The public may get to see Andy Sanborn’s cards before he’s forced to fold ’em.
The former state senator and Concord Casino owner is suing the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, but no one knows why just yet. Nearly the entire case is sealed in Merrimack Superior Court.
At the same time, Sanborn is under state order to sell his business by the end of the month in the wake of accusations he took $844,000 in COVID relief funds and used the money to pay himself rent and purchase sports cars.
New Hampshire Bulletin’s Annmarie Timmins filed a motion to unseal the case. On Wednesday, Merrimack Superior Court Judge John Kissinger gave attorneys for Sanborn and the state until Oct. 3 to come up with proposed redacted versions of the lawsuit and pleadings. Kissinger said the case is potentially sensitive because it deals with an open criminal investigation, according to Concord Monitor reporting.
Attorney General John Formella said last year he planned to investigate Sanborn for the alleged COVID fraud, though no charges have yet been filed.
Sanborn’s lawyers reportedly said Wednesday they are seeking another extension on the deadline to sell the business.
This isn’t the first time the handling of documents has created problems in Sanborn’s case.
NHJournal first reported the story that Kissinger issued an Aug. 23 order instructing prosecutors to explain how documents from Sanborn’s lawyers considered legally privileged ended up with the state’s investigative team.
Among other steps Kissinger ordered, he wants the state to provide to the court “factual affidavits on issues related to the past handling of seized documents and materials (including electronically stored information), as well as how clearly privileged documents may have been missed or not properly screened by the taint team.”
Kissinger’s order indicated there are close to 6,700 documents as part of the discovery in the ongoing investigation thus far. Some of them are in a commercial legal database program called Everlaw. It gives attorneys and law firms the ability to control and share information in large cases, and is frequently used to share discovery.
Prosecutors have been instructed to provide Kissinger with an audit of the state’s activity in the Sanborn Everlaw documents, showing which prosecutor viewed or downloaded any particular document.
