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Democrat Andrew P. Miller, a former state attorney general, has written U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI director James Comey to question the federal investigation into the resignation of state Sen. Phillip P. Puckett, D-Russell.

Puckett stepped down abruptly last month, handing Republicans control of the state Senate at a pivotal point in the debate over the state budget and Medicaid expansion.

Nothing that has been reported in the media “suggests that any criminal activity has occurred,” writes Miller, who served as attorney general from 1970 to 1977.

Puckett has said that a key factor in his decision to resign is that Senate Republicans would not back his daughter’s nomination for a full term as a juvenile court judge in Southwest Virginia while he remained a sitting senator.

Del. Terry G. Kilgore, R-Scott, head of the state tobacco commission, has acknowledged that he discussed a staff job with Puckett before the Democrat resigned.

In the letter, Miller notes Puckett’s daughter’s quest for the judgeship and asserts that Puckett would be an asset to the commission because his district grows burley tobacco.

“If you will pardon my English,” Miller writes, “big damn deal!”