October 14, 1996 Portland Press Herald

Newspaper and Trial Testimony Excerpts

Pertaining To What Susan Collins Knew
and When She Knew It

October 14, 1996 Portland Press Herald
GOP FILING COMPLAINT ON BEHALF OF COLLINS
By Ted Cohen
Staff Writer

….Collins said she disagreed with political analysts who said that it wasn’t unusual for one candidate to investigate another.

"There is a huge difference between researching an opponent’s position on the issues or voting record versus sending a private investigator to probe the personal finances of an opponent," Collins said Sunday night from Bangor.

"One document they got was a detailed financial report," she said, containing information about her mortgages, her income and her personal finances. "They weren’t researching my position on budget cuts," she said.

"I don’t have anything to hide, but I think (an investigation into personal finances) is offensive. I pay my bills, I don’t have huge debts, I go to church every Sunday. There is something chilling when an investigator is hired to probe into your personal background."…

October 15, 1996, Portland Press Herald
NO PROOF OFFERED THAT RIVALS SOUGHT ‘DIRT’ ON COLLINS
By Steve Campbell
Staff Writer

…Meanwhile, Brennan called on Collins to apologize for insinuating that he did something improper.

"I think they (the Collins campaign) have done a major disservice to the people of Maine. This campaign ought to be about the issues," said Brennan. "They couldn’t win on the issues…so now they’re trying to make me look like the bad guy and her the victim."

But Collins said she is "the one who’s owed an apology."

"I’m not the one who hired a private investigator," she said. "If they hadn’t done it, this wouldn’t be a story."

Collins acknowledged that her campaign has conducted opposition research on Brennan, consisting of a review of his voting record, campaign reports and personal financial statements.

Some political observers, including Brennan loyalists, suggest that the Collins campaign leaked the story to the Bangor newspaper in hopes of helping her campaign…..

On Monday, Collins denied that she or anyone in her campaign leaked the story. She said that she was not aware that the Democrats had hired a researcher until the Bangor newspaper notified her campaign last week.

Collins, a former aide to retiring Sen. William Cohen, said she has "no idea" if she is benefiting from the controversy…..

October 27, 1996, Lewiston Sun Journal
BRENNAN, COLLINS STICK TO GUNS IN ‘RESEARCH’ DISPUTE
By Bonnie Washuk, Sunday Staff Writer

….Collins said the story was never "cooked up" between her staff and any reporter. "I learned about Norris when I got a call from a reporter the Thursday before the story ran on Saturday. "The fact is (the Bangor reporter) John Day did the research and broke a story. He called me."…

Trial Testimony Excerpts

The following are excerpts from the libel trial held in United States District Court in Bangor in July 1999 before Judge Morton A. Brody. Thanks to Thomas Watson, attorney for Robert Norris, for making a transcript of the trial testimony available to me.

Robert V. Norris Vs. Bangor Publishing Company

Testimony of
John Day
political columnist for the Bangor Daily News.
Excerpts from July 22, 1999

p. 16
QUESTION – Sometime, in September of 1996, did you have a communication with Bob Tyrer?

DAY – Yes.

QUESTION – And what did that concern?

DAY – Bob Tyrer contacted me – I think he phoned me – and said – I don’t remember his exact words, but something to the effect, you know, You’re not going to believe this. He said, We have learned that the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee has hired another private investigator, a Washington-based opposition research firm, and that this firm is currently investigating Susan Collins…..

p. 68
QUESTION – All right. Up to this point you have interviewed Mr. Norris, Todd Webster from the Brennan campaign, Ben Scheffner from Roll Call magazine, Steve Jarding from the National – the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. Were these interviews conducted prior to the appearance of your first article that came out on Oct. 12?

DAY – Yeah, I believe. Yes.

QUESTION – Do you recall if you interviewed anyone else prior to that article coming out?

DAY – I was attempting to reach Patrick Larking. I’m not certain – I don’t think I interviewed him until after the first article….I did talk to Carol Carson of the Massachusetts Ethics Commission. I talked to the librarians of the Massachusetts newspapers. I got the statements from the Brennan campaign. I did talk to both Todd Webster of the Brennan Campaign and I talked to Mike Townsend who is Susan Collins’ press secretary and requested that they submit printed statements that I could use in connection with my column….I also had a number of interviews with political consultants and reporters.

