jim greer deposition transcript part 3

7/31/2019 Jim Greer deposition transcript part 3

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1 IN THE CIRCU IT COURT OF THESECOND JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN

2 AND FOR LEON COUNTY, FLORIDA

3

4 JAMES GREER,

5 Plaintiff,

6 vs. CASE NO. 2012-CA-0962

7 REPUBLICAN PARTY OF FLORIDAMIKE HARIDOPOLOS, and

8 JOHN THRASHER,

9 Defendant. ___________________________/

10

11 VOLUME 3

12 DEPOSITION OF: JAMES GREER

13 TAKEN AT THE INSTANCE OF: Defendant Haridopolos

14 DATE TAKEN: May 25, 2012

15 LOCATION: 909 E. Park AvenueTallahassee, Florida

16COMMENCING: 9:09 a.m.

17CONCLUDING: 1:15 p.m.

18

19 REPORTED BY:

20 PEGGY OWENS

21 REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL REPORTER

22 REGISTERED MERIT REPORTER

23

24

25

PEGGY OWENS & ASSOCIATES (850)222-6010


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1 A P P E A R A N C E S

2 DAMON CHASE, Attorney at Law, of th e law

3 offices of Chase/Freeman, 1525 International Parkway,

4 Suite 4021, Lake Mary, Florida 32746; appeared on

5 behalf of the Plaintiff .

6 STEPHEN S. DOBSON, III, Attorney at Law, of

7 the law offices of Dobson, Dav is & Smith, 610 N. Duval

8 Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32301; appeared on behalf

9 of the Republican Party of Florida.

10 DEAN LEBOEUF, Attorney at Law, of the law

11 firm of Brooks, LeBoeuf, Bennett, Foster & Gwartney,

12 P.A., 909 East Park Avenue, Tallahassee, Florida

13 32301; appeared on behalf of the Defendant Haridopolos.

14 KENNETH W. SUKHIA, Attorney at Law, Sukhia

15 Law Group, 2846 Remington Green Circle, Suite B,

16 Tallahassee, Florida 32308; appeared on behalf of

17 Defendant Thrasher.

18

19

20 I N D E X

21 WITNESS PAGE

22 James Greer

23 Direct Examination by Mr. LeBoeuf 383

24

25


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1 E X H I B I T S

2 NO. PAGE

3 25 - Resignation Letter 388

4 26 - E-mail Dated 6/3/10 & Attachments 432

5 27 - E-mail Dated 1/4/10 & Attachments 441

6 28 - Treasurer's Report 468

7 29 - "Confidential" Memo 506

8 30 - Crist Affidavit 522

9 31 - Sargeant Affidavit 529

10 32 - Burmer Affidavit 535

11 33 - Severance Agreement 539

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1 D E P O S I T I O N

2 Whereupon,

3 JAMES GREER,

4 called as a witness; after having been previously duly

5 sworn, was examined and testified as follows:

6 DIRECT EXAMINATION

7 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

8 Q All right. Mr. Greer, it is Friday morning.

9 We stopped your deposition yesterday afternoon and we

10 starting again this morning. You understand you are

11 still under oath?

12 A I do.

13 Q Okay. Now that you've had the evening to

14 relax and come back this morning, is there anything

15 about your testimony yesterday that you would like to

16 change where you reflected over the night and said, no,

17 that wasn't right. I shouldn't have said that or

18 anything like that?

19 A None that I recall.

20 Q Okay. You understand that today we are under

21 the same rules we were under yesterday. You are under

22 oath. If you need to stop or don't understand my

23 question, you will ask me to stop and clarify the

24 question?

25 A I do.


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1 Q Do you have any questions of me before we get

2 started?

3 A No, sir.

4 Q Okay, great. I think according to my notes

5 where we left off, we were talking about Victory

6 Strategies. And we were talking about Jason Gonzalez.

7 And one of the questions I have for you is

8 when -- there was some discussion about one of the

9 conversations that you had with Mr. Gonzalez and I

10 think some other people were there. And Mr. Chase was

11 on the phone, on the speakerphone during that meeting

12 or conversation.

13 When Mr. Chase was on the speakerphone during

14 that meeting, were there any discussions about Victory

15 Strategies at that time?

16 A No. The discussion that was taking place at

17 that time was Mr. Gonzalez was telling me that we

18 needed to get my severance agreement signed right away.

19 I was asking him whether -- why the

20 $1 million liquidated damages had been removed,

21 attorney fees. And there was another component to the

22 discussion. It was attorney fees and venue.

23 He was telling me that we couldn't make any

24 changes. We had to get it signed right away. And it

25 was a very brief conversation where he assured


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1 corporations have various tax reliefs and tax

2 deductions. I just felt it was appropriate that

3 if we were going to enter into some type of

4 business relationship, that there be a corporate

5 entity created to do that.

6 But the function of Victory Strategies, the

7 right people knew about -- fundraising and paying

8 us a commission for that additional

9 responsibility.

10 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

11 Q If that's the case, why did you threaten to

12 sue anyone who said that you were getting anything from

13 Victory Strategies?

14 MR. CHASE: Object to form.

15 THE WITNESS: That was -- I've heard that,

16 but that was not my recollection of the

17 conversation.

18 My recollection of the conversation was Jason

19 Gonzalez was laying out a series of accusations

20 that dealt with credit card spending, being in New

21 York City, limousines, the recurring cigars that

22 were purchased supposedly for me.

23 It was a series of accusations that were

24 being made by Allen Cox, Allison DeFoor and some

25 others. And my response that day in the office


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1 was not specifically to Victory Strategies, it was

2 to the multitude of accusations that were being

3 made.

4 I was sick of it. I was in a bad mood, as

5 I've said, because I came from this previous

6 meeting where they talked about suppressing black

7 voters in Florida. And my recollection of that

8 conversation where I was angry dealt with

9 everything that I was hearing that day, not just

10 Victory Strategies.

11 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

12 Q Okay. So you did say in that conversation,

13 you included in the conversation about improper

14 spending and things like that, or any interest in

15 Victory Strategies; if anybody made any allegations

16 that you were getting money from Victory Strategies or

17 making improper spending that you would sue them?


19 THE WITNESS: I don't recall it specific to

20 Victory Strategies. It was specific to everything

21 that I was being told that was being said out

22 there at that time.

23 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

24 Q Who did you say that to?



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1 THE WITNESS: I don't recall who was in the

2 meeting. I think it was Gonzalez, Katie Betta

3 might have been there. I don't recall that. It

4 was a very, very intense day. I had several

5 meetings that day.

6 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

7 Q This was in December?

8 A I don't recall when it was.


10 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

11 Q Okay. Ultimately you wrote a letter of

12 resignation, right?

13 MR. CHASE: Object -- oh, I'm sorry. I had

14 it spring-loaded.

15 THE WITNESS: Ultimately I did, yes.

16 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

17 Q That was dated January 5th, 2010?

18 A I believe there were several drafts, but the

19 one I signed I believe was dated January 5th.

20 MR. LeBOEUF: Okay. Let me show you a

21 document, which we will pre-mark for

22 identification as Exhibit 25 to your deposition.

23 (Whereupon, the document was marked as

24 Deposition Exhibit No. 25.)

25 BY MR. LeBOEUF:


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1 Q Do you recognize this to be a true and

2 correct copy of your letter to the Honorable Charlie

3 Crist, Governor of Florida, dated January 5th, 2010, as

4 your letter of resignation?

5 A I believe it is my letter of resignation to

6 the Governor.

7 Q Did you write another one?

8 A I think the other components to my

9 resignation were included in the severance hold

10 harmless agreement.

11 Q In that letter you make reference to efforts

12 by a small group within the Party who are seeking your

13 removal as Chairman, right?

14 A Yes.

15 Q Okay. When did you first learn of any

16 dissatisfaction by members of the RPOF regarding your

17 performance as Chairman?

18 A Well, I would probably say there were

19 elements of RPOF that were dissatisfied with me as

20 Chairman shortly after I became Chairman. They were

21 not supporters of Charlie Crist.

