The aide, Barb Heki, claimed in her lawsuit that Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chairman, state senator Kent Sorenson, stole the private email list from her computer, according to a report by the Associated Press. She accused four other top staff members of knowing of the theft and trying to cover it up. Heki had earlier refused to provide the email list to Sorenson when he requested it.
Heki had been a board member for the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators for 10 years and had worked as a home-school volunteer for Mike Huckabee in his 2008 presidential bid before joining the Bachmann campaign.
When Bachmann emails were sent to members of the home-school network, Heki was identified in the press as the source. She was subsequently removed from the boards of the state and national home-school network, according to the report.
Bachmann won the Iowa “straw poll” in August last year, but finished fifth in the caucuses held in January of this year and quit the race.