PORTLAND, Ore. -- State Attorney General John Kroger was prepared to answer questions about his Mayor Sam Adams investigation, but didn’t get a single question.

Kroger made his first appearance since announcing that he wouldn’t seek criminal charges against Mayor Adams. He had just finished a speech at the City Club, when we caught up with him at the Governor Hotel.

He takes offense, if you ask him if he let Adams off the hook. Background: Adams delayed invest.

“As anyone who knows me will tell you I went after this as aggressively as I could.” Said Kroger.

He said he didn’t go into the grand jury, because it would have denied the public of learning the facts leading to the investigation.

KGW-TV

Portland Mayor Sam Adams at City Hall.

“Grand Juries are secret and we wanted all the information to be out there for the public.”

There were times, Kroger said, when they wanted to go to the grand jury. He claims Adams’ attorneys were hampering the investigation.

“Our investigative team was so annoyed that we weren’t getting certain evidence that we were going to get a grand jury subpoena. But then the public would not have access to that information.”

The interview with Kroger soon turned to questions on matters that “didn’t look good”, such as a loan Adams gave Breedlove to the sum of $750.

“One has to consider whether it was hush money. We just couldn’t find the evidence to put forward a criminal case, “Kroger said.

And with that, he stuck to the script.

Why didn’t he beat Adams’ attorneys to Breedlove’s door? Adams’ attorneys knocked on Breedlove’s door late at night and got a statement.

“We were new to the case. We wanted to interview people quickly but it’s our policy not to interview people unprepared.”

But there was one question that seemed to stir Kroger up, that is whether politics played a role in his decision.

“I’ve made hundreds of charging decisions on hundreds of cases. I never let politics get in the way with my decisions and I never will.”