Excerpts from call taped by Delmar Johnson
06/30/2010
"I was hearing all last week that you were throwing me under the bus."
"I'm not doing that at all."
That's the opening of a 56 minute conversation on March 25, between the then ousted chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Jim Greer, and the also ousted executive director Delmar Johnson III.
And Greer repeatedly tells Johnson that the two have to stick together. "All the attorneys say that - you and Delmar need to be talking a lot." and later "All the lawyers told me you and Delmar need to stick together."
At one point, Greer says, "We've got to sit down and get back on track and neither one us have to worry about the other person."
"You never have to worrry about me," Johnson replies.
But Greer did have to worry about Johnson, who was making the phone call for investigators after getting a promise of no prison or prosecution if Johnson cooperated.
Greer at times made it clear he wanted the whole mess to go away. "If they would shutup and stop attacking you and I, I would forget about the money."
"They" were the newly appointed GOP chairman John Thrasher and Speaker-designate Dean Cannon and Senate President Mike Haridopolos who agreed to give Greer a secret severance payment of $124,000.
Thrasher later called for an investigation of Greer when it was discovered that Greer and Johnson had collected $200,000 of party money through a company they formed called Victory Strategies LLC.
During the phone call, Greer often sounds defiant. "Do you think Thrasher is going to be stupid enough to do something?" Greer wonders.
At another moment Greer says: "Do you think you and I should bring them all down." "That idiot Thrasher is trying to use us as a scapegoat."
"I can't believe they did this to us Delmar."
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