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Lawyers for Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz-Marconi say Attorney General John Formella broke Department of Justice policy by privately questioning former Gov. Chris Sununu, according to a new motion to dismiss the criminal case against the suspended judge.

And because of Formella’s conflicts, the lawyers are requesting that Formella and the Attorney General’s Office be replaced by a special prosecutor in this case.

In a motion filed last week in Merrimack Superior Court, Hantz-Marconi’s lawyers say newly disclosed evidence shows Formella is a conflicted witness whose own bias prejudiced the investigation from the start.

“The discovery shows that Attorney General Formella will be a necessary witness at trial because he was the first person to interview Gov. Sununu and legal counsel (Rudy) Ogden about the Hantz-Marconi meeting, which is at the heart of this case,” lawyers Richard Guerriero and Jonathan Kotlier wrote.

As a result, “Formella made himself a trial witness when he conducted those interviews alone with no investigator as a witness, despite standard practices in his office and ABA guidance to the contrary. Moreover, the discovery shows that Formella’s conflict of interest has resulted in prejudice that is evident throughout the investigation and prosecution of this case.”

The motion also complains to the court that evidence of Formella’s role in instigating the criminal case against Hantz-Marconi, including notes of his conversations with Sununu and Ogden, was not disclosed to the defense until recently, according to the motion.

“Formella failed to take the standard precaution of having an investigator present for the interview, despite the warnings from groups like the American Bar Association, that a ‘prosecutor should avoid the prospect of having to testify personally about the content of a witness interview’ by having a ‘trusted and credible person,’ such as an investigator, conduct the interview or at least witness it,” the lawyers wrote in the motion.

Formella’s private conversations with Sununu and Ogden were not known when Guerriero and Kotlier previously raised Formella’s close relationship with Sununu as grounds to have him and his office removed from the case. At the time, Judge Matin Honigberg denied that motion, in part, by pointing out Formella was not a witness to the case.

“The court understands defendant’s assertion to be that AG Formella or other AAGs (assistant attorneys general) may become conflicted because they could, hypothetically, become witnesses if the governor approached them with information regarding his conversation with the defendant. The court dismisses such a theory as speculative,” Honigberg wrote in his Dec. 18 order denying the motion to disqualify Formella.

While neither Honigberg nor Hantz-Marconi’s lawyers knew about Formella’s private conversations, prosecutors were aware he spoke to Sununu and Ogden, and gathered information about the case, according to the new motion.

“Formella and the prosecutors knew on Dec. 18th that it was not mere speculation. Formella and the prosecutors knew that Formella was a witness because, exactly as the court described in its order, ‘the governor approached them [specifically Formella] with information regarding his conversation with the defendant.’ Formella and the prosecutors knew that was a fact, but they did not reveal that to the defense or the court in their objection to the first defense motion or at the Dec. 2nd hearing,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote.

“One can imagine that if Formella had recognized the potential of a conflict of interest and if the prosecutors had filed such a motion and revealed Formella’s personal role in the case as the first interviewer of Sununu and Ogden, and the likelihood of Formella being a witness at trial, this court may well have had concerns.”

Asked about the defense’s claims, the Attorney General’s Office released a statement saying, “We will respond to this latest defense motion by filing an objection in court.”

Hantz-Marconi’s June 6 meeting with Sununu is the crux of the criminal charges against her. She’s accused of trying to pressure Sununu and others to intervene in the criminal case against her husband, former New Hampshire Ports Director Geno Marconi. Formella first learned about the meeting during a regular phone call with Sununu, who mentioned it in passing, according to the new motion.

Instead of stopping the conversation, though, Formella started asking Sununu about his chat with Hantz-Marconi, according to his own notes. He later called Ogden for a separate interview session about the June 6 meeting with the judge. During those conversations, both Sununu and Ogden told Formella there was nothing criminal being asked of them, the notes show.

“The manner in which Formella first learned of the meeting shows that neither Sununu, the supposedly improperly influenced government official, nor Ogden, his legal counsel and an experienced attorney, perceived anything illegal or any reason to make a report of any misconduct. Formella is a direct witness to this exculpatory evidence,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote.

How Hantz-Marconi’s June 6 conversation with Sununu became a matter of criminal charges is still a mystery. When the Public Integrity Unit began its criminal investigation into Hantz-Marconi, there was no written complaint filed with the office, even though Formella’s own policies require such a complaint.

Formella crafted the memorandum founding the Public Integrity Unit at Sununu’s direction in 2021. In that memo, Formella explicitly states that no investigation would start without a written complaint that included the identity of the person making the complaint.