22 They adamantly became very upset when we

23 canceled the straw poll for Mitt Romney in 2007. It

24 continued all the way through to various other

25 decisions, the McCain campaign; people believing that


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1 they weren't, in fact, getting collateral for the

2 McCain campaign when, in fact, I was the one who

3 actually ultimately provided it to them because the

4 McCain campaign wouldn't.

5 So throughout my term as Chairman, there were

6 people that were dissatisfied with either myself or the

7 Governor and his appointments to the Supreme Court, and

8 various other things that he did.

9 There was also a growing animosity between

10 the legislative leaders of the Party and the grass

11 roots. The legislative leaders would frequently tell

12 me that the State Executive Committee was a bunch of

13 kooks, a bunch of troublemakers, and they ran the

14 Party.

15 Q Who told you that?

16 A Andy Palmer, Dean Cannon, Joel Springer,

17 Charlie Crist. If I have a moment, I can probably

18 think of several others. But there was a great

19 animosity growing between who believed they actually

20 ran the Republican Party.

21 It was putting me right in the middle. The

22 Tea Party came into existence. There was a feeling

23 within the Party that the Tea Party was just a bunch of

24 whack-a-dos, as they were called.

25 And you had grievances being filed between


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1 one Republican in the state to another Republican in

2 the state. Attorney General McCollum wanted me to

3 remove Doug Guetzloe from being a member of the State

4 Committee in Orlando.

5 So there was a great deal of problems within

6 the Party throughout -- really started around the

7 McCain campaign.

8 Q Give me a time for that.

9 A I would say it started right about the time

10 Charlie Crist endorsed John McCain. Because there were

11 many people that felt that he had made a commitment to

12 Rudy Giuliani. There were many people who thought he

13 was treating Mitt Romney's campaign poorly.

14 So I would probably say from the time Charlie

15 Crist endorsed John McCain, the things we were being

16 able to do at the Party, the good things, started just,

17 I mean, we continued to focus on. But things just

18 became worse and worse as the months went on.

19 Then when McCain lost Florida to Obama -- I

20 won every legislative race in Florida, but I couldn't

21 win the presidential race.

22 The hostility among the RECs, the State Party

23 headquarters just became more and more -- there were

24 legislative leaders that felt I should remove people

25 from the RECs who were being disruptive. I didn't


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1 believe that was the right way to go.

2 You know, the Party was in turmoil and became

3 more and more in turmoil. Then when Governor Crist

4 made a couple of decisions -- one to visit President

5 Obama when he came to Florida, and gave him a hug, my

6 phones lit up of people wanting me to censure the

7 Governor, reprimand the Governor.

8 There was an attempt to file motions within

9 the Party to direct me to censure the Governor. I

10 refused to do that. I kept the Governor aware of those

11 things.

12 He continuously, you know, made derogatory

13 comments about the Party, but so were legislators.

14 There was an effort by some legislators or discussions

15 by some legislators to abolish the Republican Executive

16 Committee by statute.

17 I was called and asked about that. I opposed

18 that. I said the Governor would not accept -- would

19 veto that legislation.

20 During that time frame, there was the Audit

21 Committee and the Budget Committee of the RPOF was

22 becoming more active.

23 Q By active, you mean critical?

24 A Critical. Asking more questions than they

25 typically had, particularly about House and Senate


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1 spending.

2 The legislative leadership, it was very clear

3 that they did not intend to answer to the RPOF Budget

4 or Executive Committee. They called me and inquired

5 about leadership funds. They wanted to get away from

6 the Party.

7 Their exact words to me were, Chairman, we

8 support you, this is not about you, but we are worried

9 about what Chairs might follow after you. So we want

10 to know if you and the Governor will sign off on the

11 creation of leadership funds so we don't have to answer

12 to the Budget and Audit Committee.

13 Q And this was Dean Cannon and Senator

14 Haridopolos?

15 A Yes. It was, yes, I spoke to them on I think

16 maybe two occasions, but also their representatives

17 Joel Springer and Andy Palmer at that time.

18 I spoke to the Governor about the leadership

19 fund issue. He said he was going to veto it if it came

20 up. So that message got back to the leadership. And

21 they since have created leadership funds, but during my

22 term they didn't have them.

23 So you know, and I was, and I will tell you

24 frequently I would say to Richard Swartz, say to Delmar

25 Johnson, is there anything going on here that justifies


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1 this? And they would consistently tell me no; that the

2 Audit Committee, the Budget Committee -- I remember one

3 time Jason Gonzalez told me that the gang of five, I

4 think was the term they started using, that Allison

5 DeFoor was a removed sheriff, a corrupt judge -- was

6 the terms they used.

7 Allen Cox was just a whack-a-do right winger.

8 There was another one that they talked about a lot.

9 Gary Lee who is a County Chairman, who is a former

10 Congressman. They would joke about he was a

11 Congressman forced to resign because he had an affair

12 with a woman.

13 So at that time this group that was causing

14 all this trouble was perceived to be just

15 troublemakers.

16 Q Who were the other two people in this gang of

17 five?

18 A It was a gentleman who was adamantly against

19 the Governor. I'm trying to think who he was. Jason,

20 Jason Steele became one of them because I won't

21 allocate $34,000 to him, to the REC. So he joined the

22 group and started attacking the Governor. Started

23 attacking me at REC meetings.

24 I'm trying to think who the other person was.

25 Oh, Bob Starr became a person that -- I called Bob one


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1 night on the phone and I said, listen, I've just gotten

2 off the phone with the legislative leadership. If you

3 keep causing all this trouble, they are telling me they

4 are going to change the statute and create leadership

5 funds.

6 And he said we don't care, we run the Party.

7 I said, well, they think they run the Party, so you

8 guys better get together because this war is coming.

9 Q Is it fair to say based on what you told me

10 the last five to ten minutes, there was a lot of

11 dissention in the Party, there was a lot of conflict

12 going on in the Party during this period of time?

13 A Yes. And I didn't, I didn't see it as much

14 as I should have.

15 Q And a lot of that was either directed or

16 misdirected at you?

17 A Well, some might say so.

18 Q Okay. Well, you felt -- my question was,

19 when did you first learn about dissatisfaction by

20 members of the Party with regard to your performance as

21 Chairman.

22 And you walked me through for the last five

23 or ten minutes with the time and the information,

24 giving me specifics of incidents. Is it fair to say

25 that all of those incidents reflected certain


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1 individuals' or groups' dissatisfaction with you,

2 right?

3 A Certainly toward the end. The first year and

4 a half they couldn't praise me enough. I had brought

5 business practices to the Party. I was conducting

6 training within the Party. I was trying to get county,

7 state committee Chairs, and county, state committee

8 people who never would even work with each other. We

9 had a good year and a half.

10 Q Right.

11 A And when I left the Chairmanship, President

12 Haridopolos, Speaker Cannon, praised my services as

13 Chairman. They all re-endorsed me for reelection. I

14 won reelection by 77 percent of the vote in a three-man

15 race.

16 So there were a lot of people that felt that

17 I was doing a good job. But the Party was being taken

18 over by a group of individuals that did not agree with

19 the Governor's decisions, did not agree with the

20 legislative leadership's decisions, and felt that I

21 should be more inclined to advocate their positions

22 than the Governor and legislative leadership's

23 position.

24 I didn't agree with that necessarily. And

25 the last year was a very bad year.


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1 Q Okay.

2 A For everyone involved.

3 Q All right. For all of the reasons you

4 expressed.

5 A And more.

6 Q Okay. So in your amended complaint between

7 paragraphs 8 and 12 where you indicate that your ouster

8 was because of your support of Governor Crist's

9 campaign for U. S. Senate, that's not really true, is

10 it?

11 I mean that was a part of it, but your ouster

12 really related to all the things you just told me about

13 in the last 10 minutes.

14 A Well, first of all, I would clarify. I

15 wasn't ousted, nor was I deposed, nor was I impeached.

16 There were many people that felt I should

17 continue to serve as Chairman and fight this group,

18 including the Governor who directed me not to resign.

