When 9NEWS asked Beauprez campaign manager John Marshall why he believed they are the same man he said, "In federal criminal databases, the guy's information matches up."

Marshall also told 9NEWS the FBI numbers are the same.

The governor's race was thrown into a frenzy Friday when the Colorado Bureau of Investigation began probing whether Bob Beauprez's campaign illegally accessed an FBI criminal database for attack ad ammunition.

There can be little doubt that the "federal criminal database" to which Marshall referred, and about which Chochan speculated, is the NCIC database. The NCIC database contains FBI numbers and A numbers and it is highly unlikely that the Beauprez campaign could have obtained Medina's or Ramo's FBI numbers or A numbers from any other source. In addition, because California's criminal record information is not publicly available, the Beauprez Campaign's information must have come from NCIC or some other non-public source. According to Schrager, Marshall claims to have received this information through a Freedom of Information Act request. As you are aware, a person may obtain only his own NCIC database information via FOIA.

...Exacerbating the seriousness of the potential violation by the Beauprez Campaign is the fact that they have used information that may have been illegally obtained for political purposes, to attack Bill Ritter. In the process, they have broadcast protected information to millions of people through their television ad buy.