In sworn testimony, Petera said she told Matricardi that what he had done was wrong. When he insisted it was legal, Petera responded, “I told him I’m sure he had taught his 5-year-old not to do it.”
That didn’t stop her from leaving Matricardi’s office with the notes he had taken of the first intercepted phone call.
In his sworn testimony, Matricardi disputed Petera: “I recall she was very interested in the information . . . very interested in what they were saying about her boss.”
…There was so much badmouthing of Warner that he broke into the call to defend his decision not to handle the appeal.
According to Matricardi, Warner said, “I have done you a big favor by keeping Kilgore in the case.” His rationale was “they [the attorney general’s office] are not the greatest lawyers and if we wouldn’t have let them appeal it, then the State Board of Elections would have just gone and hired a fancy high-dollar law firm in Richmond to represent them and, you know, they are a lot harder to go against than the morons down at the attorney general’s office,” Matricardi summed up the phone call.
The Virginian-Pilot doesn’t think Dem lawmakers should benefit.
For them to reap a hefty reward would call into question their own values and priorities. Clearly the proper use of any money remaining after lawyers’ fees and the charitable contributions would be the promotion of Democratic Party principles. Depositing a cool half-million dollars or so in the campaign treasuries of next year’s statewide or legislative candidates would be a proper comeuppance to the wrongdoers.
Depositing the money in their personal bank accounts would make the Democrats look ethically squishy. Democrats would be better served to take the money and run – for political offices across Virginia.