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Ethics memo raises big questions
Newly released documents show that Gov. Nathan Deal’s top aide and state ethics commission Director Holly LaBerge exchanged light-hearted texts more than a week before the aide allegedly pressured her to settle complaints against the governor.
Copies of the actual text messages, released Wednesday, show ChrisRiley and LaBerge joked together on July 5, 2012.
Previously, it was believed that the exchange was July 17, 2012, just hours after Riley and Deal’s executive counsel Ryan Teague called and texted LaBerge about the complaints that would be before the commission the following week. That had called into question LaBerge’s claim that she felt Teague threatened the agency if she didn’t settle the cases.
When the commission did meet on July 23, 2012, it dismissed major complaints against Deal, who agreed to pay technical fees of $3,350 for defects in his campaign reports.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV in July requested copies of the text messages and emails from LaBerge through the Georgia Open Records Act. The records LaBerge returned seemed to indicate the light-hearted texts were exchanged July 17. But, LaBerge now says that she actually forwarded those texts to her personal e-mail account that night, but that the digital conversation with Riley was July 5.
She had earlier failed to mention the discrepancy in dates, despite requests from the media outlets for clarification of details of the texts.
The texts and emails are at the center of a continuing controversy over why those communiques were not turned over to lawyers for former commission employees who were suing the state under Georgia’s whistleblower statute.
The AJC reported in July that LaBerge wrote a memo on July 17, 2012 detailing Riley and Teague's communications with her.
LaBerge gave the memo to Attorney General Sam Olen’s office during the discovery phase of a lawsuit filed by former commission director Stacey Kalberman. Kalberman was forced from office in 2011 and claimed it was over her investigation into Deal’s campaign.
Olen’s staff determined it did not have to provide the memo to attorneys for Kalberman, who went on to win a $700,000 jury verdict against the state, plus another $450,000 in attorneys’ fees. Three other former commission employees who had also filed suit, or were about to, later settled their cases for $1.8 million total.
Kalberman attorney Kim Worth accused Olens of violating state discovery laws by not providing her the emails and texts referenced in LaBerge's memo. Worth said she plans to seek sanctions against Olens or his office in Fulton County Superior Court.
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