And one former politician is finally talking about the role the former U.S. attorney may have had in his 2002 re-election defeat. Oshel Craigo, the former Democratic state senator from Putnam County, lost his re-election bid to Republican Lisa Smith, who has since resigned from the Legislature.

Since rumors began circulating that Kasey Warner was leaving his federal post, the reasons suggested for his departure have included everything from an e-mail linking him to a political campaign to the fact that Warner is related to two other prominent Republicans, brothers Kris Warner, who resigned this year as chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party, and Monty Warner, the failed 2004 Republican gubernatorial nominee.

Attempts to contact Kasey Warner were unsuccessful.

Craigo told The State Journal that just before the 2002 general election, the state Republican Party began circulating press releases indicating that Craigo was under federal investigation. The press quickly picked up the story, and Craigo lost.

Now, two and a half years later, both Warners are out of their positions, and Craigo spoke about what he has learned since 2002.

Apparently, Lisa Smith's brother, who does not live in West Virginia, contacted Craigo and, "he said there was a connection" between Kris' goal of ousting Craigo and Kasey's position as U.S. attorney. When Kris Warner couldn't raise enough money for Smith's campaign, Craigo said the federal investigation rumors began.

"Kris supposedly spoke to a Wood County Republican rally and told them what was going to happen -- the federal investigation -- that it was going to occur before it even happened," Craigo said. "How else would he know that?"

Craigo has other evidence that the federal investigation, which turned up nothing, was a political move brought on by the Warners.

Gary Abernathy, former state Republican Party executive director under Kris Warner, wrote a book called "Elephant Wars: Why Fight the Democrats When We Have Each Other," in which he provides a behind-the-scenes account of Republican politics in West Virginia.

In the book, Abernathy describes how he got a tip that Craigo was the subject of a federal investigation.

"Kris told me he thought the information was legitimate, and we did a series of press releases on the subject, which became a big media story," Abernathy writes. "Of course, the fact that Kris' brother, Kasey, was the U.S. attorney whose office was doing the investigation brought howls of protest from the Democrats suggesting that Kasey was tipping off Kris for political purposes.

"I never witnessed any such communication between the brothers, but I also knew well who my chairman's brother was," he continues. "If Kris told me a tip seemed legitimate, I couldn't deny feeling safer about doing a press release on the subject. The investigation itself never did seem to yield any results, but the publicizing of it no doubt led to Craigo's defeat."

Craigo said he is not considering any action against the Warners right now, but he wants to shed light on what happened in 2002.

In the meantime, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia will be led by Charles T. Miller, first assistant U.S. attorney. Miller, a Republican who has been with the office since 1984, has served as acting or interim U.S. attorney on three previous occasions -- 1991-1992, 1993 and 2001.

Miller would not comment on Warner's departure. But he did stress that the U.S. Attorney's Office would continue its mission unfazed by the change in leadership. Investigations into high-profile crimes such as voter fraud and the proliferation of methamphetamine will continue, Miller said.