“Yet, despite the explicit policy, there is no written complaint against Justice Hantz-Marconi in the discovery provided by the prosecutors from the Public Integrity Unit. Presumably, after multiple rounds of discovery and with the trial coming up quickly, if a complaint had been filed, the state would have produced it by now. Yet, by their own accounts, Sununu, Ogden, and Duprey did not file written complaints – they did not even perceive any illegality or misconduct on the part of Justice Hantz Marconi. Nor is there evidence that any other person filed a complaint against Justice Hantz Marconi,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote.

According to the motion, it seems Formella was trying to determine if Hantz-Marconi was badmouthing him during the conversation with Sununu. Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, another high-profile witness, reportedly told Formella that Hantz-Marconi called him “weak” and “very political” during her talk with Sununu. Both Ogden and Sununu denied that when asked during a subsequent interview with investigators. They even said Hantz-Marconi did not mention Formella at all during the June 6 meeting, according to the motion.

Because of Formella’s now confirmed role in the case and the fact that he can be called as a witness, Guerriero and Kotlier argue that not only should he be dismissed from the case, but his entire office should be removed in favor of an independent prosecutor.

“This is a case where the lawyer who will be a necessary witness at trial is the chief law enforcement officer of the State of New Hampshire, the supervisor of all front-line prosecutors, the author of his office’s policy regarding the initiation of complaints against public officials, the first person to interview the most important witness in the case, and in all likelihood, the only person who knows why this investigation and prosecution moved forward. There is no removing him from any part of this case. His entire office is disqualified because he is disqualified,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote.

Geno Marconi was just doing his job as New Hampshire’s Ports Director when he shared copies of an unnamed man’s car and boat registrations with Bradley Cook, then the Chair of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council.

That’s the claim in a flurry of new court filings in Marconi’s criminal case, pushing to have the charges dismissed on the grounds that no crime was committed. His lawyer, Richard Samdperil, also wants evidence of deleted voicemails tossed out, arguing they were obtained without a warrant.

The indictments against Marconi are at the center of a scandal that’s snared his wife, Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz-Marconi, as well as former Gov. Chris Sununu, and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald. But the question that’s dogged the cases against Marconi, Hantz-Marconi, and Cook is, what did they do?

According to prosecutors, Marconi shared the confidential motor vehicle records of N.L. with Cook and then deleted at least one voicemail from his cell phone after learning about the investigation. N.L. is believed to be Neil Levesque, the vice chair of the Pease Development Authority and someone who clashed with Marconi over his management of Rye Harbor.

But Marconi argues he never shared private information from N.L.’s motor vehicle records. Instead, N.L. gave Marconi copies of his car registration, a relative’s car registration, and boat registration as part of N.L.’s application for a pier use permit, according to the motions filed in court this month. 

At the time of N.L.’s application, Marconi was Director of Ports and Harbors and, as such, served as vice chair of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council. In that role, he worked with the council on all day-to-day business, according to the motions.

“Mr. Marconi’s duties include the general and active supervision and direction over the day-to-day business and affairs of the DPH and its employees, subject to the control of the PDA and its Executive Director,” Samdperil wrote. 

Members of the council, like Cook, are supposed to work with Marconi on port operations. There is no indication in the law that council members are barred from seeing records like pier use permits, Samdperil wrote. If the case won’t be dismissed, Samdperil wants the state to prove Marconi knew he was committing a crime given the law authorizing the council to work with him.

“The jury must find that beyond a reasonable doubt that ‘providing records pertaining to N.L. to another individual [Cook]’ was not authorized by [the law],” Samdperil said.

Samdperil also wants the voicemail evidence suppressed, arguing it was taken from Marconi’s private cell phone account that was not listed in the search warrant application. Marconi’s PDA provided cell phone was disconnected in April of last year when he was first placed on leave. But he kept the physical phone and set up a new cell phone account with a new, private cell phone number a few days later, according to court records.

The PDA pressured Marconi to give the phone back as well, since it was legally PDA property, according to court records. Marconi did get a new phone and moved his new cell phone account to the new device, giving the old phone back to the PDA. 

A month later, investigators for the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office obtained a warrant for the old phone, listing his PDA phone number in the warrant application. During the search of the old phone, investigators obtained voicemail records associated with Marconi’s new, private number. Samdperil argues nothing from the new account on the old phone should be allowed.

Assistant Attorney General Joe Fincham responded that the account number does not matter, anything on the phone was fair game.

“Whatever expectation of privacy Defendant may have in the contents associated with his personal phone number, when he placed those contents on the PDA’s physical device, he lost any reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents,” Fincham wrote.

No rulings have yet been made on any of the motions. 

Hantz-Marconi is currently on leave from the Supreme Court and charged with trying to get Sununu to intervene on her husband’s behalf. She’s fighting the charges, and argues she did nothing criminal in talking to Sununu about her husband and the impact the pending investigation had on her work.

