Palm Beach, Florida --The long saga of Jim Greer versus the Florida Republican party continues.
There is new evidence tonight showing former Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer was acting with the knowledge of party leaders when he formed a company to do the fund raising for the party.
Greer is facing criminal charges for paying himself for the fund raising, but an affidavit released by Greer's attorney shows the former Finance Chairman of the party, Harry Sargeant III, says Greer took on the fund raising with his knowledge.
In addition Sargeant says in the affidavit that former Governor Charlie Crist and former U.S. Senator George Lemieux were also aware of the plan and approved it.
Sargeant says he was surprised when Greer was charged with a crime.
In October the The 10 News Investigators reported that a $5,000,000 lawsuit had been filed by former head of the Republican Party of Florida Jim Greer. Greer is suing for damages against his successor, State Senator John Thrasher.
Greer was arrested in June 2010 on charges he defrauded the party. Since then, he has talked to only one reporter in the state: 10 News Investigator Mike Deeson.
The lawsuit filed in Seminole County stemmed from lies told by the leaders of the State Republican Party, including Senate President Mike Haridopolios, Speaker of the House Dean Cannon, and State Senator John Thrasher.
The group wanted Greer to resign because he was close with former Governor Charlie Crist, who was running for the Senate, partly because they were all backing Marco Rubio. Also, the money Crist was raising went to his Senate run, and not the party.
In order to get Greer to resign, they all signed a severance agreement promising Greer a year's salary of $130,000, and a statement saying all expenditures he made with his fundraising company, Victory Strategies, were appropriate and necessary for the Republican Party.
"I have no doubt somewhere along the way someone said to this group, 'We need to circle the wagons.' It might have been over a drink, over dinner, or a formal meeting, but someone said we need to circle the wagons and they as a group orchestrated the largest pack of lies I have ever seen. The number one goal in politics is you have to discredit the person who knows the dirt on us, and that's what they went about doing with me," says Greer.
Now Greer is fighting back with this lawsuit and sources tell us the leadership of the party is petrified.
They know he knows where all the bodies are buried, so to speak. We are also being told the leaders don't want Greer's criminal trial to proceed.
In a sworn deposition House Speaker Dean Cannon said the party should have paid Greer and Thrasher, after denying there was an agreement, incredibly said, "Yep, that's my signature on the agreement, but I don't know how it got there."
Read the affidavit here.