Audio: VA Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran Says Secret Recording “Unnerving,” But “Reinforces What I’ve Been Saying All Along”

See below for an audio clip from VA Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran’s conversation this morning, on WRVA’s John Reid Show, about the Parole Board controversy (or whatever it is). Here are a few highlights:

• Moran: “There a lot to say about it…really it doesn’t change much…It reinforces what I’ve been saying along…that we had absolutely nothing to do with the editing, formulating, development…influencing of that 6-page report, and if anybody takes the time to listen to it, that is confirmed unequivocally.”
• “That is the final report…all we had was the 6-page report…I would encourage your folks to listen to it. I walk through the report, there’s a number of findings, I walk through each one and ask questions about it…They wrote a negative report about one of my agencies, we asked questions about it…that’s typical.”
• On the issue of whether or not the guy (Vincent L. Martin) who killed the police officer (Michael P. Connors) back in 1979 was a “bad guy,” Moran said “I know he was a bad guy…the fact that he was a bad guy in 1980 is absolutely true...living a life of crime…my objection is that that’s all that was in the report, there’s nothing over the last 40 years…he had no infractions while in prison…was a role model to other prisoners, he took every possible course that was offered…if you’re going to include the negative stuff, you have to at least include some of the stuff over the last 40 years, whether you think the release is justified or not…or just leave it all out…because this was an administrative investigation of *process*…”
• Moran: “One of the other findings was the prosecutor only received 15 days notice; they’re supposed to receive 21 days. Well, again, once the new Parole Board Chair found out, they pushed the date so the prosecutor did have 21 days, in fact they had far more than 21 days…So you told half the story…initially, only received 15 days, but then didn’t talk about how the Parole Board fixed it…Clearly, they didn’t like the decision, but the report should have been more comprehensive and told…a bigger story.”
• Moran: “Secret recording, which is pretty unnerving…in the Governor’s office…that’s pretty unnerving.”