Sununu seems to agree, according to a transcript of his interview with investigators. 

“No, there was no ask, there was nothing ‘Governor, I wish you could do this,’ or there was nothing like that. She was expressing frustration. Clearly not asking me to do anything,” Sununu told investigators. “I, I didn’t get the sense that, I didn’t get the sense that anything was illegal about the conversation.”

According to Hantz-Marconi’s pleadings, MacDonald advised her there was no crime in her talking to Sununu before the June, 2023 meeting.

“I think you can do that – You are a constituent and have concerns,” MacDonald reportedly told Hantz-Marconi.

With an associate justice a defendant, and the chief justice a likely witness, the remaining four members of the state Supreme Court preemptively recused themselves from the case last year. 

State prosecutors claim they have witnesses who can prove Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi committed crimes. But who those witnesses are and what their evidence is appears to be secret.

So now, Hantz Marconi’s lawyers are asking the court to force prosecutors to let them see the evidence and reveal their mystery witnesses.

Hantz Marconi has maintained her innocence since she was indicted last October on charges of using her position on the state Supreme Court to get the criminal investigation into her husband, Embattled Port Authority Director Geno Marconi, quashed by Gov. Chris Sununu. 

After their motion to get the indictments dropped was rejected, Hantz Marconi’s lawyers filed new challenges, including a demand for a bill of particulars. Such documents are detailed statements describing the alleged criminal conduct, as well as a description of the evidence prosecutors have to support the charges.

According to defense attorneys Richard Guerriero and Jonathan Kotlier, the state has so far failed to show why the judge is now a defendant. Hantz Marconi is charged with attempt to commit improper influence, criminal solicitation, official oppression, criminal solicitation, and obstructing government administration, among other crimes.

According to documents filed in the case, the charges stem from Hantz Marconi’s meeting with Gov. Chris Sununu and a phone call she conducted with Pease Development Authority Board Chair Steve Duprey in which she discussed the investigation involving her husband.

The problem, according to Guerriero and Kotlier, is that all of the charges against Hantz Marconi require proof that she purposefully engaged in criminal conduct in those conversations with Sununu and Duprey. However, the evidence provided so far by prosecutors undermines the state’s charges. 

According to interview transcripts, Sununu told investigators Hantz Marconi never asked him to get involved in the investigation.

“No, there was no ask, there was nothing (like) ‘Governor, I wish you could do this,’ or there was nothing like that,” Sununu said according to the transcript. “She was expressing frustration. Clearly not asking me to do anything.”

Present at the June 6 meeting with Sununu and Hantz Marconi was Rudy Ogden, Sununu’s legal counsel at the time. Ogden also told investigators the judge never asked Sununu to get involved in her husband’s investigation.

“[T] hat’s why I say in terms of her not asking for anything, it – it never was, it never went more than saying this needs to end quickly…Like it was never ‘it needs to end quickly’ and ‘Geez, if you talk to them you should tell them that,’ or ‘this needs to end quickly and I think you can do that.’ It was never anything like that,” Ogden told investigators.

Duprey told the investigators that Hantz Marconi called him to vent about the difficulties she was facing as a result of her husband’s legal troubles, and not to ask him to do anything illegal about the investigation.

“I think she was very appropriate in not trying to cross the line,” Duprey said.

When challenged on those statements during the hearing on Hantz Marconi’s previous motion to dismiss the indictments, Assistant Attorney General Joe Fincham claimed to have more evidence that would show a crime was committed, including several other witnesses.

“There were facts and circumstances leading up to that meeting, which we expect to be presented at trial, as well as what happened inside the room. Matters which (Sununu) and Rudy Ogden knew nothing about,” Fincham said in court.

However, Guerriero and Kotlier argue the state has not provided any of that information in the discovery process, and they want Fincham to reveal his cards. Without that information, they say they cannot fully prepare for trial.

“[T]o the extent that Attorney Fincham alluded to ‘facts and circumstances leading up to the meeting’ and ‘[m]atters which the governor and Rudy Ogden [know] nothing about,’ the defense has no notice of these allegations,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote. “[I]f the State has additional information or other witnesses who allegedly will enable the jurors to infer the Accused’s intent, then that information must be provided to the Accused. Bills of particulars are necessary for the Accused ‘to prepare an intelligent defense.’”

Geno Marconi was placed on leave by the Pease Development Authority board last year when the Attorney General’s Office opened the investigation that would result in indictments against him, his wife, and his friend, Bradley Cook, in October. Geno Marconi is accused of getting hold of private driver’s license information on an N.L., giving that information to Cook, and destroying evidence during the subsequent investigation.

Geno Marconi butted heads with the PDA board and Board Chair Neil Levesque for years. Levesque accused Marconi of wrongdoing in managing operations at Rye Harbor. A lawsuit filed in January by owners of Rye Harbor Lobster Pound accused Geno Marconi of trying to drive them out of business to benefit friends and family who operate competing businesses. 