19 So I would, for the record, state that I was

20 not removed. I was not deposed. I was not ousted. I

21 made a decision to resign for the betterment of the

22 Party against the Governor's wishes, against many of

23 the State Committee members who called me and told me

24 not to resign, that we could not let these people take

25 over the Party.


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1 George LeMieux called me and said, if you

2 resign, our enemies will take over the building and

3 they will make accusations against us. And they will

4 accuse us of things. You cannot resign. The boss does

5 not want you to resign.

6 But I had told my wife that everyday I would

7 get up and it would be something new. I had a stack of

8 grievances on my desk. I had demands. Bill McCollum

9 called me at home and told me to remove people because

10 they were troublemakers and didn't support him for the

11 Governor's race.

12 I had, I had upset people by supporting Bill

13 McCollum. And so I was not ousted. But towards the

14 end, as it relates to Charlie Crist, I believed that he

15 was the incumbent Republican Governor. I believed he

16 had served the Party well. And I believed it was

17 appropriate for me personally to support him, while at

18 the same time affording the other candidates the same

19 opportunities. But nobody could see that.

20 I reached out to Marco Rubio's campaign.

21 Asked them, would you like an office in the building

22 like Charlie Crist has? Would you like to put your

23 brochures in the lobby?

24 They rejected those offers because I know

25 strategically they wanted to continue with this "Greer


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1 is helping Crist too much."

2 It is a regret of mine that I did support the

3 Governor as much as I did. I didn't see how much it

4 was tearing the Party apart. And ultimately, I think

5 it was a major factor in my resignation.

6 Q So let me rephrase the question, instead of

7 using the word ouster. You would agree, based on

8 everything you've just told me for the last 15 minutes,

9 that your resignation was based on all the things

10 you've been telling me about all the problems in the

11 Party, all the dissension in the Party, all the

12 conflict in the Party, and it wasn't just because you

13 supported Charlie Crist.

14 A The ultimate cause of my resignation and my

15 decision was the Governor had abandoned his

16 responsibility to raise money for the Party. And from

17 a standpoint of that abandonment, my job became almost

18 intolerable.

19 He made commitments. He made commitments to

20 President Haridopolos. He made commitments to Speaker

21 Cannon. And he would make commitments to me.

22 One time he -- I told him we have to get back

23 to raising money for the Party. He told me to fuck the

24 Party. They were a bunch of crazies. And they did

25 nothing to win elections.


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1 And when I saw that happening, I went back

2 and had a conversation with my wife. And you know,

3 told her I just didn't know the right decisions to

4 make. Legislative leaders were encouraging me to use

5 my authority to remove these troublemakers. I didn't

6 feel that was the right thing to do.

7 Charlie Crist wasn't raising money for the

8 Party. The Board of Directors had become divided by

9 the supporters of Marco Rubio and supporters of Charlie

10 Crist.

11 And ultimately at the end of the day, with

12 everything that was occurring, and the fact that there

13 was so many things happening that I was being accused

14 of, the legislative leaders were using their credit

15 cards like it was drunken sailors, and they made it

16 clear to me I was not to interfere with their spending.

17 Charlie Crist not raising money for the Party.

18 Ultimately, I just felt it was best for the

19 Republican Party for me to resign, let someone else

20 take over.

21 The Governor told me not to do it. He said,

22 you have to go out in a body bag. He told me a week

23 before, a week before I resigned he said, you have to

24 go out in a body bag. You are the last Marine at the

25 gate, and you cannot do it.


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1 He was mad at me when I told him the night

2 before I was going to resign. And then there was the

3 Thrasher issue where Dean Cannon and Haridopolos told

4 me that they had the fix in for Thrasher to be elected

5 Chairman.

6 And when I came up here to move my furniture

7 out of the office, there was a discussion that I had,

8 my wife and I had, because they had become concerned,

9 the legislative leadership had become concerned that

10 Sharon Day might become Chairman of the Party and beat

11 Thrasher in the election.

12 Q When you say "they" became concerned, who?

13 A Andy Palmer told me that Haridopolos and

14 Cannon had a plan. And I said, well --

15 Q Haridopolos and Cannon never told you that

16 they had a plan.

17 A No, that's correct. It was Andy Palmer who

18 was their Chief of Staff. I asked what the plan was --

19 Q Was Andy Palmer Chief of Staff for both of

20 them.

21 A No, I think he had gone over to the Senate

22 side maybe on the Senate campaigns. I'm not sure. He

23 was either the House Chief of Staff at that time --

24 because Andy moved to different positions. But Andy

25 was the go-to guy.


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1 Q When did Andy tell you this?

2 A On February 19th.

3 Q So you had already resigned?

4 A No, my resignation didn't take effect until

5 February 20.

6 Q Your letter of resignation was dated

7 January 5th where you had already announced your

8 resignation, and it was going to be effective

9 February 20th.

10 A Right.

11 Q You were told by Andy on February 19th that

12 Senator Haridopolos and Dean Cannon had a plan for your

13 successor, Mr. Thrasher.

14 A What they told me was if Sharon Day wins,

15 they have a plan to come in before she comes into the

16 building. Remove all the computers from the building.

17 Strip the servers. And the staff intended to resign

18 because they would not work for her or answer to the

19 Budget or Audit Committee of the Republican Party.

20 I was still Chairman of the Party with full

21 authority at that time when he told me that. I said,

22 that is not a wise decision. It will cause the grass

23 roots to erupt. And they had already thought about

24 where they were moving to if she won the election.

25 Q Never happened, though, did it?


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1 A No, because Thrasher apparently won the

2 election. I guess the fix was in.

3 Q Now, when you served as Chairman of the RPOF,

4 you were aware of the fact that the RPOF did have a

5 policy that prohibited personal endorsements of any

6 political candidates by the Chairman, right?

7 A I didn't -- I don't believe that was

8 accurate.

9 Q You disagree with that?

10 A I do.

11 Q Okay. Do you think it was in the best

12 interest of the Party for you, as Chairman, to publicly

13 support and endorse Charlie Crist's candidacy?

14 A I never publicly and officially endorsed him

15 as Chairman of the Party, but I did publicly support

16 him personally. But I offered the same Party resources

17 to Marco Rubio.

18 But at the same time that issue was going on,

19 Bill McCollum came to me and asked me and told me

20 through his history with the Party, that Tom Slade and

21 other Chairmans had stepped up to the plate, was the

22 term he used, and supported one individual over others

23 so that the Party could win the general election. And

24 a good Chairman should try and get other candidates out

25 of the race so the Party can be unified.


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1 And he told me it was appropriate for me to

2 get Commissioner of Agriculture Bronson out of the

3 race, Lieutenant Governor Kottkamp out of the race,

4 Jeff Atwater out of the race and some others.

5 So the practice of a Party Chairman had been,

6 and probably continues to be, that at times -- whether

7 it be a U. S. Senate race or a Governor's race -- the

8 best interest to winning in November, a Chairman needs

9 to support and use his influence to get behind one

10 candidate.

11 Q Were you aware of a written request for a

12 special meeting of the State Committee to be held on

13 January 9th and 10th of 2010 at the annual RPOF

14 conference?

15 A I was.

16 Q Okay. Did you resign prior to that annual

17 conference?

18 A Well, it was our quarterly meeting.

19 Q Okay.

20 A And the request for a meeting, I think you

21 are referring to, was to be conducted at the same time

22 as our quarterly meeting.

23 Q Okay. Well, my question is, why did you send

24 your letter of resignation to the Governor prior to

25 that meeting?


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1 A Well, first, when they sent that request in,

2 it was Jason Gonzalez's legal opinion that there was no

3 provision within the Party rules or constitution that

4 would have permitted that meeting to occur, or that

5 provided the ability for the removal of the Chairman.

6 It was his legal opinion that the Chairman's

7 term is set for two years, and that that request

8 basically meant nothing.

9 And he corresponded back with those people

10 that their request was out of order. He suggested I

11 not recognize them from the floor. There was even

12 discussion that I remove them from the room if they

13 tried to disrupt the meeting.

14 So there was a consensus that that request

15 carried no validity to it. However, I was prepared at

16 that time to hit it head on.

