Gov. Chris Sununu, Attorney General John Formella, and members of the Pease Development Authority board of directors met at the New Hampshire Department of Justice’s headquarters in April to discuss allegations involving Geno Marconi, the embattled head of the Division of Ports and Harbors, NHPR has learned.
Two days later, Marconi was placed on administrative leave by the board, triggering a series of events that led to criminal indictments against both Marconi and his wife, Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi, a New Hampshire Supreme Court justice.
The closed-door April 16 meeting — and its timing well before any details about the investigation into Marconi were made public — raises new questions about the role Sununu played in Marconi’s removal from office and the ensuing criminal charges. Marconi has been charged with improperly sharing private motor vehicle records of a Pease board member.
Sununu is also a key figure in the criminal case against Hantz Marconi: Prosecutors say Hantz Marconi improperly interfered with the investigation into her husband in a private meeting with Sununu in June at his office, in which she allegedly urged the governor to bring the investigation to a swift close. She allegedly told Sununu in that meeting that her husband was the victim of unfair political attacks.
Sununu’s attendance at the April meeting at the Attorney General’s office also seems to contradict the governor’s previous public statements on the scandal, in which he downplayed his knowledge or involvement in the allegations against Geno Marconi.
“Honestly, I don’t know much about that, I really don’t,” Sununu told reporters on Oct. 30 during a press conference in his office, less than two weeks after the charges against Geno Marconi were made public. “I know what you know” about the charges, Sununu said.
When asked Thursday about the accuracy of those previous statements, given his direct involvement in a meeting six months prior about the allegations involving Marconi, Sununu’s office declined to comment and instead referred all questions on the matter to the Attorney General’s office.
In a statement to NHPR, a spokesman for that office did not deny the meeting took place or that Sununu was present.
“We routinely consult with multiple state entities when they have a common interest,” the spokesman, Michael Garrity, said. “Therefore, it would not be inappropriate or unusual for members from more than one Executive Branch agency/office to attend such a gathering.”
Garrity also said the Attorney General’s office was not required to share meeting notes from the encounter, citing exemptions in the state’s Right to Know law regarding attorney-client privilege.
Spokespersons for both the governor’s office and the Department of Justice declined to answer whether Sununu advised or encouraged the Pease Development Authority board to take administrative action against Marconi during the April meeting.
A closed-door meeting, then a suspension
The previously undisclosed meeting was first alluded to publicly in an op-ed published in Seacoast Online on Nov. 1. Peter Loughlin, an attorney and former member of the Pease Development Authority board, criticized the state’s treatment of the Marconis, and noted that in mid-April a “closed door meeting” took place in Concord involving the board.
NHPR confirmed the meeting’s time, date and location by reviewing the visitor sign-in log at the New Hampshire Department of Justice’s headquarters, obtained through a Right to Know request. NHPR also confirmed the presence of both Sununu and Formella at the meeting through a person in attendance, who requested anonymity given the sensitive nature of the case.
While the exact details of the April 16 meeting are not clear, action swiftly followed from it: Two days later, during their regularly scheduled public meeting, the Pease board of directors voted to suspend Marconi from managing the state’s working ports. Video of that meeting shows Marconi being led from the hearing room during a break in proceedings.
He remains on administrative leave from his post, a position he’s held since 1995.
Paul Brean, the executive director of the Pease Development Authority — which oversees a diverse range of state assets including the working harbors in Portsmouth, Rye and Hampton — declined to comment and instead directed questions to the Attorney General’s office.
Visitor log provides some details
Following Marconi’s suspension in April, state officials released no new information about the matter until October, when — after a months-long grand jury investigation — Marconi was indicted on allegations that he improperly obtained and shared motor vehicle records involving Neil Levesque, a member of the Pease Development Authority board. Marconi is accused of acquiring the records to “retaliate” against Levesque, according to the indictments. He has entered a ‘not guilty’ plea in that matter.
Levesque, who is also the head of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College and well-known in the state political circles, was in attendance at the April 16 meeting, according to the visitor log. He declined to comment for this story.
Fellow board members Steve Fournier, Susan Parker, Karen Conard and Margaret Lamson also signed in at 2:15 p.m. for a meeting with Formella, according to the visitor’s log. The Department of Justice redacted several other names in the log that day, so it’s not clear who else may have attended the meeting.
The day before the indictments against Geno Marconi were released, the Attorney General announced a slate of corruption charges against Justice Hantz Marconi, the first time in modern history that a New Hampshire Supreme Court justice has faced criminal accusations.
The charges largely stem from the June 6 private meeting in the governor’s office in which Hantz Marconi allegedly urged Sununu to drop or intervene in the investigation into her husband. Hantz Marconi is accused of two counts of improper influence — a felony — and five additional misdemeanors, including criminal solicitation and obstructing government administration.
Prosecutors have revealed few details about both sets of charges. It isn’t clear if Sununu, or his legal counsel Rudy Ogden, who was also present for the meeting with Hantz Marconi, first alerted the attorney general’s office about her alleged conduct.
Sununu appointed Hantz Marconi to the bench in 2017. He also appointed Levesque to the Pease Development Authority’s board of directors, as well as Steve Duprey, the board’s current chair and a real estate developer with deep ties in state Republican politics. Hantz Marconi is also accused of improperly contacting Duprey in April shortly after her husband was placed on leave. (Duprey is a member of NHPR’s Board of Directors, but has no influence over the station’s coverage.)
A third person, Bradley Cook, who served on the Port Advisory Council for more than a decade, was also indicted in October for allegedly lying to a grand jury about receiving materials about Levesque from Marconi.
Sununu’s relationship with Formella in question
Hantz Marconi made her first appearance Monday in Merrimack County Superior Court, where she entered a ‘not guilty’ plea and was formally released on personal recognizance bail.
Her attorneys argued that Formella — and by extension the entire Attorney General’s office — should be forced to recuse themselves from the case, and a special counsel appointed to handle the matter, because of Formella’s unique relationship with Sununu.
Formella provided legal work for Sununu before he became governor, and then was tapped to serve as the governor's counsel while in office. In 2021, Sununu nominated Formella to lead the Department of Justice.
Attorney Richard Guerriero, who is representing Hantz Marconi, argued in court that Sununu is likely to be a key witness in the criminal case involving his client, and that it is therefore improper to have Formella or any of his department’s attorneys prosecuting the case.
“[Formella’s] personal interests are directly tied to this very powerful and important witness,” Guerriero told the court.
Lawyers for the state countered that Hantz Marconi was asking for a form of immunity by attempting to prohibit the attorney general from participating in cases where a powerful government official is a witness. The judge didn’t immediately rule on the request.