Geno Marconi has since retired from his position as ports director. His criminal trial is set for later this year. 

A trial date is now set for former New Hampshire’s longtime ports and harbors director Geno Marconi, accused of retaliating against a Pease Development Authority board member.

Marconi is facing felony charges that he allegedly illegally leaked PDA Vice Chair Neil Levesque’s private driving records to Brad Cook, chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council. Marconi is also accused of destroying evidence, according to court records.

Cook is also facing criminal charges for his alleged role in the scheme. Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi is also charged with allegedly trying to pressure then-Gov. Chris Sununu and PDA Chair Steve Duprey into dropping the criminal investigation into her husband.

Levesque got on Marconi’s bad side in 2022, when he raised concerns about the way Marconi ran Rye Harbor, according to NHPR’s reporting. Levesque sent a confidential memo to the PDA Executive Director Paul Breen about his concerns, which triggered an outside investigation.

The Rye Harbor problems Levesque warned about are the subject of a civil lawsuit brought in January by the owners of the Rye Harbor Lobster Pound, Sylvia Cheever, and Nathan Hansom. They claim Marconi has been trying to hurt their business for years in order to aid his sister, Francesca Marconi Fernald, who operates Geno’s Chowder and Sandwich Shop, a restaurant started by their parents.

According to the lawsuit, Geno Marconi made it impossible for customers to park at the Rye Harbor Lobster Pound, interfered with its business relationship with local lobster fishermen, and imposed a unique “concession fee,” all in an effort to hurt the business.

“The series of actions taken against Rye Harbor Lobster Pound were driven by Marconi’s desire to harm a competitor to his family business and in retaliation against the plaintiffs who were not part of Marconi’s network of allied businesses and individuals who worked for or were otherwise connected with the Port Authority,” the lawsuit states.

Marconi is no stranger to controversy. He was accused of misusing public resources for his own benefit in 2006. Those allegations included an accusation that Marconi took improper gifts like lobsters and liquor in his role as ports director, and he used racist slurs about a ship captain trying to do business with the state.

Marconi reportedly called a ship captain of Middle Eastern descent a “sand n*gger” a “camel jockey,” and a “towel head.” He was also accused of calling someone else a “New York Jew with the chink wife.” 

During an internal investigation, Marconi reportedly said that while he likely did use the term “sand n*gger,” it was not about that particular captain. He denied making the other racist remarks. Marconi was required to undergo sensitivity training as a result of the investigation, but — surprisingly — was allowed to keep his job.

There was a drive-by shooting at the home of one of the complaining witnesses against Marconi in the 2006 investigation. No one was ever charged for shooting or other threats, and Marconi has vehemently denied involvement in the shooting.

Geno Marconi used his authority as the New Hampshire Ports Director in an attempt to drive a rival business out of Rye Harbor, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday in Merrimack Superior Court.

The lawsuit, brought by the owners of the popular Rye Harbor Lobster Pound, may shed light on the criminal charges against Marconi and the scandal that’s ensnared his wife, Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz-Marconi.

Rye Harbor Lobster Pound owners Sylvia Cheever and Nathan Hansom claim Marconi has been trying to bounce their business for years in order to aid his sister, Francesca Marconi Fernald, who operates Geno’s Chowder & Sandwich Shop, a restaurant started by their parents.

According to the lawsuit, Geno Marconi made it impossible for customers to park at the Rye Harbor Lobster Pound, interfered with its business relationship with local lobster fishermen, and imposed a unique “concession fee” shakedown.

“The series of actions taken against Rye Harbor Lobster Pound were driven by Marconi’s desire to harm a competitor to his family business and in retaliation against the Plaintiffs who were not part of Marconi’s network of allied businesses and individuals who worked for or were otherwise connected with the Port Authority,” the lawsuit states.

The concession fee, which took effect in 2023, was a 10 percent tax on RHLP’s gross monthly revenue. In total, the PDA forced RHLP to hand over more than $115,000 in 2023 and 2024.

According to the lawsuit, no other harbor business pays a similar fee at that rate.

“Upon information and belief, no other business was subject to a concessions agreement which required to payment of so-called concessions fees during this time period,” the lawsuit states. 

RHLP has been operating since 1996, and selling prepared food since 2005, according to the lawsuit. The business, like others in the same location, has paid the same $1,000 fee for its right to operate at the harbor, which is controlled by the PDA.

Another business in the harbor which sells prepared food, Rye Harborside, pays the $1,000 minimum fee to operate. Rye Harborside is owned by Granite State Whale Watch, which has connections to Marconi, the lawsuit states.

