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With Andy Sanborn under criminal indictment and his business for sale, the former lawmaker and casino owner is asking a judge to grant him a crime waiver.

Sanborn’s legal team filed a new lawsuit against the state seeking a waiver for his business, not to get out of the criminal charges, but to keep the hope of any sale alive. Sanborn essentially wants a written promise that whoever buys his Win Win Win LLC won’t be held liable for the pending criminal charges.

“In order for the sale of WWW to proceed, Plaintiffs require relief in the form of declaratory judgment that NHLC and OAG cannot hold WWW’s buyer responsible for alleged conduct predating the acquisition,” Sanborn’s attorney Mark Knights wrote.

Sanborn and Win Win Win were both indicted last month on charges of allegedly stealing COVID relief money from the state by submitting false information to inflate revenue.

State law allows for a corporation to be criminally indicted for the actions of its directors or employees. Sanborn owns Win Win Win, the company that holds the gaming license for his Concord Casino. While Sanborn faces prison time for his charges if convicted, Win Win Win could face significant fines and other serious sanctions. 

Even the possibility of crippling fines and sanctions will drive off potential buyers, according to Knights, which makes the New Hampshire Attorney General’s decision to indict the Win Win Win corporation notable. The state is already forcing Sanborn to sell his business because of a different alleged COVID relief scam, and the indictments were handed up as Sanborn had a potential buyer going through the New Hampshire Lottery Commission license vetting process, according to the lawsuit.

That buyer, it turns out, was denied a gaming license during the suitability review process, though Sanborn’s lawyers have said the denial is based on a correctable error, and not anything negative in the buyer’s background. The buyer has not been identified.

All of this could be moot given that Sanborn has already missed the deadline to sell his casino business. In December, Sanborn’s gaming license was suspended, and he was given six months to sell Win Win Win. The gaining license is to be revoked completely if Sanborn misses that deadline, which would make Win Win Win virtually worthless.

Sanborn is seeking more time for the sale in order to get the potential buyer’s suitability issues corrected, and Hearings Officer Albert Gregory is currently considering legal issues surrounding that request. 

Sanborn’s troubles started last year after an audit found problems with the way the business was using COVID relief funds. Attorney General John Formella issued a statement declaring Sanborn unsuitable to hold a gaming license and accused him of improperly getting $844,000 in federal COVID funds. Sanborn reportedly used that money to pay himself through a different LLC, called The Best Revenge, and to buy sports cars for himself and his wife, Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford.)

Last December, Hearing Officer Michael King ruled Sanborn engaged in conduct that “undermines the public confidence in charitable gaming” and that he had to sell the business or lose the license. King’s ruling gave Sanborn six months to sell with the option of one, three-month extension of a sale was pending. 

Embattled and indicted Concord Casino owner Andy Sanborn is learning the hard way that the house always wins.

Under a state order to sell his business before his gaming license is revoked, Sanborn’s lawyers claim the state has rejected his proposed buyer without good reason. This revelation came Friday as attorneys for Sanborn and the state tried to talk around the buyer’s rejection during an administrative law hearing before Hearing Officer Gregory Albert.

Any individual who buys Sanborn’s casino will need to pass a suitability determination process conducted by the state. Because the results of suitability determinations are not public, in order to protect the reputation of rejected buyers, neither side was able to say directly that the buyer was rejected. However, the rejection was obvious based on the context of the discussion.

Adam Katz, one of Sanborn’s lawyers, said the state is manipulating the case to prevent Sanborn from selling the business, has scared off multiple potential buyers, and has now rejected a qualified buyer based on errors.“The buyer is still trying to engage with the state on why their [suitability determination] letter is nonsense,” Katz said.

Assistant Attorney General Jessica King objected to any discussion that could reveal the result of the suitability determination, but acknowledged under questioning her office told the buyer there is no way to appeal the determination.

“There is no clear mechanism to appeal suitability in the law,” King said.

The buyer has no blemishes on his record and is someone no one could object to buying the casino. He was stopped from divulging the reason for the denial by King. King rejected Katz’s arguments that the state is interfering with the sale, telling Albert the Lottery Commission met with the buyer several times to go over the suitability determination process.

“This narrative the state is trying to obstruct and prevent this sale is false,” King said. “There is no evidence the state is actually trying to prevent anything.”

