{"id":4539,"date":"2009-05-06T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-06T22:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/05\/auditor-ag-may-be-illegally-seeking-info-about-probes\/"},"modified":"2009-05-06T16:25:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-06T22:25:00","slug":"auditor-ag-may-be-illegally-seeking-info-about-probes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/05\/auditor-ag-may-be-illegally-seeking-info-about-probes\/","title":{"rendered":"Auditor: AG may be illegally seeking info about probes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n

Balderas says subpoena may be a fishing expedition to determine what auditor<\/span>\u2019s probes<\/span> have revealed about King, the AG\u2019s office or other agencies with which King has a conflict<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

State Auditor Hector Balderas<\/a> says Attorney General Gary King<\/a> may be illegally using a subpoena for documents as a way to find out what Balderas has discovered in the course of investigations involving King, the AG\u2019s office or other agencies with which King has a conflict.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

While Balderas isn\u2019t saying exactly what his office is investigating that might involve King or King\u2019s office, he said he believes a broad subpoena issued by King\u2019s office for state auditor records \u201cis being used as a backdoor\u201d for information about the auditor\u2019s probes. He called that \u201cillegal misuse of the subpoena\u201d and said it threatens the auditor\u2019s ability to investigate.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI\u2019m very concerned that a subpoena would be used to disrupt or usurp independent, constitutional authority to protect taxpayers,\u201d Balderas said. \u201cThe law is set up in a way that there are two, independent watchdogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Balderas\u2019 words are the latest in a fight<\/a> between the two statewide elected officials and their offices over the subpoena. Several months ago Balderas turned over to King, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, tips received by his office\u2019s audit fraud hotline alleging that Balderas made improper purchases and had an employee babysit his children on state time. Balderas says the allegations are demonstrably false.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

King\u2019s office expanded its investigation into the allegations with the subpoena, which seeks a host of documents from the auditor\u2019s office, including all tips sent to the fraud hotline, personnel files and \u201ccopies of all electronic communications\u201d including e-mails, text messages, faxes, attachments and embedded files.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In a March letter, Balderas\u2019 office said it would not comply with the subpoena because it \u201cis not prepared to allow the (attorney general) to rummage through its files.\u201d It wasn\u2019t until today that Balderas elaborated on the concern about the motive behind the subpoena.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Officials mum on court hearing<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Earlier today, a closed-door court hearing was held today on the matter. Neither Balderas nor the AG\u2019s office would talk about the secret proceedings, but it\u2019s in that context that Balderas made his comments about the motive behind King\u2019s subpoena.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat no agency or elected official has the authority to do is to obstruct or interfere with ongoing auditor matters about elected officials or state agencies,\u201d Balderas said. \u201cWe are very concerned because we have open matters that do involve the attorney general, the office of the attorney general and\/or potential conflicts in other agencies, and we just would like the ability to independently review those matters under the state audit act.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Phil Sisneros, King\u2019s spokesman, would not comment. Because today\u2019s hearing was secret, he said, \u201cwe are prohibited from discussing in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Balderas would not specify which special audits or other probes by his office relate to King or the AG\u2019s office. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Balderas says subpoena may be a fishing expedition to determine what auditor\u2019s probes have revealed about King, the AG\u2019s office or other agencies with which King has a conflict State Auditor Hector Balderas says Attorney General Gary King may be illegally using a subpoena for documents as a way to find out what Balderas has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539","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=4539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}