Horne peppered Collins with questions about Chuck Diaz, who, as a contributor to Winn's independent-expenditure committee, was called by the FBI. Horne wanted to know what the FBI said to Diaz about their investigation.
"Did they say to Chuck that it was [about] possible lying, possible fraud?" she quoted Horne as wondering.
Ray Stern
Attorney General Tom Horne with Horne's outreach director, Kathleen Winn (right), at the Arizona Republican Party 2012 election night event at the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Phoenix.
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Assistant Attorney General Carmen Chenal, the employee Horne's "having an affair with," according to the FBI.
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Collins says she told Horne, "[Diaz] just said he's been lied to [about his contribution to Winn's committee] and [that] there's fraud, but [Diaz] is not in trouble."
She said Horne was "clearly upset," and she asked Horne whether he wanted her to call Diaz before he was interviewed by FBI agents.
"[Horne] said to just wait until he talk[ed] with his lawyer, [that I] might need a script," she recalled.
By March, Horne felt the FBI closing in, according to Sharon Collins, who in a subsequent interview with FBI agents said that Horne had lost weight and was consumed with worry.
"I'm dying a thousand deaths every day," Collins quoted Horne as saying about the FBI probe. "I don't know what they have."
"Did you take that to mean there's something to have?" Grehoski asked.
"I did," said Collins.
Collins said Horne's chief of staff, Margaret Dugan, had taken a look at campaign-finance reports from Winn's Business Leaders for Arizona and concluded, "Boy, that's illegal."
Winn had been active early in Horne's primary campaign, determined to deny Andy Thomas a shot at the AG's Office. She formed the BLA committee in December 2009, but it remained dormant during the primary.
In a sworn affidavit submitted to the county attorney, Winn says she worked with Horne's campaign until "a few weeks after the election was certified and Mr. Horne was the primary winner."
She says she left the campaign to run the BLA and "was able to raise $535,000 in approximately 10 days," with which she financed an attack ad against opponent Rotellini, made with the help of Lincoln Strategy Group, a political-consulting firm.
"There was absolutely no coordination between anyone in Mr. Horne's campaign or at his direction with myself or my independent campaign," Winn states in the affidavit. "The ad was my idea . . . It was produced by me and only me."
But FBI agents were pursuing a theory based on statements Horne flack Rezzonico supposedly made to Hinchey and Keppel, suggesting that Horne was behind Winn's committee all along, as a way of eluding state campaign-finance laws restricting the maximum dollar amount individuals can contribute to a candidate.
On an independent-expenditure committee, there are no such limits.
According to Hinchey, Rezzonico said, "Winn was pushing back and resisting taking orders from Chenal so as a way for AG Horne to 'separate' the two women. He told Winn, 'You go do this independent expenditure and take care of this money for me.'"
During one of her FBI interviews, Collins claimed Horne "asked me to put Kathleen [Winn] in touch with Chuck [Diaz]."
Diaz contributed $5,000 to the BLA.
Collins' story was slightly different in another interview, in which she remembered that she put Diaz in touch with Winn.
Another issue: the $115,000 in contributions to the BLA made by Horne's brother-in-law, Richard Newman.
Newman says Horne didn't prompt the contributions. Horne's sister, Christine Newman, told FBI agents that she and her husband met Winn at a party after Horne won the primary.
The agents were skeptical, questioning the Newmans extensively about frequent phone calls from Horne to his wealthy sister around the time the bulk of the money was donated.
Horne told reporters it would've been better for his relatives to donate directly to his campaign, instead of to Winn's independent-expenditure committee because of an exception on donation limits to a candidate from family members.
Perhaps, but $115,000 was not enough, on its own, for Winn's ad buy. And that money made up for an anticipated $100,000 deficit in what was needed for the ad.
A national group called the Republican State Leadership Committee initially considered giving $450,000 to Winn's committee but later reduced the amount by $100,000.
Six days before the election, Horne forwarded an e-mail to Winn with polling data showing that Rotellini was beginning to peel away Republicans from Horne, telling her, "Maybe with this we can try again for the $100K."
Horne also forwarded that e-mail to national RSLC director Casey Phillips, constituting apparent evidence that Horne was attempting to direct Winn's committee, in direct conflict with the law.
Winn's riposte? She never attempted to get an extra $100,000 from the GOP leadership committee, as Horne was suggesting.
She also contends that if Horne had been directing the independent-expenditure committee, he would've focused on a rebuttal to a pro-Rottellini ad in which an out-of-state Democratic group, the Committee for Justice and Fairness, attacked him.
County Attorney Montgomery has ordered Winn and Horne to refund all the money from individual and political contributors beyond the maximum allowed by law during the 2010 election cycle.
They are challenging the order, and a hearing is scheduled to begin January 22.
Among other matters, the hearing will address more than 150 phone calls between Winn and Horne from the end of the primary to Election Day, with a spike during the time Winn and Brian Murray from Lincoln Strategy Group were working on the anti-Rotellini ad.
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