As paranoia increased, Bentley had 87 staffers sign secrecy agreements

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Governor Robert Bentley has forced at least 87 staffers in his office sign confidentiality agreements, according to documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request by Alabama sports website and liberal political blog al.com. Conspicuously missing among the 87 individuals, however, is Rebekah Caldwell Mason, who was working for the Bentley re-election campaign at the time the agreements were signed and was not asked to sign one upon later taking the post of senior political adviser.

Confidential information covered in the agreement includes “any and all information of any nature and in any form.” The agreement also states that “the Office of the Governor has expended much time, cost and difficulty in developing and maintaining the Confidential Information.”

Al.com writer John Archibald notes that the agreements were sent out August 17, 2014, the same day a story broke about the “governor’s frequent flights and the alarming overtime pay for his primary executive security officer.”

Yellowhammer sources say Bentley had at that time already learned of the existence of secret recordings exposing his intimate relationship with Mrs. Mason.

According to then-Secretary of Law Enforcement Spencer Collier, a member of Governor Bentley’s security detail, Stan Stabler, inadvertently saw a sexually explicit text from Mrs. Mason to Governor Bentley and brought it to the attention of his superior. As the information worked its way up the chain of command, Collier was alerted and made the decision to confront the Governor.

“I told Governor Bentley there was no need to try to explain it,” he recalled. “It was very obvious it was sexual in nature. Governor Bentley just hung his head and asked for advice on how to get out of it.”

Collier says he told Governor Bentley it would be a crime if he had used state or campaign resources to facilitate the affair. Governor Bentley then told Collier he would end the relationship with Mrs. Mason, but changed his mind the following morning.

Collier has since been fired and replaced by Stabler, who Collier says initially saw the explicit text messages. Stabler denies the event ever took place.

Revelations that Bentley insisted staffers sign confidentiality agreements is not the first time secrecy has been a theme in the Administration.

A staffer in the governor’s press office previously took to social media to share his frustration with media sources who are exposing unflattering information about his boss, saying they are “the public’s worst enemy.”

Daniel Sparkman, who is the Bentley administration’s Digital Media Coordinator, expressed his frustration shortly after Yellowhammer News relied on a confidential source to expose that Governor Bentley and Rebekah Mason share a secret safe deposit box at a bank in Montgomery.

“The public’s worst enemy,” Sparkman wrote, “‘unnamed’, ‘confidential” & ‘anonymous’ sources. If you have the guts to talk to the media, have the guts to put your name behind it.”