart of an ethical controversy this campaign season has apparently been removed over the weekend. The website was inaccessible from several locations Sunday.
Just as media across the state started pressing for answers — and more importantly, identities — a website known as “The Cutler Files” disappeared from the Internet.
“This is news to me, but it’s not a site that we spend lots of time looking at,” said Ted O’Meara, campaign manager for Eliot Cutler.
The independent gubernatorial candidate from Cape Elizabeth is the primary target for the website’s anonymous creators. The website tears down Cutler on multiple fronts, including his government service, legal career and wealth.
At Cutler’s request, the website, www.cutlerfiles.com, recently became the focus of a Maine Ethics Commission investigation. The Cape Elizabeth lawyer called the site defamatory and said it violates Maine’s “expressed advocacy” law, which regulates messaging that advocates for or against a particular candidate.
MaineToday Media reported Wednesday that it had learned that the website was hosted by a private registrar in Scottsdale, Ariz., that serves people who do not want their identities revealed.
O’Meara was pleasantly surprised to learn that the website was no longer accessible to the public. He called the website “garbage” and said that the information it contained was nothing more than distortions, half-truths and lies.
O’Meara said that while Cutler’s camp is obviously pleased that the website is down, they would still really like to know who was behind it.
“Hopefully the ethics commission is able to reveal that. The real issue is who put it up and hopefully someday we’ll find out that information,” O’Meara said Sunday night. “If you’re going to spend resources to defame a candidate, then you should have to disclose who you are.”
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