Secretary Laurie Rieck did not appear before legislative hearings for questioning and instead submitted a letter explaining her actions. She could not sleep and wanted to clean her office. Rieck was found dumping documents early on April 6, the morning after Jane Barto, her boss, resigned as deputy director of Iowa Workforce Development.

Rieck wrote that she went to the Iowa Workforce Development office about 4:30 a.m. "I did not throw anything away that mentioned CIETC. In fact, I found a few documents that had the name CIETC on them and those I placed on my desk," she wrote.