Ramlogan: E-mailgate 'shameless fiction'

“SHAMELESS political fiction.” That was how former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, SC, described the infamous e-mails read out in Parliament in May 2013 by Dr Keith Rowley.

Ramlogan said in an interview with Newsday, “Why would he approve Gary Griffith as police commissioner when the fake e-mail thread was about Mr Griffith and I conspiring to murder a senior journalist?”

Yesterday the police announced the end of six years of investigations into Rowley’s declaration in Parliament linking Ramlogan, Griffith, former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal, in the alleged plot.

Rowley had maintained that he received the e-mails in his letterbox and it was his duty as then Opposition Leader to expose them. The e-mails made startling allegations of conspiracy over the infamous Section 34 to benefit financiers of the People’s Partnership government. The e-mails allegedly also revealed attempts to bug the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and an attempt to bribe him with a judicial appointment.Saying six years was quite long to have such allegations hanging over one’s head, Ramlogan disclosed yesterday that he had sued internet service provider Google, and the company's custodian of records, Chi Nguyen, swore an affidavit that the e-mails did not originate from Ramlogan's account to Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Gary Griffith.Ramlogan said, “The PNM knew this was a shameless political fiction, or else it would never have approved Gary Griffith’s appointment as Commissioner of Police, because the fake e-mail thread 'revealed' that Gary and I were conspiring to murder a senior journalist.

In that case, he asked, "Why would the government approve his nomination (as Commissioner of Police)?"

He concluded, "The clearing of Mr Griffith for such a high position was a simultaneous clearing of me, given that Rowley’s allegation was that there was an ‘exchange’ of e-mails between Mr Griffith and I.” Saying Rowley’s E-mailgate was analogous to the United States Watergate scandal which resulted in a president resigning, Ramlogan expressed relief that the E-mailgate burden is finally lifted from his colleagues, who he said had endured six years of grief over the claims that they had conspired to kill a female journalist.

He added, “Had I, Mrs Persad-Bissessar and other colleagues made such unfounded allegations, the investigations would have been swift and determined, resulting in charges for misconduct in public office and wasteful employment of the police.” Moonilal commented yesterday as well, saying, “How can the population trust Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley...? He’s now like an emperor with no clothes on.”