That probe was ordered a week ago by Danielle Smith after a CBC/Radio-Canada report that indicated a staffer at the prime minister’s office allegedly emailed prosecutors last fall to challenge decisions and orders on cases , resulting from the blockade of the Coutts border crossing between Canada and the United States. CBC/Radio-Canada did not see these emails.

On Monday, the Justice Department said it had researched incoming, outgoing and deleted emails for four months and found no evidence of a contact.

Two days later, Charles Mainville, director of communications for the Alberta Judiciary, said deleted emails are purged from the system after 30 days, meaning searches for deleted emails may not have been covered for the entire period in question.

Thursday evening, Ethan Lecavalier-Niere, a spokesman for the Attorney General Tyler Shandrosaid even if the emails were deleted after 30 days, they remained in the system for 30 days and could have been reviewed by investigators.

That means a 60-day search would go back to the end of November, which would not cover the first six weeks of Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party government.

While Lecavalier-Niere says investigators can go back as far as 60 days, he doesn’t say if that was the case, leaving confusion as to exactly how long the search for the emails took.

On Friday, Lecavalier-Niere did not respond to questions about whether investigators had viewed deleted emails for a 30-day or 60-day period. Mr. Mainville repeated his original statements.

The government also sent mixed messages about who was being investigated. Danielle Smith promised that the emails of all Crown prosecutors and all 34 staff in her office would be checked.

However, the Justice Department later said emails between “competent” prosecutors and Danielle Smith’s staff had been reviewed, without specifying how it determined which prosecutors might and might not have jurisdiction.

Danielle Smith claimed she did not lead the prosecution in Coutt’s cases and the email investigation cleared her office of the allegations unfoundedaccording to her, from CBC/Radio-Canada.

With information from The Canadian Press