But the attorney general’s office doesn’t enforce state procurement rules: It determines whether crimes have been committed, according to Neronha’s report. And in this case, investigators were looking into whether the ILO contract award violated the state’s bribery statute.

“At the end of the day, to bring a criminal bribery case, this office needs clear evidence, beyond inferences and assumptions, that Governor McKee awarded the state contract to the OIT 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 federal prosecutor Robert Clark Corrente, issued a statement 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 your staff. “We are pleased that this matter has been concluded and the ILO Group looks forward to continuing its work supporting public education across the country.”

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

Magee is a longtime informal adviser and supporter of McKee, a Democrat who championed charter schools known as “mayor academies” when he was mayor of Cumberland, the report says. They worked together at the Rhode Island mayoral academies and the Cumberland Office of Children, Youth and Learning.

In 2021, Magee served as executive director of Chiefs for Change, a nonprofit educational network comprised of leaders from state and district education systems, according to the report. Rafal-Baer served as COO 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” was awarded to the OIT contrary to the findings of state contracting authorities, and that he accepted communications services from SKDK that he did not pay for, prosecutors wrote. “This is clear from the evidence and cannot be seriously disputed,” they said.

Police obtained an email from Rafal-Baer the same day the McKee administration released the request for proposals for the contract, telling a consultant: “It’s a set RFP, but luckily I know the person it’s set for.” , followed by a winking emoji.

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 public official, prosecutors wrote. And the investigation found insufficient 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 information provided during interviews with multiple witnesses, that such an understanding was in place,” prosecutors wrote.

The report said that prosecuting a bribery charge “would have to be based on a patchwork of evidence and circumstantial inferences surrounding the award of the contract to the ILO and the receipt of services from SKDK. “That is insufficient to meet our heavy burden of proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, in a criminal case.”

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.

Federal authorities also participated in the investigation of the ILO Group’s contract award, but Tuesday’s report only reflects the Rhode Island State Police investigation and the attorney general’s evaluation of the evidence. State Police began their investigation in September 2021.

You can contact Edward Fitzpatrick at [email protected]. follow him @FitzProv. You can contact Steph Machado at [email protected]. follow her @StephMachado.