By GARRY RAYNO, Distant Dome
“Follow the money,” Deep Throat or Mark Felt told then Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in a Washington, D.C. parking garage when the newspaper was investigating the Watergate Scandal.
Woodward and Carl Bernstein were uncovering a labyrinth of organizations and characters who were doing dirty deeds through their “plumbers unit” to ensure that former President Richard Nixon was reelected in 1972 when he won in a landslide over George McGovern.
Nixon resigned two years later not so much for the crime but for the coverup.
Today there is the Dianne Martin scandal at the New Hampshire Supreme Court and much like Watergate, it may be the cover up that ensnares more justices than just former Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald.
While Nixon was impeached by the US House of Representatives for his actions, he resigned before a trial could be held in the US Senate.
There was not one party rule in Washington at the time as Nixon had a House and Senate controlled by Democrats.
Today in New Hampshire we are in year six of complete control of Concord by Republicans from the governor’s office and executive council, to the Senate and the House.
And with Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s last Supreme Court nomination of Daniel Will, the Supreme Court is also all Republican, and strategically designed from the days of former Gov. Chris Sununu to override the benchmark Claremont education funding decisions that are now three decades old without lawmakers passing a constitutional solution.
While the MacDonald-Martin scandal unveiled a self-serving court that played loose with state and court personnel procedures and rules as well as the truth, it also reveals what happens when you have one party rule and they believe it is their God given right to govern.
The scandal also revealed an entanglement between the court and the state Senate which would have to be the jury if one of the justices were impeached for their misbehavior which they fought long and hard to conceal.
They had a great deal of help with that from two people who are closely tied to the Senate.
The statement from justices MacDonald, Patrick Donovan, Melissa Countway and Bryan Gould that set off the Judicial Conduct Committee investigation because the members knew it was not truthful, was initially drafted by GOP campaign strategist, lobbyist and communications consultant Periklis Karoutas, who was hired in a no-bid contract four days after Todd Bookman’s story on the Martin scandal aired on NHPR last fall.
Senate legal counsel Richard Lehmann was also involved in the crafting of the statement. Lehmann was the attorney for the four justices who issued the statement, but then represented the remaining three justices once the JCC charged MacDonald with violating judicial conduct codes.
Lehmann as their attorney fought hard from last spring until this summer to prevent the JCC from making any announcement they were investigating MacDonald or the court. He wrote in a July filing that if the inquest goes public “the implication of alleged wrongdoing would be unmistakable.”
The JCC investigator attorney Philip Waystack argued their real intent “is to control the narrative.”
The Senate pays Lehmann as an outside vendor but he is listed as a member of Senate President Sharon Caron’s staff as legal counsel.
During his investigation, Waystack questioned if Lehmann had a conflict of interest representing multiple justices, but Lehmann contended he did not have a conflict.
As the justices’ attorney, Lehmann sought to have Waystack removed from the case, and repeatedly sought to halt the investigation and to use a different immunity provision than the one approved by the JCC as well as block any public release about the investigation, which the JCC sought to inform the public they were looking into the matter and doing their job.
Karoutas, who no longer works for the judicial branch as of Sept. 30, was paid $110,000 through Aug. 31 by the court from the default fund — fees collected from court no shows — after MacDonald had warned House budget cuts would mean he would have to curtail superior court jury trials for two months, close the Goffstown and Hooksett district courts and freeze hiring.
Karoutas has two businesses, Strategic Alchemy, LLC, a campaign consulting firm, whose clients include 11 Republican Senators and the NH Senate Republican PAC ( political action committee), and Legislative Solutions, a Concord lobbying firm.
Since 2020, the 11 Senators and the Republican PAC have paid Karoutas’ firms $1.34 million for his work, including $688,809 from the PAC chaired by Carson, more than $100,000, by senators Kevin Avard, Denise Ricciardi, Dan Innis and Tim Lang, and less than $50,000 by David Rochefort, Mark McConkey, Keith Murphy, Carson, Jim Gray, Victoria Sullivan and Howard Pearl in descending amounts of money.
Some of Legislative Solutions clients’ campaign contributions were directed to senators as well, including Delaware North, which owns Gate City Casino, NH Homebuilders Association and NH Build PAC, NH Hospital Association, Pfizer, Aroma Joe’s and NH Association for Justice.
The Republican recipients received $160,320 from the firm’s clients, while Democratic senators received $33,250.
As the old adage goes, money talks.
You do not need much imagination to understand how this could go very wrong if there were an impeachment of any of the justices and a trial before the Senate.
But it also is indicative of the growing politicization of the courts.
During the David Brock impeachment hearings which at one time included other justices under scrutiny before they were cleared, no one hired an outside consulting firm to manage media and public relations.
That is not to say that the justices were not involved in politics before being named to the board because some of them were very involved such as Brock, Stephen Thayer, John Broderick and William Johnson, and before that Charles Douglas and John King come to mind.
However, both MacDonald and Gould have been legal counsel for the state Republican Party, although they have not held elected office. Many justices have been involved in campaigns for other people, but not when on the bench.
One of MacDonald’s code violations was he failed “to avoid the appearance of impropriety.”
The code does not say the charge of impropriety, it says the appearance of impropriety in the eyes of a reasonably informed citizen who might doubt a judge’s impartiality either in a case or internal dealings within the court system.
He was also charged with not following court personnel procedures and favoritism, and given Countway and Donovan’s involvement in firing Martin when she was out on family and medical leave, as well as having two people share the same job for five months instead of the one month allowed for training, it would appear to be the same problem.
There is at least one complaint filed against Donovan, Countway and Gould and the JCC met Friday with a long agenda, but nothing has been released for public consumption to date.
While it does not appear anything Karoutas or Lehmann have done is illegal, it does look rather unsavory.
Is this how people want their government to operate with those on the inside removed from disciplinary accountability because one party controls the apparatus to hold them accountable.
And if the composition of the Legislature changes after the November elections, do you want those 11 senators sitting in judgment of a justice who is impeached knowing their campaign consultant may have helped put that justice before them?
The arrogance and complacency of one party rule can be like an animal who eats its young.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.
Distant Dome by veteran journalist Garry Rayno explores a broader perspective on the State House and state happenings for InDepthNH.org. Over his three-decade career, Rayno covered the NH State House for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Foster’s Daily Democrat. During his career, his coverage spanned the news spectrum, from local planning, school and select boards, to national issues such as electric industry deregulation and Presidential primaries. Rayno lives with his wife Carolyn and their two rescue dogs.