{"id":21039,"date":"2010-08-30T13:48:22","date_gmt":"2010-08-30T19:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=21039"},"modified":"2010-08-31T10:43:58","modified_gmt":"2010-08-31T16:43:58","slug":"salazar-wants-thorough-probe-of-herrera%e2%80%99s-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/08\/salazar-wants-thorough-probe-of-herrera%e2%80%99s-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Salazar wants thorough probe of Herrera\u2019s office"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A.J. Salazar<\/p><\/div>\n

A whistleblower whose lawyer has accused the attorney general of burying an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing<\/a> against Secretary of State Mary Herrera<\/a> says he doesn\u2019t share his attorney\u2019s sentiment and hopes that the back-and-forth that has ensued doesn\u2019t distract from his allegations being thoroughly investigated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was not a statement I made and it was not a sentiment I had expressed,\u201d former state Elections Director A.J. Salazar said about his attorney\u2019s allegations. \u201c\u2026 I did not ask for that statement to be made to the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salazar said he had simply been trying \u2013 unsuccessfully \u2013 to get an update on the status of the investigation, months after he first went to Attorney General Gary King\u2019s<\/a> office with allegations of criminal activity in Herrera\u2019s office. He said he just wants to know that his complaint is being thoroughly investigated.<\/p>\n

Salazar resigned in March in\u00a0a scathing letter<\/a> in which he accused Herrera of violating the\u00a0Governmental Conduct Act<\/a> and election laws. Among his allegations is that Herrera ordered exempt employees to collect signatures for her re-election bid at a meeting held during work hours, that she was improperly soliciting donations from contractors doing business with the office to help fund a training, and that she retaliated against him after he tried to stop those potentially illegal actions.<\/p>\n

Salazar\u2019s attorney, Rudy Martin of Espa\u00f1ola, said the sentiment that King has buried the investigation is his, not Salazar\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accept full responsibility from any statements that were made,\u201d Martin said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Martin is also representing two current employees in Herrera\u2019s office who have talked with the FBI<\/a> about allegations of wrongdoing. Both employees are on leave.<\/p>\n

AG spokesman lashes out at Salazar<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Gary King<\/p><\/div>\n

On Friday, Martin was quoted by The New Mexico Independent<\/a> as saying that, after Salazar took his allegations to the AG\u2019s office, \u201cthe two investigators did their job,\u201d but then \u201cGary tried to play politics and swept everything under the rug\u201d to help\u00a0Herrera and other Democrats politically.<\/p>\n

In response, Phil Sisneros, spokesman for King\u2019s office, lashed out in a very personal way against Salazar in an interview with NMPolitics.net. He also said the office has an ongoing investigation into Salazar\u2019s allegations, but hinted that the office may be having a difficult time corroborating Salazar\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

Sisneros accused Martin and Salazar of playing election-year politics. Asked for details, Sisneros said it\u2019s important to understand \u201ca little background\u201d on Salazar. He pointed out that Salazar has run unsuccessfully for district attorney in Santa Fe and, while Salazar was working for House Speaker Ben Lujan, Sisneros said Salazar \u201crepeatedly asked Gary for a job at the Attorney General\u2019s Office, which he didn\u2019t get for reasons that I really don\u2019t need to go into, but apparently Gary did not feel he met the criteria for an AGO attorney.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Salazar then worked in Herrera\u2019s office \u201cfor a whopping two months, after which he left and made all the allegations that he\u2019s made, and as far as we can tell I don\u2019t know that he\u2019s held a job as an attorney since then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sisneros said there is \u201cplenty of proof\u201d that Salazar has \u201cgone to work for and support\u201d Herrera\u2019s Republican opponent Dianna Duran<\/a>. Asked for that proof, Sisneros said \u201cwe\u2019ve heard that from political operatives all over the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also alleged that Salazar was involved with Republican Matt Chandler\u2019s<\/a> attempt to unseat King. Sisneros didn\u2019t provide any direct evidence, but cited a previously unreleased poll<\/a> conducted for the King campaign earlier this month that had Chandler behind by 19 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty desperate times for a candidate, and we feel that he\u2019s just trying to throw up as much mud as he can,\u201d Sisneros said. He suggested that NMPolitics.net should ask whether Chandler has promised Salazar a job if he\u2019s elected.<\/p>\n