Last year, Administrative Hearing Officer Michael King ordered Sanborn to sell his business within six months after determining that the former Republican State senator obtained more than $800,000 in federal COVID relief funding he was not entitled to. Sanborn then used the money on improper purchases, such as prepaying his rent and buying sports cars. 

Sanborn was indicted last month on state theft charges for allegedly inflating his revenue in order to qualify for state COVID funds, getting about $140,000 more than he was entitled to get.

Since the sale order was issued, Sanborn has been trying and failing to sell the business. He obtained an extension from Albert, who took over the administrative law end of the case this year after Michael King retired. 

“[Sanborn] has been trying to sell and walk away for months. He wants to put this mess far in the rearview mirror,” Katz said.

Albert’s last extension, issued in September, allowed Sanborn 15 days to sell the business once the buyer had passed through the suitability process. Now that 15 days have passed since the buyer was rejected, the state says Snbiorn must lose his gaming license. The state also argues Albert overstepped his legal authority issuing the 15-day grace period.

Katz told Albert he does have the authority to issue an extension, since it allows Sanborn to comply with the original order to sell. Katz blamed the state for interfering with the sale and working against the original sale order.

“The point of [the original] order is to complete a sale quickly,” Katz said. “Mr. Sanborn clearly has worked to sell. The only problem is the chicanery from the state.”

He’s accused of COVID fraud and under orders to sell his Concord Casino. But former state Sen. Andy Sanborn just raised the bet.

Sanborn filed a new civil lawsuit against New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella in Merrimack Superior Court in Concord on July 30. Sanborn and his legal team are keeping their cards close to their vests. The complaint, as well as nearly all of the filings in the case, are sealed.

Mark Knights, one of Sanborn’s lawyers, declined to comment when contacted by NHJournal. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment as well.

What is known about the case from the publicly available information is that Sanborn is seeking an injunction of some kind, presumably to block the state from taking a particular action. Additionally, the Attorney General’s Office has prosecutors Dan Jimenez, David Lovejoy, and Alex Kellerman assigned to the case. Jimenez is part of the Public Integrity Unit which investigates wrongdoing by public officials. Lovejoy is part of the Criminal Justice Bureau. Kellerman is a former corporate attorney now working for the attorney general.

Sanborn’s legal drama began a year ago when Formella publicly accused Sanborn and his wife, state Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford), of COVID relief fraud. According to Formella, the couple took $844,000 in COVID relief payments for their Concord Casino and used the money to pay themselves via rent and buy themselves sports cars.

The Sanborns deny wrongdoing and have yet to be charged with a crime. However, the state pushed to take away the Concord Casino gambling license based on the alleged fraud. In December 2023, Administrative Law hearing officer Michael King found Sanborn engaged in deception when he applied for the COVID loans and that Sanborn spent the money inappropriately.

“The misrepresentations on the EIDL [Economic Injury Disaster Loan] application and the subsequent use of the proceeds for expenditures not allowed by that loan constitute ‘conduct by the licensee that undermines the public confidence in charitable gaming,’” King wrote in his order.

Aside from using the money to buy a Porsche and a Ferrari, Sanborn allegedly paid himself $240,000 with the COVID funds by raising his own rent.

Sanborn owns the Casino through his Win Win Win LLC and he owns the Main Street building where his Concord Casino is located through an entity called The Best Revenge LLC. 

The original lease agreement between Win Win Win and The Best Revenge LLC was for $500 a month. But records showed Sanborn was making payments to himself ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 a month for rent. 

Sanborn claimed the 40-fold rent increase was due to his casino floor space increasing six and a half percent. While it was alleged Sanborn was diverting COVID money to himself through rent, King found Sanborn’s high rental payments to himself started in 2021 before he received any COVID cash.

Sanborn started making payments in November 2021, ranging from $5,000 to $22,000. Those payments were seen as “wildly excessive” by the state.

Sanborn’s casino license was suspended and he was given six months to sell his business. That deadline has been pushed to the end of September as Sanborn continues to fight with the Attorney General’s Office. 

The state has been trying to exert influence over the sale, according to NH Bulletin reporting, while potential buyers have been scared off by the potential criminal charges. Sanborn’s lawyers have accused the state of trying to stop any sale out of spite. 

If Sanborn is unable to sell his business by the Sept. 30 deadline, his gaming license will expire, and he would not have a casino business to sell.