QUESTION – Did you talk again to Bob Tyrer?

DAY – I don’t recall if I had another conversation with him or not, no.

p. 98
QUESTION – But this [Norris’ request to see Collins’ financial disclosure statement], according to your story, "failed to slip past the Republican source with ties to the Weld administration who connected Norris’ name to the controversy." Who was that source?

DAY – I was initially told by Mr. Tyrer that somebody who had worked in the Weld administration had noticed or made the connection between Robert Norris and the Maine Senate campaign.

QUESTION – You were also told it was Susan Collins, didn’t you?

DAY – I inferred it was Susan Collins, yes.

QUESTION – Why didn’t you say it was Susan Collins in your article?

DAY – Two reasons, I guess. My conversation – it was understood that the information that was provided to me by Mr. Tyrer was to be treated as confidential. I couldn’t disclose he was the source. I think the second reason is that I wasn’t, at the time I wrote this column, totally aware that it was Susan Collins. I thought it might have been another person in the Collins campaign who made the connection between Bob Norris, Massachusetts 1992, and the Bob Norris up here. I later asked Mr. Tyrer point-blank, was this Susan Collins? And he said, Yes, the card had gone to her cottage or her home in Sebago. She had left it with campaign staff and the staff had checked it out.

Robert Norris
Vs
Bangor Publishing Company

Testimony of
Robert Tyrer,
campaign manager for Susan Collins
during her 1996 Senate campaign.
Excerpts from July 22, 1999

p. 168
TYRER – Again, I don’t remember specific dates, but at some point in the mid to late September, Susan Collins had received at her home, I believe, a notification from a public records office of some sort in Massachusetts saying that a person had requested some of her financial reports from when she had worked for – I’m not sure if it’s with the governor or with – she was an official in Massachusetts for a short period of time, appointed by the governor – that someone had requested this information on her background.

QUESTION – All right sir. Let me show you what we’ve previously marked Exhibit 31, which has been explained previously as a state – a Massachusetts State Ethics Commission inspection request form. Do you recognize that enlargement, that document?

TYRER – I do.

QUESTION – When did you first see that document?

TYRER – I don’t believe I ever saw the original document. I saw a copy of it because the original had gone to Susan Collins’ home address.

QUESTION – Who brought it into the campaign?

TYRER – She did.

QUESTION – She had gotten her mail while she was in Maine, I guess, and brought it in?

TYRER – Right

QUESTION – All right sir. Did you or the campaign take any action with regard to that document?

TYRER – We did….

p. 188
QUESTION – What did you and the Collins campaign decide to do with this information?

p. 189
TYRER – [after some background details]…In this case, because of those different reasons I just described, about being concerned about the timing, about hiring an investigator, about Mr. Norris’ 1992 blowup, it struck us as the right thing to do to ask a member of the press to take a look at this, see if there’s anything there or not…

QUESTION – And you chose to take it to John Day?

TYRER – Yes.

QUESTION – How many conversations did you have with Mr. Day about this issue before his stories appeared?

TYRER – Don’t know that I can remember that. A couple.

QUESTION – Did you have any agreement with Mr. Day that the source of this information would not be revealed by him?

TYRER – You mean that I told him?

QUESTION – Yes, sir.

TYRER – I don’t remember a specific agreement, no.

QUESTION – So, Mr. Day’s decision to reveal or not reveal the source of his information was his decision on his own. You didn’t have any part in that?

TYRER – I think that’s true of, you know, every reporter….

Tyrer questioning continues, July 23, 1999

p. 205
TYRER -- …I wasn’t so much focused on whether or not it was, you know, known that it would have come from us. I mean, obviously, the card came to Susan Collins in the mail, so, you know.

QUESTION – So, John Day knew that.

TYRER – Of course, he knew. A reasonable person could infer that we had had, you know, some role in asking a reporter to look at the story. I don’t think there was any attempt to hide the obvious.

QUESTION – So, to your recollection, did there come a time after this article appeared that you informed John Day that the source, in fact, was Susan Collins or did he know that from the first phone call?

TYRER – I think he knew it from the first phone call. We said, Look, you know, we’ve got a card that came from this agency and that’s – you know, that sort of triggered our concern here.

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