An Albuquerque attorney said Tuesday he has a recording of the governor's top aide telling one of his clients that he never uses state email to conduct business because "I don't want to go to court (or) jail."
But the aide said the small recorded clip released to reporters is out of context, and he vowed to file an ethics complaint because the full recording outs a young female relative of the aide as a witness in a sexual assault case.
Defense attorney Sam Bregman represents fired Department of Corrections worker Larry Flynn in a wrongful termination case in which the administration's use of private email accounts was first revealed. He released the recording to reporters and said it is of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez's chief of staff, Keith Gardner.
Speaking at a news conference held in his office, Bregman, a Democrat and vocal critic of Martinez, said the secret recording is of a conversation between Gardner and a friend, Brian Powell of Roswell. Powell told Bregman he made the recording when he and Gardner were having a conversation about family issues. Powell, who works for the Roswell Fire Department, did not tell Gardner he was recording him, and it's unclear why he was recording him. |
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