“Granite State Whale Watch is owned and operated by Sue Reynolds and her son Pete Reynolds. Sue Reynolds’s partner is Leo Axtin, who at all times relevant to this complaint was the Rye Harbor Master and reported to Marconi as the port director,” the lawsuit states.

Marconi began the campaign against the RHLP in 2020, according to Cheever and Hanscom’s lawsuit, after the business managed to succeed despite the COVID-19 lockdowns, according to the lawsuit. Marconi began by trying to force RHLP to stop selling chowder. He failed.

In 2021 the PDA, with pressure from Marconi, refused to grant RHLP a concession agreement for the 2021 season, according to the lawsuit.

Following a public outcry, then-Gov. Chris Sununu stepped in and granted RHLP a waiver to operate. Marconi then had state employees monitor RHLP, Cheever, Hanscom, and their customers, taking videos and keeping a daily activity log, according to the lawsuit.

In subsequent years, the PDA and Marconi reportedly required RHLP to hire security details, undertake building renovations, and remove outdoor seating. Now, Cheever and Hanscom are concerned the PDA will try to block them from operating for the 2025 season.

The lawsuit is seeking an injunction against the PDA allowing Cheever and Hanscom to operate without being subjected to arbitrary rules and without paying Marconi’s shakedown money. They also want monetary damages for the harm Marconi and the PDA reportedly did to their business.

Marconi was suspended last year by the PDA as the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office opened its criminal investigation into his sketchy behavior. He’s since been indicted for allegedly leaking private driver’s license information and destroying evidence. Marconi recently filed paperwork to retire from his state job.

This isn’t the first time Marconi’s been the subject of a work-related controversy. In 2006, Marconi was accused of misusing public resources for his own benefit, taking improper gifts like lobsters and liquor in his role as ports director, and using racist slurs about a ship captain trying to do business with the state.

A subsequent drive-by shooting at the home of one witness who complained about Marconi has gone unsolved. No one was ever charged for shooting or other threats made against witnesses. Marconi has denied involvement.

Lawyers for Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz-Marconi say the state’s key witness, former Gov. Chris Sununu, doesn’t think she committed any crime.

Hantz-Marconi is charged with felonies for allegedly trying to get Sununu to end the criminal investigation targeting her husband, Ports Director Geno Marconi, during a June 6 meeting in Sununu’s office. 

But in a bombshell filing made public Monday night, Hantz-Marconi’s lawyers say new evidence demands the criminal charges against the sitting justice be dismissed. According to the transcripts filed with Hantz-Marconi’s motion, Sununu told investigators she never tried to get him to interfere in the criminal investigation.

“No, there was no ask, there was nothing, ‘Governor, I wish you could do this,’ or there was nothing like that,” Sununu said according to the transcript. “She was expressing frustration. Clearly not asking me to do anything.”

Defense lawyers Richard Guerriero and Jonathan Kotlier filed the transcripts Friday in Merrimack Superior Court as part of their effort to have the charges dismissed. The attorneys previously filed a motion to dismiss the charges for lack of a crime, to which the state objected. However, the state provided the transcripts to the defense before a decision on the dismissal was made. Guerriero and Kotlier say the state has essentially now proven there was no crime.

“[N]ow that discovery has been produced, it is clear that the defense was exactly right to ask the court to dismiss the indictments because they do not state any crime and because there is nothing in discovery which would inform a bill of particulars or an amended indictment such that the state could allege a crime,” Guerriero and Kotlier wrote.

Hantz-Marconi is currently on leave from the Supreme Court and has agreed to have her law license suspended pending the outcome of the criminal case. She maintains she never crossed any legal or ethical lines when talking to Sununu, an assertion seemingly backed by Sununu’s own words.

“I, I didn’t get the sense that, I didn’t get the sense that anything was illegal about the conversation,” Sununu told investigators. “No, I mean about halfway through the conversation I kept waiting, is she gonna ask me for something, or for something, or to do something, like and even imply that I should, ‘Governor, you need to dah, dah, dah,’ no, never came. So there’s technically no ask of me.”

Present at the June 6 meeting with Sununu and Hantz-Marconi was Rudy Ogden, Sununu’s then-legal counsel. Ogden also told investigators that the judge never asked Sununu to get involved in her husband’s investigation.

“[T]hat’s why I say in terms of her not asking for anything, it – it never was, it never went more than saying this needs to end quickly…Like it was never, ‘it needs to end quickly, and geez, if you talk to them, you should tell them that, or this needs to end quickly, and I think you can do that.’ It was never anything like that,” Ogden told investigators.

Geno Marconi was placed on leave from his position as Ports Director in April while the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation. That pending investigation forced Hantz-Marconi to recuse herself from hearing cases involving the Department of Justice, a significant part of the caseload for the Supreme Court.

