House: Premier Burt Repeats Call For Investigation Into Former AG Trevor Moniz

Premier David Burt has called for a full investigation into what he termed the abuse of power by former Attorney General Trevor Moniz as a result of his handling of the Bermuda Government lawsuit against Lahey Clinic.

Speaking in the Lower House during the Motion to Adjourn on Friday, Mr Burt claimed that the One Bermuda Alliance MP broke the law when he obtained information from government departments without a court order.

The former AG repeatedly denied the Premier’s allegations and said accused Mr Burt of “misleading the House”.

But that did not stop other government MPs from hurling more questions, demanding answers from the Shadow AG about the lawsuit.

The civil suit also named former Premier Dr Ewart Brown as a co-conspirator with Lahey to defraud Bermuda’s healthcare system of millions of dollars.

The case was ultimately dismissed by US Federal Judge Indira Taiwani in a Massachusetts District Court earlier this month.

Mr Burt told MPs: “The facts are that the former Attorney General abused his power.

“He abused his office and I sincerely hope that members of the Bermuda Police Service are listening, the members of the DPP that are listening and the persons in Government House and our newly appointed Deputy Governor will launch an investigation into the abuse of power of the former Attorney General.

“He obtained government files unlawfully because he did not obtain a court order before he got access to those government files in a civil recovery investigation and he mishandled that information because he did not have any rules by which that information could be held.

The Premier continued: “He also used the information of which he gained contrary to law because the only way of which he could have done it was through a civil recovery proceeding and that would have been here in Bermuda or he could have filed an external one underneath our mutual legal assistance treaty. But he did not.”

The repeated call for an investigation came after Mr Moniz, who was kicked out of Parliament on March 9.

Last Friday, in a personal explanation, Mr Moniz denied shredding documents or using documents from a parallel criminal case to support the civil case.

He also denied that he breached Bermuda’s Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the United States.

But Mr Burt said: “Everything in the Lahey civil complaint was sourced from locally available evidence owned or maintained by the Government of Bermuda.

“The only legal method for an Attorney General to obtain government files in the pursuit of a civil recovery investigation is under section 40 of the Proceeds of Crime Act.

“And the former Attorney General did not do that, he has broken the law.”

He then read a request for information from the former AG to the Information Technology Office. Mr Burt said the letter showed that Mr Moniz referred to a “transitional clause” that was not in the Proceeds of Crime before he went “on to compel public officers to hand over terabytes of data without a court order”.

But Mr Moniz repeatedly denied that he had done anything unlawful and accused the government MPs of “misdirection”.

On that note he questioned why government MPs asked him where he got the information, instead of being “concerned with the substance of the allegations”.

The government MPs he was referring to included National Security Minister Wayne Caines, Government Whip Lawrence Scott, PLP backbenchers Michael Scott and Zane DeSilva.

Their concerns were echoed by former Premier Dr Ewart Brown during a live radio interview on Monday on the Sherri Simmons Show.