Attorney Fred Smith yesterday rejected Opposition Leader Philip Brave Davis' assertion that the government is withdrawing the appeal of a landmark Supreme Court ruling involving former Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald as "payback" for Smith's support of the Free National Movement (FNM), and suggested the matter will ultimately cost the public purse a large sum of money.
"The PLP are raising a red herring," Smith told The Nassau Guardian.
"There has been no favor or payback to Save The Bays."
Smith accused Davis of abusing his parliamentary privilege and dared him to make such allegations against him or STB outside Parliament.
Attorney General Carl Bethel revealed on Sunday that he had instructed for the appeal to be withdrawn.
In the House of Assembly on Monday, Davis demanded the government explain why it has abandoned measures to overturn a ruling, which he said has implications on the privilege of all parliamentarians.
Last August, Supreme Court Justice Indra Charles ruled that Fitzgerald breached the privacy rights of members of the environmental group Save The Bays (STB), when he read their private emails in Parliament last March.
The court ordered Fitzgerald to pay $150,000 and granted STB a permanent injunction prohibiting the then minister from disclosing or publishing any private information belonging to the group without its consent.
The government appealed the decision.
Fitzgerald also moved a motion in Parliament for the matter to be sent to the Committee on Privilege.
"The question is, what is this, payback?" Davis asked Monday.
"I would have thought that we all in here would wish to appreciate the extent of our privilege when we are going to address matters."
Yesterday, Smith said parliamentary privilege is not the issue.
He said the issue is whether a Cabinet minister, while speaking on behalf of the government, can go into Parliament and attempt to hide behind parliamentary privilege as an MP.
"The treasury is broke," Smith asserted.
"Why should the government continue to appeal and spend the taxpayers' money to defend Fitzgerald...?
"The government had over 15 lawyers on this appeal from the United Kingdom, Jamaica and The Bahamas."
Smith said the Bahamian people ought to demand to know how much money the Christie administration spent in the Supreme Court defending an "unconstitutional rape of our privacy".
He said the taxpayers should follow the money just as Fitzgerald suggested last March as he attempted to make a case that STB was a political organization fronting as an environmental group and was being funded millions of dollars to destabilize the government.
Smith said Fitzgerald cost the government $150,000 in damages, and suggested the government take legal action to recoup the funds.
He contended that the court has not taken away or threatened parliamentarians' privilege, but ruled on a breach of a government minister, who sought to attack people in Parliament and use parliamentary privilege for governmental purposes.
In her ruling, Charles said Fitzgerald's disclosure of private information in Parliament, which he claimed he got from his "political garbage can" was a "deliberate act made to avoid scrutiny by purporting to hide behind the cloak of parliamentary privilege".

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