(Mario Jarjour/WBZ NewsRadio)
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The co-chair of the Joint Transportation Committee is accusing Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's administration of withholding emails sought by the committee in the investigation into the scandal at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Rep. William Strauss said a batch of documents received by the committee appear to indicate that several departments outside the RMV—including Gov. Baker's office—knew about a serious backlog of out-of-state violations at the registry.
The Transportation Committee is investigating that backlog in the wake of a crash that killed seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire this summer. The driver charged in that crash, Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, had several violations that should have kept him from being behind the wheel had they been properly processed.
Lawmakers asked for those documents from MassDOT regarding the backlog, Strauss said, but the emails in question were omitted.
At least two of them were provided by outside sources, and not the Department of Transportation.
A MassDOT spokesperson said the two emails in question were not formally requested by lawmakers, and did not fit the criteria of the documents that had been requested.
Strauss said he's skeptical of that explanation, and is beginning to think the omission of the documents was intentional.
"I just have to question the credibility of the statement that came from the administration," he said.
WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe (@KimWBZ) reports
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