Salazar says he\u2019s \u2018not involved in anyone\u2019s campaign\u2019<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Salazar said in an interview with NMPolitics.net that he has not asked for or been promised a job by Chandler and hasn\u2019t even met with Chandler or his campaign. He acknowledged that he won\u2019t be voting for Herrera but said he\u2019s \u201cnot involved in anyone\u2019s campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to raise my family and trying to run my business,\u201d Salazar said. \u201cIt\u2019s sad that we have statements and accusations coming out like that from the representative of the Attorney General\u2019s Office. If it wasn\u2019t a political issue before, it certainly sounds like they\u2019re making it into one right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salazar also said Sisneros \u2013 who he pointed out used to be a radio DJ in Albuquerque \u2013 needs to \u201cdo his homework before he makes statements like that.\u201d He said he worked in Herrera\u2019s office for 11 months, not two. And he said he is currently working as an attorney.<\/p>\n

Salazar also said he was a prosecutor for 16 years in the Santa Fe district attorney\u2019s office and in the attorney general\u2019s office under King\u2019s predecessor.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Chandler called Sisneros\u2019 statements an attempt to discredit Salazar and his allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny insinuation that I\u2019ve discussed a job with A.J. Salazar, offered A.J. Salazar a job, is ludicrous,\u201d Chandler said. \u201c\u2026 I have not met and have not personally spoken to his attorney and I have not talked with A.J. Salazar about a job\u2026 nor has he asked me about a position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chandler said he has also not talked with Salazar \u201cabout details surrounding his resignation or anything of that nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s not being swept under the rug\u2019<\/h3>\n

The AG\u2019s office usually won\u2019t discuss ongoing investigations \u2013 or even confirm that they exist \u2013 but Sisneros said Salazar opened the door in this case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did open a file as a result of his allegations,\u201d Sisneros said. \u201c\u2026 We took it seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said investigators interviewed Salazar for about three hours to gather information and \u201chave also done the same thing with the secretary of state\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of where it stands right now. We\u2019re still looking into a lot of things that he talked to our investigators about,\u201d Sisneros said. But, acknowledging that the investigation has taken months, he said, \u201cOftentimes when it takes a little bit longer I think experience tells me that we\u2019re having a hard time corroborating things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s neither here nor there,\u201d Sisneros said, \u201cbut I think it should be pointed out that we are in fact looking at this and it\u2019s ongoing. For him to be saying that it\u2019s being swept under the rug is just mind-numbing to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sisneros said Salazar should not be alleging a cover up without evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to make a charge like that then you\u2019d better come back with some evidence, and I know that there isn\u2019t any evidence because it\u2019s not being swept under the rug,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an active investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sisneros said an update on the investigation wasn\u2019t given to Salazar because the AG\u2019s office doesn\u2019t typically provide such updates to anyone. But Salazar said not communicating with witnesses to crimes could discourage them from coming forward. Such potential discouragement is exacerbated by Sisneros\u2019 statements about him, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether I ran for district attorney, or whether I applied for jobs, what does that have to do with whether they\u2019re going to do their job?\u201d he asked. \u201cI have not made any statements critical of Attorney General King. I have just asked what is the status.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I did what I feel was my duty\u2019<\/h3>\n

Salazar\u2019s bottom line: \u201cSecretary of State Mary Herrera and (Deputy Secretary of State) Francisco Trujillo have violated the law. \u2026 I did what I feel was my duty to do in reporting what I did when I left that office. I would do the same thing again.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that should not be overshadowed by political attacks.<\/p>\n

Martin said he believes Sisneros\u2019 statements about Salazar back up his belief that King is doing nothing about Salazar\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why Gary is so upset at all. Why they got personal doesn\u2019t make any sense to me,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of issues out there that need to be taken care of and they\u2019re not being taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A whistleblower whose lawyer has accused the attorney general of burying an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing against Secretary of State Mary Herrera says he doesn\u2019t share his attorney\u2019s sentiment and hopes that the back-and-forth that has ensued doesn\u2019t distract from his allegations being thoroughly investigated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,142,107],"class_list":["post-21039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-crime","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}