17 Q Who did the request come from?

18 A I don't recall. I think the initial request

19 came from the gang of five. Then they got some more

20 people to sign on to it. I don't recall. I know that

21 they wrote to, they wrote to him. He wrote back to

22 them. They got a lawyer. He wrote back to the lawyer.

23 And it was just a back and forth issue of this upcoming

24 meeting.

25 Q All of that, all of that occurred before your


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1 January 5th letter, right?

2 A Yes. Yes. Uh-huh.

3 Q Okay. And you knew that the written request,

4 the primary objective of that written request for a

5 special meeting was to discuss and promote your removal

6 as Chairman.

7 A It was certainly going to be that group's

8 intention to try and do that. However, Mr. Gonzalez

9 told me they had no ability to do so.

10 But there was a time in December where he

11 called me and told me that Allison DeFoor had told him

12 that we were going to make it a blood bath. And his

13 very specific words to me that I will never forget,

14 "They say they are going to say and do anything,

15 regardless of whether it is truthful or not, to get you

16 out."

17 And he said, "Do you want to put yourself

18 through that, Chairman?"

19 Q And this is all going on in December. And

20 this led to your decision to resign. And it also led

21 to your decision to work on establishing a severance

22 package for yourself, right?

23 A No. That wasn't the -- the meeting coming up

24 on the 9th, I felt my team was prepared for. Gonzalez

25 had taken a legal position that I was still going to be


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1 Chairman at the end of that meeting.

2 What really facilitated my resignation, or

3 made me start thinking about it, was when I started

4 finding that Governor Crist was not being honest with

5 me about certain things. And those included --

6 President Haridopolos and Speaker Cannon told me that

7 they would support me at the January 9th meeting, that

8 these people are just a bunch of troublemakers, they

9 ought to get out of the Party, you've done a good job

10 as Chairman, but we need to raise money.

11 And I said I understand that. And they said

12 if the Governor will commit to us of raising

13 $1 million, we will support you at the January 9th

14 meeting.

15 And there was a conference call set up. The

16 last, in the middle -- no, probably the last, because I

17 didn't really make a decision to resign until two days

18 before.

19 The Governor got them on the phone. They

20 asked for his commitment to raise a million dollars.

21 He told me that the conversation went fine, he had

22 committed to the million dollars, and everything was

23 good and everything was going to get better.

24 Fifteen minutes after the phone call

25 occurred -- I think it was Jim Rimes or Andy Palmer --


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1 I think they called me on a conference call. I was in

2 the car driving down to meet the Governor and his wife

3 for the weekend.

4 I said, I understand the call went well. He

5 said, It didn't go well with us. I said, Well, what do

6 you mean? He just told me he committed to raising a

7 million dollars. They said he said, Bill McCollum

8 should be primarily responsible for raising the million

9 dollars. He would help, but he had a campaign of his

10 own to run. I said, Well, that's not what he just told

11 me.

12 When I got down there, I told him what they

13 said. He said they were liars, that's not what he

14 said. So I dialed the number on my cell phone and

15 handed it to him to speak to Haridopolos and Cannon.

16 He left a message for both of them saying,

17 You might have misunderstood what I said. I will raise

18 you the amount of money. We need to get behind

19 Chairman Greer and stick with him. And I'm sorry there

20 was any misunderstanding.

21 But I remember telling my wife that night

22 that this hostility between the Governor, the Speaker,

23 the President was growing, and then the conclusion of

24 that.

25 Then when I met with him for lunch and he


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1 told me I needed to go out in a body bag, I started

2 thinking that, you know, I'm going to be the one

3 holding the bag here at the end.

4 And it just -- and then see I was convinced

5 by Speaker Cannon, Speaker Haridopolos, that -- Dean

6 Cannon called me on December 22nd, I believe it was,

7 because I was shopping for Christmas presents.

8 And Mr. LeBoeuf, this is probably another

9 major part of my resignation.

10 Q Before you go there, let me ask you a

11 question. You said that you called Dean Cannon and

12 President Haridopolos on your cell phone, gave it to

13 the Governor, and he left voice messages.

14 A Yes.

15 Q What was that date? When was that?

16 A I would probably say around December 20th,

17 maybe, between the 20th and the 25th. Because I think

18 my family and I went down that week to spend with the

19 Governor and his family.

20 Q Then you said a moment earlier that you

21 didn't make your decision to resign until two days

22 before. You mean two days before your January 5th

23 letter?

24 A No, it was probably around -- we spent New

25 Year's Eve together. And probably around January 2nd I


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1 believe is when I finally decided that it was, I mean

2 it could have been, it was, I was torn back and forth.

3 Because on one hand, they would tell me not to do it,

4 they are going to take over the Party. And but what I

5 was going to say was --

6 Q In terms of that, to help you with the time

7 --

8 A Sure.

9 Q By New Year's Eve then you hadn't decided to

10 resign?

11 A I was thinking about it.

12 Q Okay.

13 A We were negotiating the severance agreement.

14 At some point in time Gonzalez had informed me that the

15 gang of five had, you know, had proposed to him that if

16 I would resign, I would -- they had no objections to a

17 severance agreement. They had no objections to a hold

18 harmless agreement for anything that might come down

19 the road. They had no objections to everything. I

20 would go out as a statesman, which was the term

21 Haridopolos and Cannon used with me regularly.

22 And at some point in time I told Gonzalez,

23 draw up a severance agreement if you want. Send it to

24 me, let me take a look at it, and I will think about

25 it.


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1 He started drawing up the severance

2 agreement. Started sending me various drafts during

3 this period of time.

4 Q Let's back up on that a moment.

5 A Sure.

6 Q Aren't you the person who provided the first

7 draft of the severance agreement?

8 A Absolutely not.

9 Q So it is your testimony that Jason Gonzalez

10 came up with the first draft?

11 A I think Gonzalez called me and said, what do

12 you want in it. I remember one time I was sitting on

13 my couch at home. He called me on my cell phone. He

14 said what do you want in it.

15 Q This would have been in December?

16 A I think this was toward the latter part,

17 middle part of December. Not the middle. It was after

18 Christmas, I believe.

19 MR. CHASE: Mr. LeBoeuf, before we get too

20 far down on the road on that separate issue, I

21 think he was finishing up a response to one of

22 your questions when you said December 22nd.

23 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

24 Q I intended to go back to that. You can go

25 back to that now. I got what I need. You were going


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1 to tell me another reason you resigned, I believe.

2 A I'm trying to think where I was.

3 MR. CHASE: You said December 22nd, you were

4 Christmas shopping.

5 THE WITNESS: Oh, I'm sorry, yes. On

6 December 22nd, 23rd -- the reason I remember that,

7 a group of us always went on that day to buy our

8 wives Christmas presents every year.

9 But anyway, Dean Cannon called me. He said,

10 we, the legislative leadership have lost

11 confidence in the Governor. We no longer support

12 the Governor.

13 And I remember distinctly that there was an

14 unusual tone to the Speaker's voice because he

15 kept calling the Governor, Charlie. He had never

16 done that before.

17 And I had thought to myself that, I told my

18 wife when I got home, things have changed. They

19 are now referring to him as Charlie, and no longer

20 the Governor. And that was unusual.

21 And he told me that the legislative

22 leadership no longer supported the Governor. The

23 legislative leadership felt that the Governor had

24 done terrible things to the Republican Party. He

25 listed some of them.


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1 Q Do you remember what he listed?

2 A The Supreme Court appointment, not raising

3 money for the Party. I don't remember all of them, but

4 there were several things, and that was one of them. I

5 remember he said, he is more of a Democrat than a

6 Republican.

7 Q What Supreme Court appointment?

8 A They were all upset about Justice Perry --

9 from Gary Lee to Allen Cox, to Allison DeFoor, to --

10 they called, they were, I mean they were, there was

11 some talk of censuring him for that appointment.

12 And I spoke to him about that appointment

13 prior to it happening. He felt that Justice Perry was

14 a very good justice. And they just, you know, he

15 disagreed with the Republican Party's position, but

16 there were so many things he disagreed with.

