Blumenthal’s Office Improperly Releases Sensitive Personnel Document About Staffer Who Claimed Blumenthal Lied About Vietnam

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s office Wednesday made public a sensitive document from the personnel file of Assistant Attorney General Richard Hine that raises questions about Hine’s credibility.

Hine is the retired Marine Major who last month claimed that Blumenthal told him 18 years ago that Blumenthal had been in Vietnam as a marine during the Vietnam War.

Blumenthal – who claims he only accidentally told people on a few occasions that he served in Vietnam – said he had no recollection of  ever telling Hine that he had been a marine in a combat area.

Hine’s credibility was questioned immediately after he made the claim when Blumenthal’s office released portions of Hine’s personnel file to the New London Day which had filed a Freedom of Information request. The documents showed that Hine was disciplined in the mid 1990s for a series of violations, including requesting payments for trips he did not take.

I then filed my own FOI request asking for Hine’s complete personnel file.

Hine – according to both Hine and the AG’s office – objected to one document being made public, an objection that the AG’s office said it would honor.

However, when I went to Attorney General’s office today where I was given access to more than 500 pages in Hine’s file, two copies of the document were included. One copy was the original one from 10 years ago and the second copy had the name of the person complaining about Hine redacted. I requested – and received – copies of about 70 pages, including the two documents.

About an hour later top officials from the Attorney General’s office contacted me telling me that the sensitive documents should not have been provided to me and that they had been “inadvertently” left with the other documents.

I reached Hine for a comment while he was playing in a charity golf tournament and he was obviously upset.

He claimed that he asked that the document be withheld from the public because it was based on false and slanderous allegations. He also claimed that he never saw the unredacted copy which I had been given. He claimed that he was never told who had made the complaint against him.

Hine said he is convinced that the document was given to me on purpose to damage his credibility.

“They put it in for you to see,” Hine told me. “They are lying through their teeth” that it was an accident, he said.

Hine continued refused to make the document public and I have agreed to also not reveal the document to anyone and will destroy the unredacted copy.

“My integrity is not the question,” Hine insisted. He said that the letters of support he received from two judges, several lawyers and an assistant attorney general for his unsuccessful attempt to become a state judge speaks to his character.

Blumenthal, according to his press aides, would not comment on this issue and that he turned the matter over to his deputy Attorney General because of the obvious conflict of interest.

“This document was provided completely in error in response to a disclosure request,” Deputy Attorney General Carolyn Querijero said. “We immediately urged in writing and by phone that the document be returned and not disclosed. We continue to strongly urge that the document be returned and not disclosed.”