Andy Sanborn, who ran a failed bid for the GOP nomination in the First Congressional District in 2018, has a troubled past in politics. He was investigated for alleged sexual harassment of a Senate intern in 2013, though he maintains it was a misunderstanding about a joke.

When Sanborn first got his casino license in 2018, the harassment incident came back. That time he was investigated for allegedly bribing one of the witnesses. He was cleared of the bribery accusation, but the New Hampshire Lottery Commission was concerned about his suitability to hold a license. According to Commission records, one of the 2018 witnesses told investigators she was warned not to be alone with Sanborn when she started her job in the State House.

Andy Sanborn’s luck has run out.

After finding Sanborn lied on his application for $844,000 in COVID relief money and then used that cash to pay himself $240,000 and buy sports cars, hearing officer Michael King ordered Sanborn to sell his Concord Casino business.

King is the independent hearing officer who presided over the administrative rules hearing regarding complaints brought by the New Hampshire Lottery Commission against Sanborn, a former GOP state senator and one-time candidate for Congress.

“The misrepresentations on the EIDL [Economic Injury Disaster Loan] application and the subsequent use of the proceeds for expenditures not allowed by that loan constitute ‘conduct by the licensee that undermines the public confidence in charitable gaming,’” King wrote in an order released Thursday.  

Sanborn’s casino license is now suspended for six months, during which time he must find a buyer who can pass the New Hampshire Lottery Commission’s background check. If no suitable buyer is found in that time, the license will be revoked.

Testimony from this month’s hearing and evidence filed in the case revealed Sanborn tried to hide the fact from the federal government that his EIDL loan was going to a casino business. Casinos were not eligible for the EIDL program.

Sanborn and loan consultant Michael Evans listed the business as “Win Win Win LLC” and did not use the trade name “Concord Casino,” King noted in his order. The pair also claimed the business engaged in “miscellaneous services” and not that it was a “charitable gaming facility,” according to King.

When Sanborn started getting the COVID money, he had a little more than $900 in his business bank account, according to King. Within a couple of weeks, Sanborn started buying. According to the evidence, he bought a pair of Porsches, a Ferrari for his wife, state Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford), and expensive car parts.

Those purchases would be listed as business equipment in Win Win Win’s financial statements, according to the review.

Further, Sanborn paid himself $240,000 in rent between January and August 2022 for the casino’s Main Street space in Concord. 

Sanborn owns the building housing the casino through a different LLC called The Best Revenge LLC. While the original lease agreement between Win Win Win and The Best Revenge is for a $500 a month lease, Sanborn was making payments to himself ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 a month for rent, according to the evidence. 

Sanborn claimed the 40-fold rent increase was due to his casino floor space increasing six and a half percent. While it was alleged Sanborn was diverting COVID money to himself through rent, King found Sanborn’s high rental payments to himself started in 2021 before he received any COVID cash.

Sanborn started making payments in November 2021, ranging from $5,000 to $22,000. Those payments were seen as “wildly excessive” by the state.

The decision ends Sanborn’s second act as a casino owner. He was in the process of developing a larger casino in Concord when the state alleged he had fraudulently obtained the COVID money.

Sanborn has 15 days to appeal King’s decision, though he might have other legal concerns. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and the United States Attorney’s Office are now looking into Andy and Laurie Sanborn. The pair are the subject of an investigation by the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Unit.

“It was off the charts.”

Leila McDonough, the New Hampshire Lottery Commission auditor, described the volume of issues the state had with Andy Saborn’s Concord Casino.

McDonough made the comments during a Monday hearing over whether the former state senator can keep his casino owner’s license despite accusations of fraud, including using COVID relief money to buy sports cars. While Sanborn’s attorneys claimed Sanborn did nothing wrong, McDonough testified Sanborn never cared to follow the rules.

The Department of Safety showdown featured one witness for the state, McDonough, the woman who for years was tasked with trying to get Sanborn to follow state regulations.

McDonough’s testimony painted the picture of Sanborn as entitled and stubborn, a casino operator whose refusal to follow basic accounting procedures created a huge mess — or worse, led to massive fraud.

For instance, when a casino owner claims to have hundreds of thousands in cash, but he won’t let the state auditor in charge of casino financial reports count the money, you have a problem, she said.

“How can you conduct an audit that includes cash when you’re not allowed to count the cash?” McDonough asked. “Eventually, you have to assume the cash doesn’t exist since you’re not allowed to see it or count it.”