17 One time the Republican Party leadership

18 called me to get him not to sign an executive order so

19 people could vote at a polling place that had a bomb

20 threat.

21 He felt like people should be able to

22 continue and vote. And that upset them because they

23 said Democrats and blacks will show up in that last

24 hour. So everything he did that he thought was for the

25 good of people of Florida, I agreed with, they did not.


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1 So Dean Cannon said to me, We have lost

2 support. And he said, You need to think about

3 resigning. And he said, I will help you get a lobbying

4 job, if you want to open up a lobbying firm. I will

5 get you clients.

6 You know, he said, you were the Chairman of

7 Michael Steele's or you are Michael Steele's transition

8 in Washington, DC. Maybe Michael Steele can give you a

9 job at RNC headquarters since you chaired that

10 transition team.

11 He went into the fact that I had just been

12 elected National RNC Rules Committee Chairman and that

13 was a benefit. He listed all the good things that

14 could happen to me.

15 That was when he started using the term, you

16 will go out as a statesman because the Party is in

17 turmoil and so on. He was going to help me get a job.

18 Then he said, and we will give you a

19 severance agreement. He said, we will, you know, so on

20 and so on. And that day was really the first day

21 that -- well, I don't know what was the first day,

22 Mr. LeBoeuf. It was that day, the next day.

23 But then they started coming to me and

24 providing me this idea of everything was going to be

25 fine. They were going to pay me my last year.


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1 Anything that had occurred during my Chairmanship was

2 going to be recognized as appropriate, lawful. I

3 forget some of the other terminology.

4 So I talked to George LeMieux. He told me

5 not to do it. Our enemies will take over the Party.

6 And you know, I can't recall someone else, but someone

7 else told me that same thing. He said, they are going

8 to accuse Charlie Crist. They are going to accuse you

9 of things.

10 And my position was, there is nothing here.

11 Let them come -- my last week, the day I resigned, I

12 had called the Treasurer, the Assistant Treasurer, the

13 Audit Committee Chairman and the Budget Committee

14 Chairman -- which I made this decision two weeks

15 before, before I even knew it.

16 I said, I want you to come to Tallahassee. I

17 want you to look at everything. I want you to

18 determine if there is anything in this building that

19 concerns you.

20 And I even asked them when they were sitting

21 in my office, have you seen the Victory Strategies's

22 contract? They said yes. Do you have any questions

23 about it. They said no.

24 And then later that afternoon, Delmar Johnson

25 came in and I said, he said, Joel, Joel or Allen want


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1 to know if you would like them to sign anything that

2 says they reviewed these things. I said, yeah, I think

3 that's a good idea.

4 Q Okay. And with regard to Victory Strategies,

5 when you asked them if they had seen the Victory

6 Strategies contract, you never told them that you were

7 the person who formed Victory Strategies, did you?

8 A No, because I assumed by that time it was a

9 major conversation piece, that they and everyone else

10 knew about it.

11 Q You also never told them that you were a

12 majority owner of Victory Strategies, did you?

13 A No, I did not. But I provided them an

14 opportunity to ask me any questions they had about

15 Victory Strategies.

16 Q Why would they ask you? Why would they probe

17 and say, you know, well, did you form this corporation?

18 Do you own this corporation?

19 What would lead them to make those kind of

20 inquiries when you had concealed that information all

21 along?

22 A Because I was clear to them, ask me any

23 questions, ask Richard Swartz any questions, ask Delmar

24 Johnson any questions you have about any financial

25 issues or contracts with the Party. And I was specific


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1 about Victory Strategies.

2 Q And with regard to Victory Strategies, you

3 never volunteered the fact that you were the one who

4 created Victory Strategies to anyone, did you?

5 A I volunteered that information to the right

6 people. Oh, you are talking about the legal entity

7 name Victory Strategies?

8 Q Right.

9 A No, I did not.

10 Q You never told anyone you were a majority

11 owner of Victory Strategies, did you?

12 A I did not.

13 Q Thank you. All right, let's go back to --

14 you told me about the conversation with Dean Cannon on

15 December 22nd or the 23rd.

16 Was that before you had the conversation with

17 Jason Gonzalez where you talked about the severance

18 agreement, he said what do you want in it?

19 A Yes, I believe, I believe Mr. LeBoeuf, the

20 severance agreement and the dates, that month of

21 December -- I believe the date that the severance

22 agreement first started being sent to me was after

23 Christmas.

24 Q Okay. So sometime after Christmas Jason

25 Gonzalez was on the phone with you. And how did it


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1 start in terms of this discussion about a severance

2 agreement? Did he call you? Did you call him? What

3 happened?

4 A He indicated that the troublemakers, as he

5 called them, were in agreement to paying me a severance

6 agreement and providing me a hold harmless provision.

7 And I forget some other -- oh, no, his

8 position was -- at that point in time I remember he

9 said, they don't, you know, they don't want, they don't

10 want to hurt you. They think you've done a good job in

11 some areas. You know, it was kind of like, you know,

12 they are being cooperative. They just want to take

13 over. And they don't want to kill you.

14 I remember one time he made a joke, they are

15 not talking about chopping the king's head off, they

16 want you to go into exile.

17 I said, well, you know, I started listening.

18 Because during that time it was all in a big -- I

19 started listening. And I said, well, you know, I want

20 to be paid for the remainder of my year.

21 And you know, I forget exactly what other

22 things came up. My biggest concern was I felt that I

23 should be entitled to be paid for the remainder of my

24 year.

25 And I think I said I wanted that language


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1 that Dean Cannon and Haridopolos had used with me of

2 some recognition that my Chairmanship had successes.

3 It wasn't going to end the way it was being portrayed.

4 Q Okay. So in terms of the first draft of this

5 severance agreement, Jason Gonzalez called you and

6 said, in essence, a summary of it is, tell me what you

7 would like in the agreement. You told him what you

8 would like in the agreement. And he created a document

9 to send to you for review based on what you told him.

10 A Yes, but there was much more than what he

11 sent me than what I conveyed to him. I mean, there

12 were numerous provisions in that agreement that he

13 created as an attorney.

14 Q Sure. The inclusion of the name Victory

15 Strategies in that first draft, that came from you,

16 didn't it?

17 A Absolutely not. It was quite a surprise when

18 it was included in the first draft.

19 Q The inclusion of the million dollars in

20 the --

21 MR. CHASE: Liquidated damages.

22 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

23 Q -- liquidated damages, thank you, Damon. The

24 million dollars in liquidated damages, that came from

25 you?


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1 A Absolutely not.

2 Q That was from Jason?

3 A Absolutely. There were damages. I wanted,

4 my question to him was, what if they default? He said,

5 they aren't going to default. They are being very

6 honest. I believe they are being truth makers.

7 I had some discussion with him of what if

8 they default. And I recall on a phone conversation he

9 said, well, we will put in -- he may have said, we will

10 put in a million dollars liquidated damages.

11 But he said there will be a provision about

12 damages in there. And he had some other things. But

13 the drafts were created by him.

14 The parameters of me being paid and so on, I

15 discussed with him. But when I got the first, second,

16 third draft of the document, it was him making the

17 modifications.

18 Q Well, let me ask you something.

19 A Sure.

20 Q If you were only being paid $130,000 a year

21 as Chairman -- that's what the records indicate was

22 your salary as Chairman, right?

23 A Uh-huh.

24 Q Why would Jason, when you only had a year

25 left, put into your severance package you would not


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1 only be paid the $130,000 a year, but that if there was

2 a breach, it would be a million dollars.

3 A I loved it. I thought it was his answer --

4 his position at that time was he wanted me to be

5 comfortable with the contents of the severance

6 agreement. He wanted me to understand that they were

7 not going to breach the agreement, that we were going

8 to be paid, and that everybody was being honorable.

9 That I needed to understand that he believed

10 that they were being honorable in what they were

11 telling me, and that I should relax and feel

12 comfortable with the severance agreement. Because I

13 was concerned because they were all a bunch of back

14 stabbing liars.

15 Q Well, if that was true, and it was his idea

16 that there would be a million dollars severance

17 agreement, more than six and a half times what they

18 owed you, why was it taken out of the final agreement?

