Legislature Retreats on Subpoenas in Friday Document Dump.

Legislative leaders later Friday afternoon ended months of violating the law and released subpoenas requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents confirm what was first reported at Daily Ructions last year: the legislature is under scrutiny in a federal criminal investigation that has expanded beyond the roll-your-own tobacco scandal that destroyed former Speaker of the House Christopher Donovan’s 2012 congressional campaign.

Last fall, federal authorities demanded a slew of documents related to the tobacco shop bill and bonding legislation. Many current and former employees of Community Health Center, helmed by close Donovan ally Mark Masselli, got a simultaneous view of the investigation early this year when investigators paid early morning calls to their homes, told them to turn off their cell phones, and started asking unsettling questions. Who pays for legal costs employees are incurring is becoming, Daily Ructions understands, the cause of some unease at CHC.

The familiar name of Democratic insider Laura Jordan, who worked for Donovan, appears on one federal subpoena directed to James Tracy, the head of the Office of Legislative Management and keeper of documents the feds want to see.  House Democratic staffers Cara Passaro, Gary Turco, and Richard Baltimore have also attracted the interest of federal investigators, according to the subpoenas. Discovering how a bonding bill is drafted, reviewed, negotiated, enacted and implemented must be a revelatory experience for even a hardened investigator, causing the investigation to continue.