news-record.com

RALEIGH (MCT) -- Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said Thursday that Gov. Bev Perdue is not a target of the SBI probe into who paid for dozens of unreported flights during Perdue's 2004 and 2008 campaigns.

Willoughby, a Democrat, said the investigation is nearing its end, but he won't give any indications about the severity of the possible charges or whether top Perdue aides are under scrutiny.

One Perdue donor was indicted in February on a felony obstruction of justice charge for allegedly paying a Morganton barber to donate $3,048.50 to the 2008 gubernatorial campaign.

Robert Lee Caldwell, a retired state magistrate, secretly solicited the check to cover the cost of a private charter jet used to take Perdue to a Democratic campaign event in Manteo with then-Senate leader Marc Basnight, records show.

The Perdue campaign said it "remains committed to assisting (the) investigation in any way it can."

"We are pleased that the district attorney has made the point that he found nothing to suggest that the governor has been involved in any type of wrongdoing," added Marc Farinella, Perdue's political consultant.

The governor's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Perdue's campaign came under fire more than a year ago for not reporting 42 campaign flights in 2004 and 2008 worth more than $56,000, as required by state laws designed to encourage transparency.

In August 2010, the State Board of Elections fined Perdue's campaign $30,000 for not reporting the flights, which count as donations subject to maximum dollar limits.

In a separate case, the elections board made Perdue's campaign return $20,000 in illegal donations in December.

Federal authorities also began investigating Perdue's campaign finances in October.

The status of that investigation is unclear.