TOPEKA, Kan. — A central Kansas police chief was not only on legally shaky ground when he ordered the raid of a weekly newspaper, experts say, but it may have been a criminal violation of civil rights, a former federal prosecutor added, saying: “I’d probably have the FBI starting to look.”

Some legal experts believe the Aug. 11 raid on the Marion County Record’s offices and the home of its publisher violated a federal privacy law that protects journalists from having their newsrooms searched. Some believe it violated a Kansas law that makes it more difficult to force reporters and editors to disclose their sources or unpublished material.

Part of the debate centers around Marion police Chief Gideon Cody’s reasons for the raid. A warrant suggested police were looking for evidence that the Record’s staff broke state laws against identity theft and computer crimes while verifying information about a local restaurant owner. But police also seized the computer tower and personal cellphone belonging to a reporter who investigated Cody’s background.

The raid brought international attention to the newspaper and the small town of 1,900, and a debate over press freedoms. It also focused an intense spotlight on Cody in his third month on the job.

The investigation into whether the newspaper broke state laws continues, now led by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. State Attorney General Kris Kobach said he doesn’t see the KBI’s role as investigating the police’s conduct, and that prompted some to question whether the federal government would get involved. Spokespersons for the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.

Stephen McAllister, a U.S. attorney for Kansas during former President Donald Trump’s administration, said the raid opened Cody, the city and others to lawsuits for alleged civil rights violations. He added, “We also have some exposure to federal criminal prosecution.”

“I would be surprised if they are not looking at this, if they haven’t already been asked by various interests to look at it, and I would think they would take it seriously,” McAllister, a University of Kansas law professor who also served as the state’s solicitor general, said of federal officials.

Cody did not respond to emails seeking comment. He defended the raid in a Facebook post, saying the federal law shielding journalists from newsroom searches makes an exception specifically for “when there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing.”

Police seized computers, personal cellphones and a router from the newspaper. All items were released Wednesday to a computer forensics auditing firm hired by the newspaper’s attorney, after the local prosecutor concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to justify their seizure. The firm is examining whether files were accessed or copied.

The Record is known for its aggressive coverage of local politics and its community. It received support from other news organizations and media groups after the raid, and Editor and Publisher Eric Meyer said Friday it picked up 4,000 additional subscribers, though many of the new subscriptions are digital.

Still, the raid has some backers in town.

Jared Smith blames the newspaper’s coverage for the demise of his wife’s day spa business and believes the newspaper is too negative. “I would love to see the paper go down,” he said.

Kari Newell, whose allegations that the newspaper violated her privacy have been cited as reasons for the raid, said of the paper, “They do twist and contort — misquote individuals in our community — all the time.”

Meyer rejects criticism of his newspaper’s reporting and said critics are upset because it’s attempting to hold local officials accountable. He blames the stress from the raid for the Aug. 12 death of his mother, Joan Meyer, 98, the paper’s co-owner.

Meyer said that after the mayor offered Cody the police chief’s job, the newspaper received anonymous tips about why Cody gave up a Kansas City position paying $115,848 a year to take a job paying $60,000, according to a sister paper. Meyer said the newspaper could not verify the tips to its satisfaction.

Days before Cody was sworn in as chief on May 30, Meyer said he asked Cody directly about the tips he received and Cody told him: “If you print that, I will sue you.”

“We get confidential things from people all the time and we check them out,” said Doug Anstaett, a retired Kansas Press Association executive director. “And sometimes we know they’re silly, but most of the time we get a tip, we check it out. And that’s exactly what they’re doing.”

Anstaett said he believes the state’s shield law for journalists, enacted in 2010 by the Republican-controlled Legislature, should have protected the paper. It allows law enforcement agencies to seek subpoenas to obtain confidential information from news organizations but requires them to show they have a compelling interest and can’t obtain it in another way.

Former Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican who helped write the shield law as a state senator, said it doesn’t contemplate law enforcement using a search warrant to get information without going to court to get a subpoena. Still, he said, “The spirit of the law is that it should be broadly applied.”