Works Minister Dr Suruj Rambachan and former minister Gary Griffith said yesterday they hope the E-mailgate investigation can be concluded quickly. They said so yesterday after being contacted for comment in the wake of acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams confirmation that the Police Service had received information from Internet service provider Google Inc on the matter. Speaking to reporters at a business conference in Port-of-Spain yesterday, Rambachan said the police investigation was taking too long.
He added: “I think now that the police have admitted that they have the information they should come public with whatever they have. “I wrote to Google about a week after this happened and within six hours Google sent me back, from the legal department, a letter in which they cleared me completely. “I am just waiting on the Commissioner of Police to finish his investigation as quickly as possible. “ I hope they do this before the elections and not after the elections because this is something that they have tried to impugn the character of ministers of government with.
“I, like the Prime Minister, am also waiting to file my lawsuit in terms of what has happened in this matter.” Contacted by phone, Griffith too said he was anxious to see the completion of the investigation. “I hope this matter can be rectified as quickly as possible. I would not want to pressure the police as I am aware there is a process and they have to be very meticulous in compiling all the data and they cannot give piecemeal information.”
Griffith said he also wished assurances were given that not only authentication of the e-mails was being done but that the probe would extend to authenticating the content of the papers as well. He said that would clear up any questions on that. Police said yesterday that the information they have received from Google in connection with the alleged e-mails were now being analysed to determine their authenticity.
Ramlogan did not respond to calls for his comment on the information received by police. Sources close to him said he had returned to private practice. In May 2013, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar asked the acting Police Commissioner to investigate alleged e-mails which Opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley produced in Parliament. The alleged e-mails were purported to have been written by the PM, former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, Rambachan and Griffith.
The allegations dealt with an alleged plot to tap the phone of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the intimidation of the T&T Guardian journalist who broke the story about the early proclamation of Section 34 of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act 2011.