MassGOP advised to drop suit
New leadership told case is moot
The outside legal counsel hired by the MassGOP to help them sort through some ongoing inter-party drama is advising them to drop a lawsuit started by the ousted former chairman against his own treasurer.
“It is my strong recommendation that the Committee agree to voluntarily dismiss this lawsuit in an exchange for an agreement by Mr. Crowley to drop his counterclaims,” Brian Kelly, a former federal prosecutor, wrote to the party committee. “There is no valid economic or legal reason for the Committee to continue to pursue this litigation.”
Kelly, perhaps best known as the prosecutor who put infamous Winter Hill Gang boss James “Whitey” Bulger away for life, was brought on by the state Republican party in February after it was revealed that the MassGOP, under former Chairman Jim Lyons, had accumulated upwards of $600,000 in outstanding bills which were coming due in the midst of ongoing legal action started by Lyons.
The former chairman, who lost his job in January to Chairwoman Amy Carnevale, had filed suit against Treasurer Pat Crowley in early 2022 after Crowley had apparently removed Lyons’ access to the party accounts.
Access was restored in about a week, but still Lyons sued, claiming the party had been damaged by the actions of its treasurer.
According to Kelly, no actual damage was done and the relief sought by Lyons, that Crowley not have access to the accounts, is moot considering Lyons’ loss to
Carnevale. Crowley continues to serve as party treasurer.
“Provable damages are negligible,” he wrote. “These negligible damages are not worth pursuing and certainly dwarfed by the cost of litigation (and for the Committee, the risk that it will not prevail at trial).”
The state Republican Party Committee will meet in June, when they will have to vote on whether to follow through with Kelly’s recommendation.
It would be a surprise if they didn’t go along with the advice of counsel, considering the tone being set by the new chairwoman.
Carnevale, since her election, has stressed that she would not be focusing on the grievances begun under previous leadership but would instead keep her energy directed at helping Republicans win office in a state dominated by independent voters.
“I made a commitment when I ran for Party Chair that I would leave the decision on whether to continue this last piece of litigation up to the members of the State Committee after an analysis of the case was conducted and made available for review. As a result, the decision on whether to continue the lawsuit will be made at the next meeting of the State Committee. However, Attorney Brian Kelly clearly makes a compelling case for dismissing the lawsuit,” she said in a text message.
Crowley has filed his own complaint against Lyons.
In the days ahead of his January election loss, Lyons was reported to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance by the party treasurer, who alleged the former chairman had violated campaign laws by hiring a private investigator to look into now-Gov. Maura Healey and not reporting the spending.
That investigation, Carnevale said last Sunday, is still ongoing.