coleman-shrug“Chilling,” “frightening,” “scary.” That’s how former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman described an apparent breach of confidential donor data at his campaign Web site. It’s “obviously an attack on this campaign,” he said.

Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak expressed confidence that state and federal law enforcement agencies “will get to the bottom of this.” But Knaak conceded that “we are deeply concerned about what this means to our relations with our supporters.”

Coleman and Knaak made the comments to reporters outside the Minnesota Senate election contest trial in St. Paul, which is nearing its end after nearly two months.

“We became aware of the fact that someone had tried to access the server” more than a month ago, Knaak said. But after what he termed a “very thorough” forensic investigation, the campaign decided “there had not been a compromise of the data at that time.”

The campaign learned of the breach from donors on Tuesday night. “Obviously we are going to have to review … the process,” Knaak said, adding, “The system is secure.”

Video of the full statements to reporters by Coleman and Knaak is available at the UpTake.

Marty Owings of KFAI-FM contributed to this report.