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.

Twin Cities graphic designer Pat Thompson tells Minnesota Independent that Coleman’s Web site uses the same font, Gotham, that Obama’s much-admired branding program has used throughout his campaign. She and local type designer Mark Simonson found a lot to love about the design work from Obama’s camp — as Coleman has too, apparently — when they critiqued the graphics of presidential contenders earlier this year. 

“Victory” is Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s mantra now, his one-word answer to Democratic challenger Al Franken’s new one-word mission statement: “Recount.” Coleman used the word again and again at a press conference this morning, even when referring to the slim lead he holds over Franken. It’s not a tiny, fragile lead, uncertified and vulnerable to reversal; it’s “my margin of victory.”

I saw this banner ad at democraticunderground.com but didn’t use it above because I’m not sure it came from the Obama for America campaign. It doesn’t actually link to anything, and Thompson and Simonson told me last spring that replacing the actual letter “O” with Obama’s wheat-field logo wasn’t a habit of the official Obama design team but rather a hint that knockoff artists were at work. It does however serve as another comparison to Coleman’s copycat Web site.