Russell admitted to sending his friend the e-mail, which he carbon-copied to his father, in which he thumped his chest a little about what was, at the time, a perceived victory when the state legislature codified funding for the convention and visitors bureau and negotiations between the three north Mecklenburg towns over the interlocal agreement that provides some oversight to the agency neared conclusion.

Somehow the e-mail seems to have been illegally intercepted, as it matriculated through two e-mail accounts protected from ownership data searches — a rarity itself — and a third, whose owner actually resides somewhere in Michigan with no apparent local connection. The final recipient list was carefully targeted, including only Huntersville town commissioners and a few media outlets.

Russell’s friend contends he didn’t forward the e-mail as the electronic trail attempts to suggest, nor does he have a virus that would forward such things without his knowledge, and, even if he did, the next-in-line recipient is not in his address book. He also has never heard of the person next on the list.

Neither, it seems, has anybody else.

This leads Talkers to be more than just a little bit suspicious about the possible chicanery involved in E-mailgate 2011. So while others act indignant over the content of the e-mail, Talkers are more interested in how it made it from Russell’s outbox and into the hands of only one of the three town boards involved, and to just about every local news outlet ... except this one.