Stephanie Villafuerte (gov)

The nominee to be the U.S. Attorney for Colorado has rejected allegations that she played a role in the use of a restricted government database to aid Gov. Bill Ritter (D) in his 2006 gubernatorial campaign, The Denver Post reported today.

Stephanie Villafuerte, who is Ritter’s deputy chief of staff, wrote in a letter to Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) obtained by The Post that her answer to the allegation is “emphatically no.”

Colorado Republicans have also raised questions about whether Villafuerte had discussions with staffers in the Denver District Attorney’s Office about an illegal immigrant who was featured in an ad against Ritter produced by Republican Bob Beauprez’s gubernatorial campaign.

Use of the federal criminal records database for political purposes could be a crime. She told the FBI in 2007 that she had “no conversations� with the DA employees about Carlos Estrada-Medina, who is also an alleged heroin dealer. Estrada-Medina had once obtained a plea deal under the alias of Walter Ramo when Ritter was Denver’s district attorney, according to The Post.

“Was I honest when I told the FBI that I did not have conversations with anyone at the Denver District Attorney’s Office . . . regarding the Ramo/Estrada Medina case?” Villafuerte wrote. “The answer is absolutely yes.”

Republicans charge that Villafuerte is being treated differently in the matter than U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis, who lost his job after accessing the same database on behalf of the Beauprez campaign. Colorado state Sen. Ted Harvey and other state Republicans sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month, asking the panel to investigate whether Villafuerte used the database.

The committee has yet to schedule a vote on her nomination. President Barack Obama tapped Villafuerte for the post on Sept. 30.