Her frustration at sitting out 20 to 25 percent of the cases led her to speak to Sununu, according to statements filed in court. Hantz-Marconi has previously disclosed she first cleared the potential ethical problems of the meeting with Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, who told her she had a right to talk to the governor about her concerns.

She is also accused of trying to get Pease Development Authority Chair Steven Duprey to intervene in her husband’s suspension, an accusation Duprey denied when he spoke to investigators, according to the Friday filing.

“According to Duprey, Justice Hantz Marconi ‘was calling, obviously, because I’m a friend.’”

Duprey told the investigators Hantz-Marconi understood he had no say in the investigation, and she never asked him to get involved. Instead she wanted to vent about the difficulties she was facing as a result of her husband’s legal troubles, Duprey said. 

“I think she was very appropriate in not trying to cross the line,” Duprey said.

Geno Marconi was indicted last October along with Brad Cook, the chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council and a longtime fishing boat captain. They are accused of crimes involving leaking information about an unnamed victim to further an unstated motive.

Marconi illegally provided Cook with the confidential driving records of another person, known in the indictments as N.L., according to the indictments, and believed to be PDA Vice Chair Neil Levesque. 

Marconi also is alleged to have deleted a voicemail in order to hinder any investigation, the indictments state. Cook, for his part, is accused of lying to the grand jury when questioned about N.L.’s driving records.

In a statement, Attorney General John Formella’s office defended the decision to charge Hantz Marconi.

“The Merrimack County Grand Jury heard all of the evidence in this case and determined that there was probable cause to charge the defendant with the crimes for which she was indicted. This case will continue to proceed as required by New Hampshire law, and the defendant will be entitled to the same due process as any other defendant – no more, no less. We will try this case in court based on all of the evidence collected and not in the media using just a portion of that evidence.”

Prosecutors are more than two months late producing evidence against Ports Director Geno Marconi, his lawyers say, and they’ve filed a motion asking the court to force the state to start showing its hand. If not, the attorneys argue, an upcoming meeting on the disposition of the case should be canceled.

Marconi is charged with felonies in a scandal that’s also snared his wife, Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi, as well as a host of other Granite State political heavyweights.

Marconi’s lawyers filed a motion demanding discovery on Dec. 20, writing that the delays are holding up the case. Marconi was indicted by a grand jury in September, and his lawyers asked for discovery on Oct. 17, according to the motion. Marconi pleaded not guilty on Nov. 27.

“Although the pretrial disclosure in direct indictment cases is typically due 45 calendar days after the entry of a not guilty plea by the defendant … it has now been over 90 days since the defendant was indicted and more than 60 days since discovery was requested,” lawyers Richard Samdperil and Joseph Welsh wrote.

But Rockingham Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman isn’t pausing the case calendar. In an order issued Dec. 31, Schulman wrote that he “assumes” prosecutors are in the process of getting evidence, including any exculpatory evidence, to Marconi’s lawyers. The case is currently set for a dispositional conference on Jan. 14. 

Marconi is charged with two class B felonies – Tampering with Witnesses and Informants and Falsifying Physical Evidence. He’s also charged with four class A misdemeanors – two counts of Driver Privacy Act Violations and two counts of Obstructing Government Administration.

Marconi and Brad Cook, chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council and a longtime fishing boat captain, are accused of crimes involving leaking information about an unnamed victim to further an unstated motive.

Marconi illegally provided Cook with the confidential driving records of another person, known in the indictments as N.L., according to the indictments. Marconi also is alleged to have deleted a voicemail message in order to hinder any investigation, the indictments state. Cook, for his part, is accused of lying to the grand jury when questioned about N.L.’s driving records.

It is known that Marconi’s bail orders prohibit him from contacting Neil Levesque, a member of the Pease Development Authority Board. It’s also been reported that Levesque, Pease Development Authority Chair Steve Duprey, and the rest of the board met with Attorney General John Formella and Gov. Chris Sununu in April to discuss the emerging criminal investigation against Marconi.

Marconi and Cook both opposed the PDA’s plan to redevelop Rye Harbor to make it more retail friendly, a plan that Sununu supported. 

Marconi was placed on leave in April, after the meeting with Formella. Hantz-Marconi was forced to recuse herself from Supreme Court cases involving the Department of Justice while the criminal investigation proceeded. Frustrated at being sidelined, Hantz-Marconi met with Sununu in July to talk about the investigation interfering with her ability to serve on the court.

That conversation between Hantz-Marconi and Sununu became the basis for the criminal charges against the associate justice. She’s accused of trying to pressure Sununu to drop the investigation, though she strongly denies that is the case. Hantz-Marconi denies she did anything wrong. In court documents her lawyers have filed, it was learned Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald told her before the July meeting with Sununu that there would be nothing improper with the conversation.

