News + Press

In an exclusive interview with WTNH’s Dennis House aired Sunday morning, Erin Stewart denied involvement in over a decade of apparent corruption in the New Britain Revenue Collector’s office, while admitting to potentially illegal behavior herself.

A key moment in the segment shows Stewart describing being solicited “many times” for the kind of illegal tax favors that are now at the center of the report, but denying she ever accepted them.

House clarified by asking Stewart directly whether she had been offered bribes: “Were you ever offered something like, did anyone ever come in and say, ‘Listen, if you do this, I'll donate to your campaign, or I'll do this?’” 

Stewart immediately said yes. “One-hundred percent. One-hundred percent all the time.” 

“That’s essentially offering you a bribe,” House responded.

“All the time. You think I didn't have people that were in my office offering me things all the time?” Stewart proceeded to say that she declined these bribes, but that her only response to attempted bribery was she “wrote those people off, and “just didn’t talk to them anymore.”

Despite Erin Stewart’s casual reaction, merely rejecting bribes is a potentially illegal act. Connecticut state law requires public officials to report attempted bribes to law enforcement agencies as soon as reasonably possible.

This new admission makes it clear friends were comfortable requesting illegal favors. This preliminary report already highlights at least one incident in which Blogoslawski stated the Mayor’s Chief of Staff directed her to improperly accept a check that was then backdated in the system to avoid interest. A note attached to the backdated payment in the city’s tax database was marked “1 time courtesy per mayor”. The Chief of Staff allegedly told investigators that anything they did was either at the Mayor’s direction or with her knowledge.

Statement from CT Dems spokesperson, Ian Clarke:

“Erin Stewart just told us, in her own words, that people regularly sought improper tax favors from her in exchange for bribes. Her apparent failure to report these incidents is not only deeply disqualifying, but illegal under Connecticut law.

This confession adds yet another question Stewart must answer for if she expects Connecticut voters to take her seriously. Rather than continue to distance herself from her own appointees, she should welcome a full investigation of not only the allegations regarding illegal tax favors, but also whatever attempted bribes she failed to report. Erin Stewart has no business seeking a higher office until she fully accounts for her apparent negligence in her previous role.”