FBI: Democratic consultant charged in child porn case had access to NM Gov’s hacked email account

In the latest development in a fast-moving New Mexico political scandal, a state Democratic Party consultant facing child pornography charges had access to the hacked e-mail account belonging to Gov. Susana Martinez, according to an affidavit submitted by an FBI special agent obtained by New Mexico Watchdog.

In the affidavit, Special Agent Michael Boady says that Jason Loera controlled the hacked domain site Susana2010.com through an e-mail address the FBI says it tracked to Loera, who faces charges of possessing and receiving child pornography.

As reported earlier by New Mexico Watchdog, Loera was a paid consultant of a political action committee of Albuquerque lawyer Sam Bregman, who became state Democratic Party chairman this year. In 2010, Loera was a campaign field director for U.S. Rep Ben Ray Luján, D-New Mexico.

The affidavit reports that during a review of the search warrant, “numerous emails that were intended for Governor Martinez and her staff” are believed to have been compromised and the agent has concluded that Loera controlled the account “and that he has accessed the intercepted email communications.”

It mentioned that Loera had donated $100 to and received $200 in consultant fees from Bregman’s Grassroots New Mexico PAC.

The affidavit is the latest in a series of reports in a growing political controversy that surfaced last week when a former Martinez campaign staffer, Jamie Estrada, was indicted on 14 counts of hacking into the Martinez e-mail account and allegedly making false statements to authorities. Estrada has issued a statement saying he’s done nothing wrong.

The just-released affidavit does not draw any connection between Estrada and Loera. Update: In a separate affidavit, Special Agent Boady claims that “in a review of the evidence seized from Estrada’s residence, numerous text messages, chat conversations, and emails were identified between Estrada, (another former Martinez employee named Anissa Galassini-Ford) and Jason Loera, which confirm that Ford, Estrada and Jason Loera, know each other and communicate on a regular basis.”

Martinez issued a rare Facebook posting in which she tore into Bregman and state Attorney General Gary King, among others, just a couple hours before this latest affidavit came to light.

“In politics, we should expect tough and vigorous debates on the issues. But it’s disgusting to see operatives committing crimes and invading the privacy of their political opponents just to score cheap political points,” the post said in part.

Here’s the entire post:

Bregman’s spokesman for the Democratic Party of New Mexico said in response, “The chairman has no comment.”

Attorney General King told New Mexico Watchdog that the governor’s Facebook post was an example of “the Karl Rove strategy of ’define your opponent.’ ” King has announced he challenge Martinez in 2014.

“She seems to continue to criticize me on the documents” that King handed over to some media members from the Martinez e-mail collection. ”We believe we were complying with the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act and those documents were discoverable.” King added that his office did not know the FBI was investigating the e-mail case ’s office.

Click here to read New Mexico Watchdog’s story on how the FBI’s investigation into the hacking controversy led to Loera’s child pornography charges.

And here’s the affidavit detailing the FBI special agent’s contention that Loera controlled the hacked account.

And here’s the affidavit alleging that Loera, Estrada and Ford communicated with each other.

Contact Rob Nikolewski at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @robnikolewski