The entire Supreme Court has since recused itself from Hantz-Marconi’s criminal case, as well as from her state attorney discipline process.

New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella may owe his career to Gov. Chris Sununu, but that doesn’t stop him from prosecuting Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi, according to a ruling released Wednesday.

Merrimack Superior Court Judge Martin Honigberg denied Hantz Marconi’s motion to remove Formella from the case and to dismiss all the charges against her, saying she hasn’t shown evidence that Formella’s conflict of interest is anything other than speculative.

“Even assuming AG Formella owes much of his legal career to Gov.  Sununu, the Court is not convinced that such a history requires disqualification without a factual basis to support a showing that AG Formella has been or will be unable to perform his statutorily mandated duty to remain impartial given his personal relationship with the governor,” Honigberg wrote.

Richard Guerriero, one of Hantz Marconi’s lawyers along with Jonathan Motlier and Oliver Bloom, said they may appeal Honigberg’s ruling. 

“We respectfully disagree with the judge’s decision and we may appeal it at some point. However, this was a preliminary issue arising in the earliest stages of the case. Rest assured, we will continue to fight the attorney general’s accusations on every lawful basis until Justice Hantz Marconi is vindicated,” Guerriero said in a statement.

Hantz Marconi is accused of trying to intervene with Sununu and Pease Development Authority Board Chair Steve Duprey on behalf of her husband, Ports Director Geno Marconi, who is currently under criminal investigation. Marconi is charged with releasing private driver records and destroying evidence in his separate case.

Formella has long been associated with Sununu, working as his private attorney before Sununu ran for governor, serving on his transition team, and later as his counsel in office. Unlike most states where attorneys general are elected by the public, New Hampshire’s is nominated by the governor.

Hantz Marconi’s lawyers argued to the court that Formella’s relationship with Sununu, and Sununu’s role as a key witness in the criminal case against Hantz Marconi, present a disqualifying conflict. They wanted a special prosecutor appointed and the criminal indictments thrown out, since Hantz Marconi claims a potentially biased prosecution team presented evidence to the grand jury. 

But Sununu said during press questions following Wednesday’s Executive Council meeting that Formella goes to the “nth degree” to make sure politics stay out of prosecutions. He also pushed back on an NHPR report showing he was at an April meeting with Formella, Duprey, and other members of the PDA board before Geno Marconi was suspended and the criminal investigation started. Sununu had previously claimed he knew nothing about the case.

“I think that article was complete garbage. I meet with the attorney general all the time. The fact that I had a meeting with the attorney general, (that) it somehow implies that there was something, some other part of the discussion that wasn’t being disclosed, is complete nonsense and awful reporting by (NHPR’s Todd Bookman). It was completely unnecessary and inappropriate,” Sununu said. 

He also made it clear there are two separate cases — Geno Marconi and questions about his actions at Pease, and Hantz Marconi and her alleged actions on her husband’s behalf.

“Justice Marconi is very different from the Geno issue, which is what this (story) was about. I know I’ve never talked to an investigator about that,” Sununu said.

“Put it this way, the attorney general has never questioned me,” he added.

Geno Marconi clashed with the Pease Development Board over a proposed Rye Harbor development that Sununu backed. While the board and Sununu supported spending $1 million in federal money on a raised shopping area at the harbor, Marconi and his co-defendant Brad Cook opposed the plan. The PDA backed off the plan in September following push back from the community. 

Geno Marconi is accused of leaking private information of an individual known as N.L. in the indictments. It’s believed that N.L. is Neil Levesque, PDA vice chair and the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute for Politics at Saint Anselm College.

Levesque was at the April meeting with Formella, Sununu, and the rest of the board.

Soon after Geno Marconi was placed on leave, Hantz Marconi was forced to recuse herself from Supreme Court cases involving the Department of Justice. Frustrated with sitting out important decisions, Hantz Marconi scheduled a meeting with Sununu to discuss the issue, according to court records.

Before she met with Sununu, Hantz Marconi discussed the matter with Chief Justice Gordan MacDonald, who was the attorney general before Formella. MacDonald reportedly told Hantz Marconi there would be nothing illegal or inappropriate in talking to Sununu.

“I think you can do that—You are a constituent and have concerns,” MacDonald told her, according to court records.

Add Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, to the list of high profile names involved in the odd scandal surrounding Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi and her husband, Geno Marconi. 

Both Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi and Geno Marconi face criminal charges in a case that’s already roped in Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, Gov. Chris Sununu, and Attorney General John Formella. The biggest mystery involving the Marconis is what, exactly, they allegedly did.

When Geno Marconi waived his arraignment in Rockingham Superior Court last week on his criminal charges, he was ordered to have no contact with Levesque as part of his bail conditions. Levesque is also the Pease Development Authority’s vice chair, the body that suspended Geno Marconi from his job as ports director in April.

