A U.S. District Court judge ruled Tuesday that Gov. Ned Lamont does not have to testify in the ongoing criminal trial of Konstantinos Diamantis.
Diamantis’ attorney, Norm Pattis, filed a motion in early October seeking to add Lamont to the witness list.
Lamont was served a subpoena last week, and Attorney General William Tong’s office hired attorneys from the Hartford law firm Shipman and Goodwin to handle the matter.
They were prepared to file a motion to quash the subpoena as early as today, but Judge Stefon Underhill ruled from the bench that Lamont’s testimony wasn’t relevant to the charges against Diamantis.
Underhill held the hearing outside the presence of the jury.
The judge asked Pattis to explain why the governor’s testimony would be relevant in the bribery and extortion case against Diamantis.
Pattis explained that Lamont instructed Diamantis to bring school projects in on time and on budget. And he said those orders were what caused Diamantis to be so aggressive on the school projects.
Throughout the trial, several witnesses testified about how aggressive and abrasive Diamantis was in the school construction field. One witness, Jack Butkus, said his team referred to Diamantis as “Napoleon.” And another witness called him “an arrogant prick.”
But after Pattis was done explaining that rationale for calling the governor, the prosecution objected to Lamont being hauled into court and placed on the stand.
The judge quickly agreed with the prosecution and ruled that Lamont’s testimony would not be relevant. In rendering that decision, Underhill pointed out that Diamantis is on trial for soliciting and accepting bribes, not being personally aggressive toward people.
As court ended, Pattis said he didn’t understand the judge’s ruling and said it would likely be an appealable issue if the trial does not go Diamantis’ way.
Diamantis, the former the head of the Connecticut Office of School Construction Grants and Review, was charged last year with 22 federal counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and lying to federal investigators. They alleged that he set up a pay-to-play scheme within Connecticut’s school construction office.
Federal prosecutors are expected to wrap up their case in the next few days, and Pattis had listed Lamont as a potential defense witness.
During last week’s cross-examination of John Duffy, the vice president of Acranom Masonry, which won a number of school construction projects, Pattis asked Duffy if he was aware that Lamont and Diamantis had had private meetings during COVID during which the governor told Kosta to “get the school construction projects done quickly, anyway he could and to use Connecticut laborers.”
Duffy testified he wasn’t aware of those meetings. Outside the courtroom, Pattis said he will ask Diamantis about those meetings with Lamont when Diamantis testifies later this week.
During his first term, Lamont promoted Diamantis to the position of deputy director of the state’s Office of Policy and Management. Diamantis held both positions during the COVID crisis.
But Lamont later fired Diamantis from that job in October 2021, after investigators subpoenaed the state for a long list of records related to Diamantis and several public building projects he oversaw.