The administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy has signed a contract with national law firm WilmerHale to review a commitment by his Department of Revenue to invest tens of millions of dollars from state savings in a digital infrastructure firm.

Former Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum, who earlier this year resigned and declared a run for governor in 2026, came under scrutiny in recent weeks for his decision to commit $50 million from the state’s roughly $3 billion rainy day fund to invest in DigitalBridge, a firm that focuses on servers and other infrastructure.

Dunleavy earlier this month promised an independent review of the investment decision, though details on how the review will be conducted and what it will entail have not been made public, and Dunleavy himself has declined to make clear whether he previously approved of the investment decision or was aware of it.

Department of Revenue spokesperson Aimee Bushnell said earlier this week that WilmerHale had been contracted to oversee the investigation but did not immediately provide a copy of the contract.

Dunleavy’s public records officer Guy Bell said the contract with WilmerHale had been signed by the Department of Law, which also declined to immediately share a copy of the contract.

This is the second time the Dunleavy administration has hired the services of WilmerHale to review the conduct of state agencies after concerns were raised about Dunleavy’s appointees to oversee those agencies.

After a leak of emails last year involving Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. board of trustees Vice Chair Ellie Rubenstein, suggesting possible self-dealing, Dunleavy contracted WilmerHale to review Permanent Fund Corp. policies, including “avoiding perceived conflicts of interest.” Dunleavy had appointed Rubenstein to the Permanent Fund Corp. board of trustees in 2022, several months before he appointed Crum to head the Department of Revenue.

That contract with WilmerHale, originally signed last year with a $50,000 cap, was eventually extended to $450,000.

WilmerHale is a firm with more than 1,100 attorneys and 12 offices, none of which are in Alaska. The firm is also the former employer of Alaska’s Attorney General Stephen Cox. Dunleavy appointed Cox in August to serve as Alaska’s top attorney.

Bushnell, with the Department of Revenue, said the review requested by the governor would culminate in a report due before the beginning of the regular legislative session, which is scheduled in January.

“Given the Governor’s decision to have an independent review conducted, we will refrain from answering additional questions until such time as that review has been completed in order to avoid any appearance of trying to influence that review through public comment,” Bushnell wrote in an email.

In response to questions about the investment from House Speaker Bryce Edgmon and Senate President Gary Stevens, Dunleavy wrote in a letter dated Wednesday that the full agreement “involves a commitment of $75 million, of which $50 million is subject to a capital call by DigitalBridge and the remaining $25 million may be invested at the discretion of the State of Alaska.”

“To date, DigitalBridge has called $21 million,” Dunleavy wrote.

The Department of Revenue has declined to make public the agreement signed with DigitalBridge, citing a state law allowing the state to declare records confidential if they “contain information that discloses the particulars of the business or the affairs of a private enterprise, investor, borrower, advisor, consultant, counsel, or manager.”

Crum previously told the Daily News he committed $50 million to DigitalBridge with an intention of expanding investments up to 10% of the value of the Constitutional Budget Reserve — which would amount to roughly $300 million — but he said that didn’t happen before he left the department.

Lawmakers regularly rely on the Constitutional Budget Reserve to cover the spending needs of the state, raising concerns that investing those funds in illiquid assets would pose an intolerable risk.

In response to questions from Edgmon and Stevens, Dunleavy confirmed that the Department of Law was aware of the DigitalBridge agreement before it was signed. The department was led at the time by former Attorney General Treg Taylor, who has also since resigned to run for governor.

The agreement between the state and DigitalBridge was “the product of negotiations involving counsel from DigitalBridge and the Department of Revenue’s outside counsel. The Department of Law reviewed documents and provided advice regarding Alaska Law,” Dunleavy wrote to the legislative leaders.

Department of Law spokeswoman Patty Sullivan on Thursday declined to answer questions about the department’s work on the agreement until after the conclusion of WilmerHale’s investigation.

Dunleavy spokespeople also declined to confirm whether the governor attended a meeting with DigitalBridge executives on Nov. 18, 2024, together with Crum. The meeting appeared on both Dunleavy’s and Crum’s official calendars.

Dunleavy said the Department of Revenue and its current interim commissioner do not intend to make similar investments involving the Constitutional Budget Reserve in the future.

“Rest assured that I will provide full disclosure of all pertinent facts on completion of the independent review,” Dunleavy wrote to lawmakers.