She said Sanborn was difficult to deal with since he opened his casino in 2018. Both Sanborn and his wife, state Rep. Laurie Sanborn, would call the commission to complain about audits and regulations they had to follow, McDonough said. The Concord Casino’s record-keeping was sloppy at best, she added, and Sanborn never appeared to take the legal requirement from the commission seriously. 

McDonough is the Lottery Commission auditor who spotted enough red flags to go to the commission’s enforcement officials. who then brought in New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella. Formella has said a criminal probe by his office is also underway.

At one point, McDonough said, she found a statement of cash flows for July 2021 through to July 2020.

“This is actually the document that made me very concerned,” McDonough said.

That document showed Sanborn’s casino ran a $29,000 operating loss in that year and had no cash. This was at the time Sanborn claimed to have $200,000 in cash in secure locations McDonough was not allowed to see.

The statement also showed a large amount of cash invested in large equipment that had little to do with the business, like two Porsches and a Ferrari. The Ferarri was reportedly a gift for Laurie Sanborn. 

Sanborn still managed to report $23,000 in cash for owner’s equity, McDonough testified. According to the records, Sanborn reported taking $5,700 in cash out of a bank and putting that into the equity cash amount.

“I’ve never seen this done with any other entity,” she said. “That was very odd.”

The financial statement McDonough revised seemed to show the whole operation was being funded with $844,000 in COVID relief loan money. The records also repeatedly showed large ticket purchases like the sports cars and tens of thousands in car parts charged business expenses.

McDonough reportedly uncovered Sanborn was also paying himself rent for the casino. The casino is owned through Sanborn’s LLC called Win, Win, Win LLC, but the Main Street property in Concord, where the casino is housed, is owned by another Sanborn LLC, The Best Revenge LLC.

The lease agreement between Best Revenge and Win, Win, Win has the casino pay the property $6,000 a year in rent, paid at $500 a month. According to the audit, Sanborn wired $163,500 from Win, Win, Win to Best Revenge between January and August 2022 to cover the rent. 

That was more than $20,000 a month for the $500 a month rent.

McDonough said the records had a lot of large, round numbers for expenses that lacked detail and supporting documentation.

Sanborn was not at the hearing. One of his attorneys,  Zachary Hafer, said Sanborn is in Boston receiving medical treatment. His legal team includes attorney Mark Knights, who argued the state’s case simply does not stand up to scrutiny.

“It is an incomplete story that has yawning gaps in the evidence,” Knights said.

Accused of spending COVID relief money on sports cars, Andy Sanborn is betting he can keep the license for his Concord Casino.

Sanborn, a former GOP state senator, is now set to argue his case to the New Hampshire Lottery Commission at a Monday hearing after weeks of delays. Sanborn sued the state to push back the hearing, originally scheduled for October. He successfully got more time for his lawyers to put together his defense.

Sanborn has denied the accusation that he misused $844,000 in COVID relief funds to buy himself two Porsches and a Ferrari for his wife, state Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford.).

In August, the Lottery Commission and New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella publicly declared Sanford unfit to hold a casino license based on the alleged misdeeds uncovered during a regular background investigation.

Sanborn first got the casino license in 2018. He was up for renewal when the alleged fraud was found.

Along with three vehicles allegedly bought with COVID money, the May 2022 audit found Sanborn was paying himself rent for the casino. It is owned through Sanborn’s Win, Win, Win LLC, but the Main Street property in Concord is owned by another Sanborn business, The Best Revenge LLC.

The lease agreement between Best Revenge and Win, Win, Win has the casino pay the property $6,000 a year in rent, paid out at $500 a month. According to the audit, Sanborn wired $163,500 from Win, Win, Win to Best Revenge between January and August 2022 to cover the rent. 

That was more than $20,000 a month for the $500 a month rent. To put it another way, Sanborn appears to have paid himself for more than 27 years of rent in eight months.

According to the audit, Sanborn’s casino was losing money, and the business was down to a little more than $900 available cash before the COVID relief money came through.

Sanborn disputes those facts, claiming the audit looked at the wrong accounts and he had about $150,000 available. While the business lost money in 2020, things had picked up in 2021, he states. Sanborn claims the casino generates $400,000 a month in revenue.

