Spokesman for California Attorney General resigns after secretly recording conversations with reporters

November 4, 2009

A spokesman for California Attorney General Jerry Brown resigned Monday after admitting that he had secretly recorded telephone conversations with journalists, including a reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. As the paper reports, Scott Gerber told Chronicle political writer Carla Marinucci that he had recorded her interview with two attorneys in Brown’s office without asking for her permission.

Gerber reportedly admitted taping Marinucci’s interview after the newspaper published a story charging that Brown had changed the wording of the summary of a proposed ballot measure on car insurance after pressure from Mercury General, one of the state’s largest insurers and a Brown campaign donor.

In his resignation letter, Gerber said he had recorded Marinucci’s interview “simply to have an accurate record of official, on-the-record statements on matters of public concern,” but acknowledged having made “serious errors in judgment.”

Gerber reportedly said that comments from James Humes, chief deputy attorney general, were not fairly reflected in the article about the proposed ballot measure, which was why Gerber had e-mailed the editor a transcript of the conversation. He said the summary of the insurance measure was rewritten after its sponsors, a coalition of insurers and consumer groups, had made extensive changes to the initiative. — Greg Beaubien

View Comments