The New Mexico US Attorney's Office has indicted Jamie Estrada, a former campaign worker for Gov. Susana Martinez, for "computer intrusion and false statement charges."
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This is a major development in the "Emailgate" scandal, in which Martinez staffers have claimed that a cache of leaked emails were actually stolen.
Estrada is a frequent contributor to New Mexico PBS' "The Line" program and works in public affairs. He joined the Martinez campaign as a campaign manager in July 2009, according to the US Attorney's office, and left the campaign in December.
The indictment alleges that, when the "susana2010.com" domain expired, Estrada bought it under a false name and used it to intercept emails sent by top Martinez staffers on their campaign accounts.
An indictment is merely an allegation of wrongdoing. Estrada remains innocent until proven guilty. An arraignment hearing has not been scheduled, according to the US Attorney's office.
Although one of SFR's recent stories relied on unnamed sources to break news about a possible investigation of a lucrative racino lease in Albuquerque, Estrada was not among those sources.
Named by both the Albuquerque Journal and New Mexico Business Weekly (Now Albuquerque Business First) as a rising star, Estrada served as a US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce under President George W. Bush in the mid-2000s. In 2010, he ran an unsuccessful bid as a Republican candidate for the Public Regulation Commission.
Estrada's legal matters means he will not be appearing as a panelist on local public television for some time, writes New Mexico PBS' Matt Grubs in an email to SFR.
Estrada released the following statement today:
While the U.S. Attorney's allegation of wrongdoing on my part is regrettable, I want to make it clear that I have not broken any laws or done anything improper. Nor was I dismissed from my job as interim campaign manager for Governor Martinez. Everyone knows that "the best defense is a good offense." Individuals in whom the public has placed its trust have come after me in an attempt to divert attention from their own improper actions, including the suspected Albuquerque Downs Racino bid rigging. I have every faith that not only will I be found innocent, but also that this attack on me will result in exposure of the true wrongdoers, once and for all. Governor Susana Martinez released a statement vindicating her assertions for the past year: The federal felony indictment today vindicates what I have been saying for almost a full year—that the personal and political emails of dozens of people, including my own, were hijacked, stolen, and never received by the intended recipients.
Michael Corwin, a Martinez critic who runs the liberal Independent Source PAC and leaked many of the emails in question to the media, released a statement of his own:
Photo from Facebook.