The commission had concerns about Sanborn before the May 2022 audit. Records show his suitability to hold a casino license was being questioned. The commission had worries about his past stint as a state senator, where crude jokes resulted in allegations of sexual harassment in 2013 and an investigation into a bribe to hush up a witness in 2018.

Sanborn was cleared of the bribery accusation. He acknowledged making a crude joke in front of an intern. The exact joke has not been disclosed, but records indicate he was discussing oral sex. One woman told investigators she was warned not to be alone with Sanborn when she started her job in the State House.

The commission was also concerned about the lawsuit brought by creditors in his business bankruptcy filing. Sanborn filed for bankruptcy in 2004 as his business, Brannigan’s Cycleworks, was failing. According to court records, he was sued by creditors who accused him of moving money ahead of the bankruptcy.

After Formella announced the charges, Laurie Sanborn was forced to step down from her role as chair of the new state gambling commission. Formella referred the matter to his office’s Public Integrity Unit as well as to the United States Attorney for the District of New Hampshire.

No one knows who is about to win big with casino licenses, including lucrative Historic Horse Racing, but that didn’t stop the House Ways and Means Committee from making it rain. 

Public documents obtained by NHJournal point to well-known developers involved in a new casino project in Salem. There are links between the Salem casino proposal and Tuscan Village developer Joe Faro, as well as to the family behind Sal’s Pizza. The question is, are they going to benefit from Historic Horse Racing?

The Ways and Means Committee pushed through SB 112 last week, which extends the moratorium on new Historic Horse Racing licenses but adds a carve-out for any pending license currently under consideration by the New Hampshire Lottery Commission.

Without the bill, the moratorium is set to sunset next summer, potentially opening up Historic Horse Racing across the state. If the bill passes, Historic Horse Racing would be limited to already licensed casinos and the five pending casino applicants. There are currently 14 licensed casinos in the state, though not all of them have Historic Horse Racing.

The amendment, proposed by Rep. Fred Doucette (R-Salem), allows any application brought to the Lottery Commission between January and October of this year to be eligible for licenses with Historic Horse Racing machines. Five applications are currently pending that meet this timeframe, and no one knows who they are.

New Hampshire Lottery Executive Director Charlie McIntyre isn’t showing his cards. McIntyre said state law prohibits divulging the identities of people applying for casino licenses while their applications are under review. 

“That’s not dissimilar from other licenses across the state,” McIntyre told the committee.

Gov. Chris Sununu opposes the moratorium, but Sen. Tim Lang (R-Sanbornton) told the House Ways and Means Committee last month Sununu would back the amendment that carves out Historic Horse Racing for the pending applications.

Lang told NHJournal he has no idea who is behind the five applications, and he doesn’t want to know. The secrecy protects the applicant and legislators, Lang said.

“We don’t want to be accused of knowing. We’re happy we don’t know,” Lang said.

But Salem Planning Director Jacob LaFontaine told the board last summer he had meetings with a casino group called Aces of Salem LLC that wants to turn the Tuscan Kitchen property at 67 Main Street into a casino.

Salem property records show the site is currently owned by J&S Investments LLC, with a mailing address in Massachusetts. According to New Hampshire Secretary of State records, Joe Faro, the developer behind the Tuscan Village development in Salem, is the registered agent for J&S Investments LLC.

Faro did not respond to a request for comment. 

Aces of Salem LLC lists Michael Lupoli as the manager in its state filing. The LLC was created in 2022. Lupoli is the brother of Sal Lupoli, the man behind Sal’s Pizza. Sal Lupoli turned his pizza chain into a business empire that includes commercial and residential real estate development. 

Michael Lupoli did not respond to questions from NHJournal.

It is not known if the Aces of Salem application is one of the five currently under review by the Lottery Commission. Part of the application process includes a suitability investigation, and McIntyre said releasing identities before suitability investigations are complete could result in unsuccessful applicants having their reputations harmed. He said the public would essentially be told these people were found unsuitable by the Lottery Commission.

Contacted by NHJournal, New Hampshire Lottery Commission spokeswoman Maura McCann said the names of applicants have never been disclosed prior to approval, not even to legislators. McCann said state law is clear about shielding the identities.

“That information has not been disclosed to anyone outside of Lottery, including the legislature,” McCann said. 

