In this post we will dig deeper into email-gate, the story of Governor Martinez’ stolen emails.  We will connect the dots and see how the Democrats are behind the stolen emails and have illegally used them to further their goals.

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Jamie Estrada is facing federal charges for [allegedly] illegally intercepting and disclosing Governor Martinez’ personal emails.

Estrada passed along many of the illegally obtained emails to Michael Corwin who runs the union funded, hard-left Independent Source PAC. Corwin in turn passed the emails on to others including Attorney General Gary King and others.

In July of 2012 Corwin assured the media that his sources had obtained the emails legally and that they had been “vetted” by an attorney.  Who was the attorney?  We know that Sam Bregman (recently elected chair of Democratic Party of New Mexico) had access to the emails in July of 2012 because he used them to defend a client who was a former government employee.  Although Bregman has attacked Martinez repeatedly regarding her using personal emails for public business, Bregman does not want to talk about the entire email timeline and his use of the stolen emails.  But there is more…during the course of the email-gate investigation consultant Jason Loera’s home was searched by federal investigators.  Loera is now charged with possession of child pornography after it was discovered that he possessed several CDs containing child pornography.  Loera was Sam Bregman’s political consultant.

Last fall Attorney General Gary King fulfilled the (conveniently-timed) Inspection of Public Record Act (IPRA) request from the leftist-slanted Santa Fe Reporter.   This IPRA request was for email correspondence regarding state business on private email accounts.  King had received Martinez’ personal domain emails from Independent Source PAC some time before and it was already known that there was a federal investigation underway.  The news of the federal investigation into Martinez’ private emails had been on the front page of the Albuquerque Journal our state’s most widely-read paper.  In addition to disseminating potentially stolen emails, AG King also failed to remove personal emails from the outgoing file of emails…or at least redact personal information.  King claimed it was “too burdensome” to go through the hundreds of emails before handing them over to the Santa Fe Reporter.  Some emails released to the media included personal bank information. The personal emails interspersed amongst emails discussing government business should have raised red flags.  Didn’t King have questions about how Independent Source PAC had gained access to all these personal emails?

Next we see the emails in the hands of the Santa Fe Reporter. This leftist media group apparently works closely with the Democratic Party of New Mexico.  The Albuquerque Journal piece (mentioned above) had come out in early October. And the Santa Fe Reporter did not get the emails until late November.  They noticed that more than a few of the emails were inappropriate for public release and redacted some information.

The federal Electronic Communication Privacy Act cited in Estrada’s indictment goes beyond simply intercepting emails. This same statute makes it a federal crime to disseminate the emails which were obtained unlawfully.  What is even more interesting is that it is not necessary to prove someone knew the federal statute, or even that the emails being distributed were known to be stolen…the law only says the party needs to have “reason to know” that the emails were stolen.

18 USC § 2511

Interception and disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications prohibited

(1) Except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter any person who–

(a) intentionally intercepts, endeavors to intercept, or procures any other person to intercept or endeavor to intercept, any wire, oral, or electronic communication

(c) intentionally discloses, or endeavors to disclose, to any other person the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of a wire, oral, or electronic communication in violation of this subsection;

(d) intentionally uses, or endeavors to use, the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of a wire, oral, or electronic communication in violation of this subsection.

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Here are the players in the email-gate saga that the left has stirred up:

Jamie Estrada intercepted and disseminated the emails he stole.

Corwin of Independent Source PAC passed the emails on to various leftists including Attorney General Gary King.  Corwin said the emails were “legal.”  He either didn’t know what he was talking about

Sam Bregman, chair of Democratic Party of New Mexico.  Bregman may very well be the person referred to when Corwin assured the public that the stolen emails had been “vetted” by an attorney and were legally obtained.  Bregman had access to the emails about the time of Corwin’s statement and used them to defend one of his clients.

Gary King, having “reason to know” that the emails in his possession were illegally obtained (front page story in the Albuquerque Journal about investigation into Gov. Martinez’ claim of hacked emails) disseminated the emails when he shared them with the Santa Fe Reporter.

Writers from The Santa Fe Reporter having “reason to know” that there were potentially illegally obtained emails on the loose chose to publish them.  They disseminated and used stolen emails.

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As shown above the chain of events following the illegal interception of Governor Martinez’ emails, now known as email-gate, has been used by the left to attack many New Mexico Republicans– Governor Susana Martinez in particular.

From Democrat Attorney General Gary King and Democratic Chair Sam Bregman to “journalists” from the Santa Fe Reporter, this scandal has (once again) brought out the left’s willingness to use illegally obtained material to attack their enemy.  Then they run from the consequences and hide the truth.  According to the left, the end justifies the means.