The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Jerome Fitzgerald has revealed that the Save the Bays emails he read and tabled in Parliament were printed out and delivered to him in a “sealed envelope”, adding that he did not know how the documents were accessed.

Mr Fitzgerald was fined for infringing on the constitutional rights of Save the Bays (STB) members as a result of that disclosure, and has since filed an appeal.

His affidavit was filed on January 24, and also seeks to clarify reports that he obtained the emails with the assistance of friends in the United States.

“My reference to finding the material in my ‘political garbage can,’ as explained in my response to the media, was to indicate that the email documents were unsolicited by me and received as part of information which routinely makes its way to the attention of politicians and other public figures, oftentimes from unknown sources,” Mr Fitzgerald’s affidavit noted.

“The email documents were clearly printed and sent to me in a sealed envelope. I might also add that from the face of the emails it was clear to me that they had been ‘cc’d’ to many other people, whose names were referred to by me when I read the emails in the House of Assembly.

“I reiterate, as I stated in the interviews published by the newspapers and which have been referenced, I did not receive any emails by computer, and did not ‘hack’ or conduct a search of anyone’s private emails. I remain unaware of how any of the documents that were sent to me was sourced or accessed.”

Mr Fitzgerald, with Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson listed as the second appellant, is seeking to establish that Supreme Court Justice Indra Charles was “wrong,” and “erred in fact and in law” when she ruled that he infringed on constitutional rights when he tabled the private emails of the environmental action group in Parliament, and therefore could not be protected by parliamentary privilege.

Justice Charles also ordered Mr Fitzgerald to pay $150,000 in damages for the breach – a decision the Marathon MP contends was made in error because he was “at all times acting in the public interest.”

The notice of appeal motion was filed in September last year.

In the affidavit, Mr Fitzgerald noted that Justice Charles’ judgment concluded that he said he obtained the documents with the assistance of “a couple of friends” in the US on March 21, 2016, adding that the claim was also printed in an article by Nicki Kelly, published in The Punch.

However, the Marathon MP pointed out that he did not speak in parliament on March 21, but had made his contribution to the Budget Debate days earlier on March 17. He provided the official Hansard transcripts for March 21.

The affidavit continued: “I did, however, as a result of the information received, make inquiries overseas in respect of the status of the Moore Charitable Foundation and its links to The Bahamas, as this was (and is) a matter which I thought to be in the public interest.”

The Moore Charitable Fund was founded by billionaire Louis Bacon, a resident of Lyford Cay who has been in a long-running feud with Peter Nygard, his neighbour in the affluent community.