Geno Marconi allegedly disclosed the driving records of an individual known as N.L. in court documents, and then later erased a voicemail message regarding those records. Geno Marconi’s codefendant in that case is Brad Cook, the chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council and a longtime fishing boat captain.

Judge Hantz Marconi is due in Merrimack Superior Court Monday for an arraignment on charges she allegedly abused her office when she tried to get Sununu to intervene in her husband’s pending investigation during a June meeting.

Since she was indicted in October, Hantz Marconi’s lawyers have already filed motions to dismiss the charges, and to get Formella booted from the case. According to her filings, Hantz Marconi sought advice from MacDonald before she talked to Sununu, resulting in the Chief Justice telling her she had a legal right to speak to the governor about her concerns. 

Hantz Marconi wants Formella removed from the case due to his long-standing personal and professional relationship with the government’s star witness, Sununu. Formella was Sununu’s private attorney before becoming legal counsel in office, and then attorney general.

The four remaining New Hampshire Supreme Court justices won’t hear any arguments related to Associate Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi after they ordered themselves off the case.

“Resolving it would require us to adjudicate the conduct of a current colleague, Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi,” the justices wrote in the order.

The order comes Wednesday hours after Hantz Marconi’s legal team filed a motion to boot Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald from the case, naming him as a material witness in her alleged crime. Hantz Marconi is charged with trying to pressure Gov. Chris Sununu to stop the criminal probe into her husband, New Hampshire Ports Director Geno Marconi.

Justice Barbara Hantz Marconi listens to oral arguments during a 2023 hearing.

According to the indictments handed down last week, Hantz Marconi met with Sununu in June and tried to get him to stop the investigation into Geno Marconi. She allegedly told Sununu there was no merit to any of the allegations against her husband and the case “needed to wrap up quickly because she was recused from important cases pending or imminently pending before the New Hampshire Supreme Court,” the indictments state.

But, according to the motion filed Wednesday, MacDonald encouraged her to talk to Sununu about her husband’s investigation, and told her it would not be illegal for her to do so.

“Justice Hantz Marconi did meet with Governor Sununu on June  6, 2024. The meeting was entirely lawful and proper. One of the key facts demonstrating that the meeting was lawful and proper is that Justice Hantz Marconi communicated with Chief Justice MacDonald prior to meeting with Governor Sununu. Justice Hantz Marconi explained to Chief Justice MacDonald that she was considering requesting a meeting with the Governor. The Chief Justice’s response was, ‘I think you can do that – You  are a constituent and have concerns.’ Justice Hantz Marconi understood this comment to confirm her view that she had the right to seek to address the Governor, just as any other citizen would have that right,” her motion states.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald

Hantz Marconi was placed on administrative leave soon after that June 6 meeting. Geno Marconi has been on leave from his job directing the ports since April of this year. Both were indicted last week.

Hantz Marconi is facing charges of Attempt to Commit Improper Influence, Criminal Solicitation of Improper Influence, Official Oppression, Criminal Solicitation of Official Oppression, Obstructing Government Administration, and Criminal Solicitation of Misuse of Position. Geno Marconi is indicted on felony charges of Tampering with Witnesses and Informants and Falsifying Physical Evidence. He’s also charged with four class A misdemeanors–two counts of Driver Privacy Act Violations and two counts of Obstructing Government Administration.

Geno Marconi is accused of giving confidential driving records of an unnamed person to Brad Cook, chairman of the Division of Ports and Harbors Advisory Council and a longtime fishing boat captain. Cook is charged with one count class B felony Perjury as well as two counts of class A misdemeanor False Swearing.

In the meantime, Hantz Marconi agreed to a suspension of her law license as the case against her is proceeding. The New Hampshire Attorney Discipline Office planned to open up a formal proceeding to get Hantz Marconi suspended, but the justice agreed to the suspension.

If she were to fight the Attorney Discipline process, Hantz Marconi’s law license case would eventually end up before the Supreme Court and MacDonald. The Supreme Court’s total recusal effects that process, as well any challenges she brings during her criminal trial in Merrimack Superior Court.

Rather than merely having MacDonald remove himself from the case, Associate Justices James Bassett, Patrick Donovan, and Melissa Countway are also stepping aside. If a full slate of alternates cannot be found, however, at least some of the justices will take their seats.

“Our recusal is conditioned upon the availability of substitute justices to participate in this case. In the event that substitute justices are not available, the ‘rule of necessity’ may compel our participation,” the order states. 

Under state law, the courts will randomly pick substitutes from a pool of retired Supreme Court and Superior Court justices. If there are not enough retired justices available, a random selection will be made from active Superior Court Justices, and then District Court justices if the need arises.