It was an awkward end to the week: the last thing we heard during Connolly’s evidence last Friday was that she told the commission she was the person behind an anonymous email sent to reporters and councillors alleging a council staffer turned council candidate had committed fraud.
It was at this point Connolly began to get teary. She was grilled by Chief Commissioner John Hatzistergos on why she felt the need to leak the story anonymously to the media instead of have her staff investigate it.
She said she sent the email for two reasons: that she was concerned the issue would get “swept under the rug”, and that her “employment would be terminated” if the email was linked back to her.
Then she broke down, and said a lot of things that were immediately put under a non-publication directive by the commissioner. Here’s how that moment appeared in the ICAC’s transcript:
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