Trifecta: Britt’s Trial and Speaker Mattiello’s Race Could Collide, Grand Jury Still Looming
Thursday, July 23, 2020
This fall in Rhode Island could be a legal and political trifecta, especially for Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello. On Wednesday, Jeffrey Britt, the indicted former political consultant Mattiello, rejected a proposed deal between the state prosecutors that would have sent him to jail for 18-months.
In turn, Britt and his attorney former U.S. Attorney Bob Corrente have signaled that they are pressing for a jury-waived trial this fall. A trial could begin as early as September or October -- timed just as Mattiello faces a contested general election battle with high-profile GOP candidate Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung.
Fenton-Fung is aggressively campaigning in the disputed 15th House District and has signaled that she is now campaigning door-to-door.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“I’m so often proud of my husband, but after a full day at work, & hitting doors with me for 2 hours in 95 degree heat, he’s just casually giving a chat in between Rep Grace Meng & Governor Newsom to hundreds of future AAPI leaders at APAPA’s “Future of Leadership Symposium.” #AndItsOnlyMonday,” Fenton Fung posted to Facebook last week.
Fenton-Fung’s husband is the highly popular Cranston Mayor Allan Fung. The Cranston Mayor has out-performed Mattiello in the 15th district by about 15% in the last two elections.
Legal Showdown Looming
Britt’s legal team has stated that Mattiello will be the first witness called to testify.
The list of witnesses Corrente submitted to the court in March includes Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, his Chief of Staff Leo Skenyon, former GOP Chairman Brandon Bell, GoLocal CEO and Co-Founder Josh Fenton, radio talk show host Dan Yorke, and more than a dozen of others.
The narrative in the filing by Britt's team relating to Mattiello, Skenyon, former Mattiello aide Matt Jerzyk, and head of the Joint Committee on Legislative Services Frank Montanaro, Jr., and others claims that Britt did not act alone and Mattiello was directly involved with a campaign mailer that is at the center of the state's charges against Britt.
According to the filing, Fenton, Yorke and State Representative Greg Costantino all had knowledge at the time of the mailer, "Rep. Costantino, Dan Yorke of WPRO, and Josh Fenton of GoLocalProv are all expected to testify that during the 2016 campaign, Jeffrey Britt spoke openly and publicly about his work to secure endorsements from Shawna Lawton, and a variety of other public figures on behalf of the Mattiello campaign, and about the fact that those efforts were undertaken with the full knowledge and express approval of Leo Skenyon and the Mattiello campaign."
Grand Jury in Question
What is an unknown is the high profile grand jury relating which was empaneled after Rhode Island convention Center officials claimed that Mattiello used his office to try to protect the Speaker’s personal friend.
As GoLocal reported in January, Chair of the Authority Bernie Buonanno told GoLocal he believed the effort by Mattiello was “politically motivated” and tied to the Convention Center Authority’s disciplinary action against Mattiello’s crony James Demers.
The placing of Demers on administrative leave by the Authority sparked Mattiello’s ire -- and the ordering of the audit.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Nehronha has not made public comments about the Mattiello-Convention Center grand jury, but has made numerous public comments about at least one other grand jury — the Wyatt Detention Center investigation.
Editor's Note: Fenton-Fung is no relationship to GoLocal CEO Josh Fenton
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