19 A That's a very good question. And I believe

20 it was taken out -- well, I don't know. Because I like

21 to sometimes think that when I signed it they still

22 were going to honor it. But their behavior immediately

23 around the time I signed it started becoming, as I

24 reflect upon it today -- at that time I didn't see

25 it -- but why he took it out of the severance


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1 agreement, it ended up being gone. And I questioned

2 him about why it was gone.

3 He said, well, I've inserted damages. And

4 damages, if they breach it, could be much more than a

5 million dollars, so you don't have to worry about the

6 million dollars.

7 I was later told that I made a mistake, from

8 my attorney, that I should have forced that issue to

9 remain in there. But I said I was operating under the

10 assumption that Jason Gonzalez was my attorney. He was

11 providing me good legal advice.

12 And when he said don't worry about the

13 million dollars being gone, I've inserted damages,

14 which could well exceed a million dollars if it is

15 breached, I accepted that position.

16 Q How old in the world in a severance agreement

17 could your damages exceed a million dollars when you

18 only had a one-year term left on your contract?

19 A I don't know. I'm not an attorney.

20 Q Okay. At the time you were having these

21 discussions with Jason Gonzalez, you knew he was

22 General Counsel for RPOF, right?

23 A Yes.

24 Q Did you ever have any kind of contractual

25 agreement with him? Did you ever hire him? Did he


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1 ever give you a retainer agreement or anything to

2 indicate that he represented you?

3 A No, but on several occasions he told me he

4 was representing my interests. There was a time in the

5 latter part of the discussions that Governor Crist felt

6 that I should remove him as General Counsel to the

7 Party, because he felt that he may not have been a

8 honest broker toward the end, prior to me signing the

9 agreement.

10 And Governor Crist also informed me he

11 thought that Allison DeFoor had some relationship with

12 Ausley McMullen. And that, in fact, Jason Gonzalez may

13 be violating some kind of attorney relationship issues.

14 I confronted Jason about it. I sent him an

15 e-mail. He sent me an e-mail back from a partner in

16 his firm that said, yes, they had some dealings with

17 Allison DeFoor, but it wasn't anything that should

18 affect the relationship. He was still representing my

19 interests. He was looking out for my interests.

20 The Governor felt that I should appoint, I

21 believe his name was Pete --

22 Q Antonacci?

23 A -- Antonacci as General Counsel of the Party

24 and remove Jason. I would convey to the Governor these

25 things that were going on with the severance agreement.


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1 He said, I think Jason's loyalty has changed.

2 Q With regard to the severance agreement, Jason

3 Gonzalez never told you verbally, or in an e-mail, or

4 text, or anything else, that he was representing your

5 interests and not the Party's, did he?

6 A No, he told me he was representing my

7 interests. Now toward the end he started changing his

8 tune about that. He started advocating more for

9 Allison DeFoor a little bit, more for this.

10 But for the first, first times of that

11 severance agreement, all the way to the very end, it

12 was my belief that Jason Gonzalez was representing my

13 interests and was negotiating on my behalf to

14 effectuate my resignation.

15 (Brief recess.)

16 (The following testimony was requested to be

17 read:)

18 "Q With regard to the severance

19 agreement, Jason Gonzalez never told you

20 verbally, or in an e-mail, or text, or anything

21 else, that he was representing your interests

22 and not the Party's, did he?

23 "A No, he told me he was representing my

24 interests. Now toward the end he started

25 changing his tune about that. He started


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1 advocating more for Allison DeFoor a little

2 bit, more for this.

3 "But for the first, first times of that

4 severance agreement, all the way to the very end,

5 it was my belief that Jason Gonzalez was

6 representing my interests and was negotiating on

7 my behalf to effectuate my resignation."

8 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

9 Q Okay. Let me ask you a follow-up to that,

10 because I think I asked you and you didn't answer

11 directly.

12 You don't have any texts or e-mails from

13 Jason telling you that he was representing you in the

14 severance agreement, do you?

15 A I don't recall if I have e-mails that he was

16 representing me. I have e-mails that he was conducting

17 himself as, in fact, he was representing my interests.

18 Q Really?

19 A Yes.

20 Q You have e-mails from Jason to you saying

21 that he was representing your interests in those

22 negotiations?

23 A No, that he was conducting himself as he was

24 representing my interests.

25 Q I don't understand that. What does that


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1 mean?

2 A He was performing functions as my

3 representative.

4 Q In those negotiations.

5 A Yes.

6 Q Okay. You understood, though, at all times

7 that he was General Counsel for RPOF?

8 A I understood that was an additional

9 responsibility he had. But it was my belief, without

10 exception, that in the negotiations of my resignation

11 he was my attorney.

12 Q Okay. And did you ever have any written

13 agreement with him to represent you in those

14 negotiations?

15 A No. I expected I would have been invoiced

16 when it was concluded.

17 Q Were you ever invoiced?

18 A No, because he started -- they started

19 playing games as soon as the ink started drying. So I

20 figured I was probably never going to get an invoice.

21 Q Did you ever have a discussion with him what

22 his fee would be to represent you in that service, with

23 regard to representing you in the severance agreement?

24 A No his fee structure never came up.

25 Q And he never sent you a bill, right?


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1 A No, because 10 minutes after he signed it, he

2 started saying he never signed the severance agreement

3 and it didn't exist.

4 Q Did you ever retain other counsel to assist

5 you in negotiations leading up to your resignation?

6 A On the morning of the resignation, when he

7 had taken out the million dollars liquidated damages,

8 he had taken out the venue, he had taken out the

9 attorney fees, I asked Damon Chase if he would be on a

10 call in which Damon could hear Mr. Gonzalez firsthand

11 state that they were going to adhere to the agreement

12 and comply with it.

13 And Mr. Chase didn't even really have time to

14 look at the agreement, but he was kind enough to get on

15 the call. He felt that the liquidated damages should

16 be put back in. He felt that the venue should be I

17 think in Seminole. And he felt there should be

18 attorney fees.

19 And Mr. Gonzalez stated that those things

20 couldn't be put back in because he would have to run

21 around and re-get all the signatures from everybody who

22 signed it, and that could delay the whole process. And

23 we need to get this done tomorrow. We need to get it

24 done today; but I can assure you, we promise you that

25 you are never going to have to worry about that stuff.


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1 The agreement is going to be made.

2 So Mr. Chase was not formally retained to

3 look at that issue, but he was kind enough to be on the

4 phone call that morning.

5 Q Okay. And based on all of that, after all of

6 that discussion, you signed the agreement in that final

7 condition, without the million dollars, without the

8 venue in Seminole County, and without the provision for

9 attorneys fees?

10 A Based on the legal counsel of Jason Gonzalez,

11 those items weren't necessary or needed to be in there.

12 Q But by that time when you signed it, you had

13 already contacted Mr. Chase. Mr. Chase had had the

14 discussions we just talked about. You had him

15 available to consult with you. And after all of that,

16 you signed the agreement.

17 A Well, I would just like to be clear. I

18 didn't really have the opportunity to consult with

19 Mr. Chase to an extent that I should have been allowed

20 to do, because Mr. Gonzalez was indicating that the

21 agreement was fine, I needed to sign it, and there was

22 no time to review the agreement or make modifications

23 to it.

24 Q Well, you didn't sign the contract in

25 Mr. Gonzalez's presence, did you?


50/184


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1 gotten the additional fax. We had him on the phone.

2 Jason was sitting on my couch.

3 Q She can't see your hands, so when you say you

4 had him on the phone, you mean Mr. Chase.

5 A Mr. Chase on the phone.

6 Q This is January 5th?

7 A The morning of January 5th.

8 Q Mr. Chase is on the phone. All the

9 signatures are on the final document.

10 A Not yet.

11 Q Okay. From the Republican side?

12 A Not yet.

13 Q Okay.

14 A No. Mr. Chase was on the phone. Mr.

15 Gonzalez was sitting on my couch. He was speaking

16 across the room to the phone. Don't worry, we can't

17 put those things back in there, if we go to get them

18 all signed again. Because he had gotten the final fax

19 signature that morning.

