Leader Armstrong "Appalled" After Invoices Show Truth Commission PR Firm Conducted Political Opposition Research on Legislators

Calls on Chair Romero to publicly explain the invoices, release all work product and answer who directed the research

SANTA FE, NM – House Republican Leader Gail Armstrong (R-Magdalena) said today she was appalled after reviewing an invoice showing that the taxpayer-funded public relations firm hired by the New Mexico Survivor Truth Commission conducted political opposition research on members of the New Mexico Legislature, less than three months before a critical election and without the knowledge of the full Commission.

Representative Andrea Reeb (R-Clovis), a member of the Commission, requested the invoice from the Legislative Council Service and brought them to Leader Armstrong. The invoice was submitted by Dini von Mueffling Consulting (DVMC), the firm retained under Chair Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe).

An August 24 entry bills taxpayers for an "internal call on other NM state Legislature members, political backgrounds, prior work before coming to the Commission and Legislature, known associates and history." Other entries bill for research into Commission members' "party affiliations," "public sentiment towards R/D," and "NM party politics, partisan deals." None of this has anything to do with the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. It is political opposition research, paid for by taxpayers.

Representative Reeb and Representative Bill Hall, the two Republican members of the four-member Commission, were never told this research was being conducted, and none of it was ever shared with them.

"When Representative Reeb showed me these invoices, I was appalled," said Leader Armstrong. "Chair Romero had a taxpayer-funded PR firm running political opposition research on members of the Legislature, digging into our backgrounds and our associates, just before an important election. And she did it behind the backs of at least half her own Commission. This Commission was created to find the truth for the survivors and victims' Jeffrey Epstein left in his wake, not to build political files on her colleagues."

Leader Armstrong is calling on Chair Romero to publicly:

  • Explain every entry on the invoice.

  • Release all work product DVMC produced for the money it billed.

  • Explain why she directed DVMC to conduct political opposition research on members of the Legislature, and who else knew.

  • Explain what gave her the idea she had the authority to do this without the knowledge of the Commission.

  • Answer whether she was directed to do this by House Democratic leadership, or whether it was her own doing.

"Chair Romero owes the public, the survivors and her fellow Commission members straight answers," Armstrong said."Between her illegal employment, the misuse of the Commission's PR firm for her personal statements, and now political opposition research on the taxpayers' dime, her mismanagement has done serious damage to this Commission's integrity. Who told her she could do this without the Commission's knowledge? Did Democratic leadership direct it, or was this her own doing? New Mexicans, and most of all the survivors, deserve to know."