Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert determined Tuesday that Attorney General Mark Shurtleff did not misuse the state seal when he promoted an Orem company on official letterhead to colleagues around the country.

"After reviewing your response along with the statutes and rules that regulate use of the Great Seal of the State of Utah and replicas of that seal, I find no violations in this instance," Herbert -- an Orem Republican -- wrote in his letter Tuesday.

Shurtleff's Sept. 29 letter praising DigitalBridge's "ground-breaking technology" raised a red flag because the company donated $10,000 to the prominent Republican's re-election campaign just days before. The company proudly posted the attorney general's message on its Web site until the question of possible misuse of the state's official emblem came up.

Citing Wooley v. Maynard, a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court Case, Herbert wrote "I believe that the seal's presence on official letterhead used in the ordinary course of state business 'is not to advertise the message' of any correspondence written thereon. Instead, the seal shows 'the authority of' the government official who signs the document."

In late November, The Salt Lake Tribune raised the question about this particular use of the official seal -- and DigitalBridge's electronic posting -- in light of state rules prohibiting certain uses.

Shurtleff, in his written explanation to Herbert, referred to former Attorney General Jan Graham's 1995 legal opinion regarding use of the seal. Graham summarized that the seal could appear in a number of different approved contexts and said there were no enforcement mechanisms for misuse.

In his letter to Herbert, Shurtleff bristled at The Tribune's inquiry to the lieutenant governor, whose office is tasked with guarding the state seal.

"I am in receipt of your letter . . . which came with little surprise following recent coverage by The Salt Lake Tribune inferring and/or outright accusing me of misusing the Great Seal in recent official correspondence. I understand that a Tribune reporter lodged a verbal complaint, and then wrote articles about her complaint."

If DigitalBridge had kept Shurtleff's letter online, that could have been a problem, said Herbert's spokesman Joe Demma.

"We would have looked into it and asked them to take it down," Demma said, adding that the company's voluntary removal made the issue moot.

cmckitrick@sltrib.com