20 Then after we got off the phone, I signed the

21 agreement. He went upstairs and got Richard Swartz and

22 Delmar Johnson to sign the agreement. Then he signed

23 the agreement. And then he made a copy of it.

24 And he said, I'm going to put this in my safe

25 and no one will ever see it. And he folded his copy


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1 up, put it in his jacket. I had my original. After I

2 had that, I executed this letter.

3 Q So it is your testimony that Delmar Johnson

4 and Richard Swartz and Jason Gonzalez all signed after

5 you?

6 A I believe it was after me. I don't think I

7 had signed it until he went upstairs. Because he made

8 a passing comment, I will go upstairs and get their

9 signatures now.

10 Q So you signed it before Delmar Johnson signed

11 it and before Richard Swartz signed it?

12 A I believe so, but I don't know that's exactly

13 how it occurred. They may have signed it, and he

14 brought it back down to me to sign; but it was in that

15 time frame in the morning.

16 Q Well, if you had signed it before Delmar

17 Johnson and Richard Swartz, then when they signed it

18 they would have seen your signature on the agreement;

19 right?

20 A Well, yeah, I would assume so, but I don't

21 remember whether I signed it first or they signed it

22 first.

23 Q I understand. I understand. If you signed

24 it first, then your signature would have been on it

25 when Delmar signed it, and when Jason signed it, and


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1 when Richard Swartz signed it?

2 A If I had signed it first, it is logical to

3 know my signature would have been there.

4 Q If you hadn't signed it first, then their

5 signature would have -- no, strike that. That's all

6 I've got. Great.

7 When was Victory Strategies removed from the

8 agreement?

9 A Somewhere in the process he removed Victory

10 Strategies and broadened it to say all fundraising

11 agreements, all consulting agreements. He made that

12 paragraph much broader. I believe it was after the

13 third draft.

14 MR. LeBOEUF: Okay. For the record, we will

15 attach your January 5th letter of resignation to

16 your deposition as Exhibit 25.

17 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

18 Q Let me show you a document. This will be

19 marked for identification as Plaintiff's Exhibit 26.

20 The front page of this composite exhibit is

21 an e-mail on top from you, Jim Greer, to your wife Lisa

22 Greer, on January 3rd at 9:51 p.m., right?

23 A Uh-huh.




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1 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

2 Q This represents a draft of the agreement?

3 A Uh-huh.

4 Q Can we agree that the attachment to Exhibit

5 26 is the attachment from that e-mail?

6 A It appears to be the second agreement.

7 Q Okay.

8 A But yes, I believe so. I forwarded this from

9 me to my wife's computer so I could print it out.

10 Q Okay. The reference to Victory Strategies is

11 removed in this draft, correct? Paragraph four?

12 A It appears to be, yes. Yes.

13 Q And the removal of that reference, whose idea

14 was that?

15 A How it was removed was Gonzalez's

16 discussion -- well, it was his decision. My main

17 emphasis when I talked to him one night at my house was

18 I wanted to be released from any and everything that

19 could be accused, because there were many accusations

20 going on at that time that didn't have anything to do

21 with me.

22 And I said, would Victory Strategies cover

23 that? I remember Delmar Johnson asking me why is

24 Victory Strategies in this. I think Gonzalez and him

25 had talked about it.


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1 And Gonzalez either took my, took my

2 discussion with him and removed it -- but I thought it

3 was in the first two drafts, to be honest with you, and

4 possibly the third. Because it didn't come out until

5 later. I thought it was in the first two drafts.

6 But anyway I remember Gonzalez, I was in the

7 living room of my house listening to him, telling me

8 that the way it read now -- all consulting fees, all

9 consultant fees, all fundraising agreements would cover

10 Victory Strategies and everything. And I was satisfied

11 with that. I wish I had left it in.

12 Q Because you didn't want any liability or

13 responsibility for anything, right?

14 A I didn't want to be accused for anything that

15 had occurred by anybody in the Party that was going

16 on -- including House members, Senate members, trips to

17 the Yankee stadium, fundraising agreements.

18 I wanted to make sure that what they were

19 telling me was true, that I had done nothing wrong, and

20 that they were going to make sure they included

21 language that said everything was appropriate, lawful,

22 authorized and ratified.

23 Q Wouldn't you agree that if someone tells you

24 that you have done nothing wrong, that they can only

25 base that opinion on what they know?


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2 THE WITNESS: I would say to you to that

3 conclusion, their position was they didn't care

4 about anything that the House had done, that the

5 Senate had done, that the Governor had done, that

6 I had done. They wanted control of the Republican

7 Party. And they got it.

8 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

9 Q That wasn't my question. When you say "they"

10 wanted this, who are you referring to?

11 A The wing of the Party that does not agree

12 with Charlie Crist considered me a moderate Chairman --

13 Allison DeFoor, Allen Cox, although they later agreed

14 that Allen Cox should be removed.

15 Q So the gang of five and the people who follow

16 them?

17 A Well, you know, as was commonly referred to

18 them, the whack-a-dos, the crazies, the right wingers.

19 As Dean Cannon said to me one time, the people that

20 want to destroy our Party are trying to take it over.

21 Q Let's go back to my earlier question.

22 Wouldn't you agree that if a person tells you that

23 you've done nothing wrong, they can only make that

24 opinion based on what they know?



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1 THE WITNESS: And I believe the right people

2 knew.

3 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

4 Q That wasn't my question. Listen to my

5 question and please answer my question.

6 A Sure.

7 Q When a person tells you that you have done

8 nothing wrong, wouldn't you agree that statement is

9 premised on what that person knows?


11 THE WITNESS: I would agree to that.

12 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

13 Q So if you had committed a bank robbery, and

14 they didn't have any knowledge about it, they could

15 tell you that you've done nothing wrong; but that

16 wouldn't be true, would it?

17 MR. CHASE: Object to form. Move to strike.

18 THE WITNESS: This was a civil matter, not a

19 bank robbery.

20 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

21 Q That's not my question. If a person tells

22 you that you've done nothing wrong, by definition it

23 can only be based on what they know; correct?


25 THE WITNESS: Correct.


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1 MR. LeBOEUF: Thank you. And Mr. Chase, what

2 was your basis for your objection to form to my

3 last question?

4 MR. CHASE: Wholly irrelevant. Whether he

5 agrees on what someone thinks and all that, and it

6 is harassing. It is asked and answered. My god,

7 there are a ton of them.

8 MR. LeBOEUF: I just want to make sure I

9 know, so I don't have any reason to feel that I

10 need to clarify the question or correct the form

11 of the question.

12 MR. CHASE: No, it wasn't like a compound

13 question or anything like that. The vast

14 majority, 99 percent of my objections have been

15 relevance.

16 MR. LeBOEUF: Will you do me the favor, if

17 there is an objection to the form of my question,

18 that is something other than relevance, please

19 tell me?

20 MR. CHASE: I will. I agree with that. I'm

21 happy to do that, Dean.

22 MR. LeBOEUF: Thank you. I appreciate that

23 clarification.

24 MR. CHASE: I will tell you what. Even going

25 backward, there were a couple that I thought not,


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1 not only relevance, but you had some compound

2 questions, maybe three or four. But if that comes

3 up I will --

4 MR. LeBOEUF: You will advise me in the

5 errata sheet so we can correct it?

6 MR. CHASE: No, we don't have to do that. I

7 will, we can discuss it if it comes up and we are

8 dealing with it. I will acknowledge that you were

9 under the understanding that I've been objecting

10 to relevance all this time, and whatever is

11 equitable at that point.

12 MR. LeBOEUF: All right. If there is

13 something other than that --

14 MR. CHASE: I agree with that. If something

15 else comes up, I will let you know.

16 MR. LeBOEUF: As we've gone through this

17 deposition, I have been assuming your objections

18 have been on the basis of relevance.

19 MR. CHASE: Yeah.

20 MR. LeBOEUF: But as the deposition is

21 transcribed, if you identify an objection where it

22 wasn't just based on relevance, you will let me

23 know and we can rephrase the question.

