Latest Gray ‘cronyism’ hearing fails to resolve discrepancies

Mr. Brown, hired to a $110,000-per-year job at the Department of Healthcare Finance, proved to be a problem child early on, according to Ms. Banks. She sent an email about the issue to both Ms. Hall and Ms. Green.

“Why is Lorraine Green intimately involved in the hire of someone like Sulaimon Brown?” Mr. Catania said.

Ms. Cheh, too, noted Ms. Green seems to pop up as an “alter ego” for the mayor in Ms. Banks’ correspondence.

When Ms. Banks received an email from a reporter with The Washington Times about Cherita Whiting, a Gray appointee who turned out to have a criminal record, Ms. Banks sent an email to Ms. Green that said, “This is not good.”

Ms. Green is scheduled to testify before the committee on May 13. Process servers are also looking for Mr. Brown and Ms. Whiting to subpoena them ahead of the hearing after concluding the pair were willfully evading the service of subpoenas to testify at Friday’s hearing.

Although they have said they are not avoiding the summonses, “certainly no one has come forward to collect their subpoenas,” Ms. Cheh said.

Mr. Brooks and his son, Peyton Brooks, who resigned from a city job, have exercised their Fifth Amendment rights to remain silent.

Meanwhile, at the request of Mr. Catania, Ms. Cheh will issue a subpoena for all the emails from Ms. Banks’ brief tenure in Mr. Gray’s administration.

And Ms. Cheh gave Ms. Banks an opportunity to correct her testimony, should her own recollection change.

Ms. Webb, who was dismissed by the mayor last month, attended the hearing to follow developments. She said she was surprised that Ms. Banks is “still clinging to her story.”

“They don’t want the truth to come out,” she said.

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