Records: Staffers couldn't reach Sanford

COLUMBIA, S.C., July 14 (UPI) -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's staff frantically tried to phone and e-mail the missing chief executive while he was with his mistress, records show.

Nearly 600 pages of documents released Monday to The State, Columbia, S.C., including e-mails and phone call exchanges between the governor's staff members, indicated chief of staff Scott English tried in vain to call Sanford 15 times last month while the governor was paying a secret visit to his lover in Argentina.

The records also reportedly showed that Sanford's communications director, Joel Sawyer, juggled media calls and e-mails from around the country as he disseminated Sanford's false information to his staff that he was off hiking along the Appalachian Trail.

The State said the documents, obtained through South Carolina's open record laws, shed new light on Sanford's disappearance and have fueled accusations that the Republican governor had abandoned the state.

"It confirms what we had believed to be the case," state Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, told the newspaper, "that no one knew or had any idea how to get a hold of him. At the end of the day, there's no excuse for that."