A Las Cruces political blogger is suing the New Mexico Finance Authority for refusing to hand over documents related to CDR Financial Products, the California firm at the center of a grand jury investigation that blocked Gov. Bill Richardson's federal Cabinet nomination.
In a lawsuit filed last week in state district court in Las Cruces, blogger Heath Haussamen claims the Finance Authority illegally denied him copies of any subpoenas issued to the authority related to the CDR investigation.
A federal grand jury in Albuquerque reportedly is investigating what if any relation there was between the authority's awarding of $1.5 million in bond and interest-rate swap work to fund a state transportation project and CDR contributions totaling more than $100,000 to various Richardson-related political committees.
According to correspondence included with the lawsuit, Reynold Romero, a lawyer for the NMFA, claimed "release of the requested documents could compromise or impede an ongoing federal investigation."
The Governor's Office has used that line of reasoning for denying release of some records to
The New Mexican and other news organizations.
However, the Governor's Office in February did release copies of a similar grand jury subpoena to
The New Mexican and others, including Haussamen.
In that subpoena, the grand jury asked for any correspondence between the Governor's Office and the NMFA regarding CDR and its officials. The subpoena also specifically asked for all correspondence between the Governor's Office and David Harris, a former Richardson deputy chief of staff who was executive director of the NMFA at the time of the CDR award.
Haussamen, who once worked for
The New Mexican, is asking for the court to order the release of the NMFA subpoena. He also is asking for the agency to pay his legal costs for the lawsuit.
Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or
sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.
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