24 MR. CHASE: I will do that. I was hoping not

25 to have to read it. But if that's the way, if


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1 that's the kind of fight it is going to be, I'm

2 in.

3 MR. LeBOEUF: All right.

4 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

5 Q I notice in Exhibit 26 to your deposition

6 that Mr. Thrasher and Mr. Haridopolos's names were also

7 added as signatories to that contract. Do you know why

8 their names were added?

9 A Mr. Thrasher is not on this one. This one,

10 they were added --

11 Q I'm sorry, Dean Cannon and Haridopolos, I'm

12 sorry.

13 A Mr. Gonzalez, throughout the drafting of

14 these agreements, was trying to determine who had the

15 power to bind the Party.

16 And his first draft had the signature of

17 Donna Solze, the Secretary of the Party. Because

18 Mr. Gonzalez had laid out a plan to me that they

19 intended to remove Allen Cox as Vice Chairman of the

20 Party, that the legislative leadership and others felt

21 that he had become too disruptive, had violated the

22 confidentiality of the Party, and made certain

23 documents available to the general public. And they

24 were going to remove him as Vice-Chairman, so he

25 couldn't bind the Party.


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1 So laying out what supposedly was going to

2 happen that day, it was like the Nixon Saturday night

3 massacre, the Attorney General was going to resign,

4 everybody was going to resign, and there was going to

5 be one person, Mr. LeBoeuf, to bind the Party.

6 The first draft had Donna Solze. Then there

7 was some discussion that Donna Solze may not have been

8 in the line of succession to the Chairmanship.

9 So he came back with some more signatures.

10 He said he as the General Counsel could bind the Party.

11 Delmar Johnson could bind the Party. And there was

12 some discussion, since Dean Cannon and Haridopolos had

13 been involved in the negotiations, we both agreed that

14 they should be signatories to the Party since they

15 controlled money for the Party.

16 And that paying me my severance agreement and

17 so on, they would buy into it, and they would be

18 signatories to it.

19 Q So that's how they ended up on it.

20 A It dealt with who could bind the Party.

21 Q And was it your opinion that their addition

22 to the draft agreement was the idea of Jason Gonzalez?

23 A It was a discussion between me and Jason

24 Gonzalez. I don't know who started the discussion.

25 But ultimately at the end, he agreed, I agreed they


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1 should be signatories to the agreement.

2 Q All right. Let me show you another document

3 which is being marked for identification as Exhibit 27

4 to your deposition.

5 A Uh-huh.



8 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

9 Q This is actually the version of the contract

10 that was actually signed, right?

11 A It appears to be.

12 Q And on this version of the agreement,

13 Mr. Thrasher's name has been added, right?

14 A It has.

15 Q Now, you knew that neither Mr. Thrasher nor

16 Senator Haridopolos had the authority to execute a

17 contract on behalf of the Party and to bind the Party,

18 didn't you?


20 THE WITNESS: I'm not an attorney, so I don't

21 know that they did or didn't. I know there was

22 some language that they would effectuate -- they

23 would insure that the terms of the, of the

24 agreement were adhered to.

25 Gonzalez added Thrasher because they had,


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1 they had taken the assumption that he, in fact,

2 was going to be the next Chairman.

3 And as a matter of fact, I met with John

4 Thrasher on the morning of the 9th. He assured me

5 even before his election that when he is Chairman

6 he was going to adhere to the agreement.

7 So whether they could or could not bind the

8 Party, it was implied to me that with all of these

9 signatures on this document, this agreement would

10 be binding and they would adhere to it.

11 MR. CHASE: Okay. Dean, I waited until after

12 his answer so my objection wouldn't cloud his

13 answer. I would add, as far as relevance, it

14 calls for a legal conclusion and you have a lack

15 of predicate.

16 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

17 Q Okay. Let's go to -- well, let me ask you

18 this. You read the agreement before you signed it,

19 right?

20 A I did.

21 Q Okay. There wasn't anything about the

22 agreement that you didn't understand, was there?

23 A From a laymen's perspective, no.

24 Q And by the time you signed the agreement, you

25 had already consulted with Mr. Chase. He had been


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1 involved in the phone conversation that you told us

2 about with Jason Gonzalez.

3 There had been a discussion of your

4 dissatisfaction with the removal of the million dollars

5 in liquidated damages, correct?

6 MR. CHASE: Object to form. Asked and

7 answered.

8 THE WITNESS: My primary consultation with

9 Mr. Chase was about the damages provision if they

10 violated it and the venue and the attorney fees.

11 I didn't have a discussion with Mr. Chase

12 about who could bind the Party, what the

13 signatories could or couldn't do.

14 It was primarily about the -- Mr. Chase was

15 only concerned about venue and attorney

16 provisions. There was no other discussion about

17 anything else.

18 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

19 Q Well, hold on a second. You were the one who

20 decided to get Mr. Chase involved in this discussion

21 before you signed the contract, right?

22 A Briefly, yes.

23 Q You knew that he was a lawyer, right?

24 A Yes.

25 Q You hired him, brought him in for that


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1 purpose, right? So that you could get legal advice and

2 legal counsel?

3 A I did, but there wasn't really an opportunity

4 for him to review the document.

5 Q Well, sir, no one stuck a gun to your head

6 and said, you need to sign this now, did they?


8 THE WITNESS: They didn't stick a gun to my

9 head, but they certainly did everything they could

10 to get me to resign.

11 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

12 Q I understand that; but you signed this

13 agreement of your own freewill, didn't you?

14 A I did.

15 Q All right, thank you. And when you signed

16 the agreement, you had read the last sentence of the

17 agreement where it says Mike Haridopolos, Dean Cannon

18 and John Thrasher represent that they would use their

19 best efforts to effectuate the terms of this agreement,

20 but that they do not have the authority to execute this

21 agreement on behalf of RPOF, but acknowledge its

22 contents as valid.


24 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

25 Q Right?


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1 A Right. The question is?

2 Q The question is, it was in there, you knew

3 it, you read it, you had a lawyer you consulted with,

4 and you knew they didn't have the legal authority to

5 execute the agreement on behalf of the Party.


7 THE WITNESS: To answer your question, I did

8 not consult with Mr. Chase about that provision of

9 the contract.

10 I spoke with Mr. Gonzalez and he informed me

11 by putting that language in there, that they were

12 agreeing to the contents of the agreement being

13 valid. They would insure that I was paid, since

14 they controlled funding for the Party. And that

15 Thrasher was going to be the next Chairman, so he

16 would go ahead and bind the Party in both ways

17 to -- he used the term -- to, it may have been to

18 enhance the signatories.

19 I mean the general recommendation from Mr.

20 Gonzalez was with Mike Haridopolos, Dean Cannon,

21 John Thrasher, himself as the lawyer for the

22 Party, Richard Swartz, and Delmar Johnson, that

23 there was nobody else that needed to sign this

24 agreement. And everybody that was involved was

25 agreeing to the contents of the agreement.


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1 MR. CHASE: I would add to the objection that

2 it is an improper question. The document speaks

3 for itself. Plus, it calls for a legal conclusion

4 and there is a lack of predicate.

5 BY MR. LeBOEUF:

6 Q You said that the reason Thrasher was added

7 was because he was going to be the next speaker of the

8 House. Didn't you tell -- I'm sorry, the next

9 Chairman.

10 Didn't you tell me earlier that as late as

11 February 19th, 2010, there was uncertainty as to who

12 the next Chairperson would be, and there was a concern

13 that another person was going to be the chairperson?

14 A By Andy Palmer's position, who was not one of

15 these signatories, he had indicated that they had a

16 backup plan. That in the unlikely event that Thrasher

17 would not win, they are going to strip the Party of all

18 of its computers, staff was going to resign. That came

19 from Andy Palmer.

20 Q We covered all that, right?

21 A We did.

22 Q All right. Now, I just want to make sure I'm

23 aware of the full extent of these discussions. Dean

24 Cannon, Mike Haridopolos and John Thrasher were never

25 involved with you in any of the discussions regarding


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1 the negotiations or the drafting of this agreement with

2 it?

3 MR. CHASE: O

jim greer deposition transcript part 3

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