While McIntyre maintained those are standard rules for any licensed business in the state, not every business is licensed to make money the way casinos do. Historic Horse Racing, also known as Insta-Racing, is expected to bring in nearly $100 million. Unlike other casino games in New Hampshire, the businesses take the lion’s share. 

Historic Horse Racing machines are essentially slot machines. The machines use the results from thousands of horse races to create a fast-moving betting game. A player puts in their money, and the machine randomly picks a historic race. The bettors, sitting at a terminal resembling a video slot machine, pick horses to win, place, or show. They don’t know the horses’ names or other identifying details about the races. After a quick video depicting a race, the results are displayed. Like slot machines, Historic Horse Racing encourages long sessions of repetitive betting.

And that repeat business is great for the casinos. Under New Hampshire’s charitable gaming scheme, charities get 35 percent of the net revenue from table games (roulette, craps, blackjack, etc.), and the casinos get 65 percent. The state comes in first and takes 10 percent off the gross before anyone else gets a dollar.

But Historic Horse Racing changes the math in favor of the casinos. Casinos collect 75 percent of the HHR gross, and the state gets another 16.25 percent. That leaves charities to make do with just 8.75 percent of the “charitable gaming” cut.

Lang said that before the permanent moratorium voted on by the House Ways and Means Committee, “I brought an amendment that would allow for the incremental growth in the industry, with a four-year moratorium to allow the gaming study commission to do its work and file any recommended changes in the law. I thought that was the right way to have the legislature get involved with the information we needed to make the best decision.

“The House action, however, seems to put the cart before the horse — pun intended,” Lang said.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article mistakenly identified Michael Lupoli as son of Sal Lupoli. Michael is his brother. NHJournal regrets the error.

Casino operator Andy Sanborn wants to take his chances in front of the state Lottery Commission, but his odds aren’t looking good.

The former GOP state senator has decided to publicly challenge charges that he stole COVID relief money and used the cash for sports carts and other luxuries.

Sanborn is set to appear before the New Hampshire Lottery Commission on Oct. 3 to appeal Executive Director Charlie McIntyre’s decision that he is too corrupt to own and operate a casino in the Granite State. Concord recently approved a second casino and a microbrewery, which were part of a planned Sanborn development.

But now the scandal-plagued Republican may lose his license to operate a gambling business altogether.

Sanborn is accused of misappropriating $844,000 in pandemic relief tax dollars while operating a casino at his Draft Sports Bar and Grill, which he owns along with his wife, state Rep. Laurie Sanborn (R-Bedford). The allegations against her business partner forced her to give up her position as chair of the state’s new commission reviewing practices in the charitable gaming industry.

McIntyre sent Sanborn a letter on Aug. 31 laying out the findings of the commission’s investigation. According to a statement released by Attorney General John Formella, Sanborn “fraudulently applied for and received at least one Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), with loan proceeds of $844,000. Further, investigators obtained evidence indicating that after receiving those taxpayer dollars, Mr. Sanborn used them to purchase at least three race cars: two Porsche 987 Cayman S racers for his personal use, and a Ferrari F430 challenge racer as a gift for his wife, Rep. Laurie Sanborn.”

Sanborn also allegedly used COVID money to make 27 years’ worth of prepaid rent payments on another business he owns.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are now looking into Sanborn’s practices. According to Formella’s statement, that includes “a review by the Public Integrity Unit of the actions of all of the individuals and entities involved.” That would presumably include Laurie Sanborn.

Andy Sanborn’s checkered political career includes a bribery investigation after he allegedly made a “crude joke” to a Senate intern in 2013. After the joke was made, the exact nature of which has never been revealed, the intern was given a full-time job in the Senate and an envelope with $200 in cash.

Five years later, an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office did not result in any charges, and Sanborn denied any wrongdoing.

“No one in the room was offended by the joke,” Sanborn said in 2018. “No complaint was filed. Case closed. If that’s news, so be it.”

Sanborn threatened a college student in 2014 via email after the student, one of Sanborn’s constituents, sent an email asking Sanborn to support marijuana legalization. A clearly irked Sanborn called the student “a college freshman who just wants to get high at any cost” and implied he would get the student’s scholarship revoked.

“I’m thinking if I call the [organization you received a scholarship from] and ask their opinion on legalization, they may have a different opinion (not to mention may be asking you for their scholarship money back…).” Sanborn wrote.

Sanborn made a failed bid for Congress in 2018 after serving in the state Senate for eight years.