Secret Recordings Surface in Bromwell Case

In Transcripts, Then-State Senator Boasts of Influence and Willingness to Help Powerful Friends

Former state lawmaker Thomas L. Bromwell, who is expected to face trial this year on public corruption charges, once referred to himself in a conversation secretly recorded by the FBI as a "whore" in the state Senate for a Maryland racetrack owner, according to transcripts made public yesterday.

Elsewhere in the transcripts, Bromwell is quoted bragging about his influence with Comcast, where his two sons were given jobs after he championed legislation that benefited the cable TV company, and he is quoted as saying that he is giving an associate $20,000 in cash in exchange for a check to avoid making a large cash deposit.

"I just don't want to pay the tax on it," Bromwell is quoted as saying about the $20,000.

Bromwell, who was among the most powerful figures in Annapolis when he left office in 2002, is charged with performing a variety of official acts as a senator for the benefit of a contractor in exchange for a no-show job for his wife and other favors. The transcripts cast him in a newly unflattering light.

The Baltimore County Democrat, long known for his flamboyant manner, is quoted using offensive language about minorities and women, among others. Of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who attended one of Bromwell's fundraisers, Bromwell is quoted as saying, "I don't use the N-word, but he was an N."

Of an incident in which the Rev. Jesse Jackson was said to have demeaned a woman, Bromwell says, "He talked down to her like she was a [expletive] Arab."

Also in 2001, Bromwell is quoted using a vulgar word, coupled with "liberal," to describe then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D). "I hate to use that word, but that's what she is," the transcript quotes him as saying.

Bromwell did not respond to a message seeking comment yesterday.

As jury selection in his trial was about to begin last week, U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz abruptly disqualified the defense attorneys who represented Bromwell and his wife, who is also charged in the case, citing "irreconcilable conflicts of interest," which he did not specify.

Motz unsealed the transcripts, which take up several hundred pages, along with hundreds of other pages of previously secret pleadings, in response to a motion filed by the Baltimore Sun.

In a newly unsealed March 12 filing, prosecutors said they had secretly recorded more than 100 conversations during the investigation. The tapes and digital recordings, they said, provide direct evidence of Bromwell's efforts to use his influence to obtain business for W. David Stoffregen and of other crimes.

Stoffregen, the former head of the construction firm Poole and Kent, pleaded guilty in the case and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

According to the indictment returned in October 2005, Bromwell's ability to deliver favors to Poole and Kent was considered so valuable that Stoffregen persuaded him to abandon announced plans to retire from the Senate in 2000. Bromwell remained in the legislature at Stoffregen's request and, in exchange, received payments of more than $190,000 disguised as salary paid to his wife, the indictment says.

Bromwell is quoted in a transcript describing his relationship with Joseph A. DeFrancis, chief executive of the Maryland Jockey Club, to a business associate who was secretly cooperating with the FBI and a retired FBI agent posing as a financier. Bromwell is recounting a November 2001 conversation he said he had with DeFrancis after DeFrancis snubbed him by not telling him about a plan to open an off-track betting parlor in Baltimore County.

"I said, 'Look, I'm your [expletive] whore in Maryland, in the Senate side, and you turn around and you [expletive] me like this, [expletive] you.' I'm going to see him tomorrow night. He's going to be licking my [expletive] boots."

In an interview yesterday, DeFrancis denied that any such conversation had taken place and denied having an improper relationship with Bromwell.

"I can tell you that he never said anything to me that even remotely approximated that," DeFrancis said, adding later, "It sounds to me like the guy was sort of exaggerating and bragging to his buddies as guys tend to do."

In that same November 2001 transcript, Bromwell is quoted as saying that, because of his leadership on legislation that allowed Comcast to charge millions in late fees to customers, the company "needs me big time."

Bromwell denied that there was a quid pro quo but said both his sons, one of whom is now a state delegate, got jobs with the company.

A Comcast spokeswoman, Beth Baca, said the company has cooperated with government requests for assistance, and she denied that the company had acted improperly

Bromwell is also quoted describing himself as a "rainmaker" for Network Technologies Group, a now-defunct company that employed him for a time in the late 1990s. Although Bromwell has said he worked on quality control issues for the company, he is quoted in the transcript as saying his actual function was to get the company work from Comcast.

"I'm bringing in tens of millions of dollars' worth of work for 80 grand a year," Bromwell is quoted as saying. "I'm a hell of a deal. I was supposed to be a lot higher than that, but pigs go to eat and hogs go to slaughter."

Staff researcher Meg Smith also contributed to this report.