Now Gordon MacDonald is accusing Barbara Hantz-Marconi of circulating rumors that he had an affair with Dianne Martin. That’s a bit rich coming from him. He has had an entire career off the sexual misconduct rumor mill, and so have his colleagues at Nixon Peabody and so has their client, the NHCADSV.
I am less concerned about whether or not Gordon MacDonald did or did not have an affair with Dianne Martin and more concerned about the fact that “rumors” have become the rallying cry to take down anyone in front of the justice system, in the State House, in schools (St. Paul’s, Phillips Exeter Academy, Concord School District) and on Dartmouth College Campus.
Gordon MacDonald says the rumors about him having an affair with Dianne Martin are not true, and they harmed him. Dianne Martin has discredited them too.
The result is that Barbara Hantz Marconi lost her license.
Gordon MacDonald resigned, but he wasn’t just the NH Supreme Court Chief Justice. He was the “President-Elect of the Conference of Chief Justices nationally (CJJ and the Chair-Elect of the National Center for State Courts board (NCSC).
He hired PK Communications to clean up the Supreme Court’s image in October 2025. Dianne Martin gets to keep her $50K payout. Jane Young gets to keep her law license despite glaring conflicts of interest representing Gordon MacDonald in the Dianne Martin matter.
Rumors have been MacDonald’s entire business and modus operandi for a large part of his career. He made a great business of it in the sexual misconduct industry from the Diocese of Manchester, in which he asked Father Gordon MacRae if he would object to having his name used for sex claims that MacDonald knew were not true, from claimants cashing in on the opportunity to get some money out of MacDonald’s client, the Diocese (or its insurance…ah yes, the insurance game)…
He used the rumor mill to launch the investigation into St. Paul’s School in 2017 when he was AG. His office even had the State Forensic Lab tamper with material evidence to substantiate their need for a Grand Jury Criminal Investigation, which yielded a ton of business for his legal pals at Nixon Peabody, Shaheen & Gordon, Douglas & Leonard, and Peter Hutchins (treasurer of NH Attorney Referral Service, ironically).
NH Police and Prosecutors SART materials don’t once mention the presumption of innocence or due process. NOT ONCE. So now he’s hurting. Someone can just create a sexual assault rumor about him, and under NH Statutes, there would be no requirement of a corroborating witness or evidence. And that’s exactly how he wanted it. He campaigned for Marsy’s Law. He wanted to increase the successful prosecution of adult sex offenders. He worked with NHCADSV closely on this and on media and creating rumors, which they all knew were not true but created great business for law firms they were collectively in business with.
“Rumors if true” were used by Representative Kristin Schultz to take down Rep. Ellen Read. She has allegedly created sexual rumors about Rep. Read and then asked other reps to circulate these. Nobody has been able to substantiate the rumors, but members of the State House have gone to town on them, and so have Damien Fisher in the NH Journal and Steven Porter in the Boston Globe. The State House meanwhile doesn’t keep videotape beyond 90 days, so the rumors of sexual misconduct going on with the State House Clerk in an anteroom will never be proven. Just the smear that has damaged lives.
Rumors, not true, were used by Gordon MacDonald’s client, the NHCADSV, against students at St. Paul’s School so that NHCADSV could get a contract at the school and feed lawsuits to its legal counsel, Nixon Peabody, Shaheen & Gordon, Chuck Douglas. A veritable field day of money in lawsuits and coordination going on between the NHCADSV (Amanda Grady Sexton and Lyn Schollett) and Gordon MacDonald and Jane Young.
“Senior Salute” became a national headline. It was called a “decades-old tradition”. It was called a “Sexual Conquest game”. It was proven not to be decades old, not a sexual conquest game either, and it was not just senior male students who sent flowery invitations to younger female students; it was senior female students who sent these to younger male students as well. But that’s not how Nixon Peabody, the NHCADSV, police, or prosecutors portrayed it, despite multiple accounts from state witnesses, alumni, and the school itself discrediting this.
Why didn’t they correct it? The money. Look at the money that was flowing to all these law firms and NHCADSV, and look at how all that helped promote Gordon MacDonald (endorsed by the NHCADSV) to become Supreme Court Chief Justice, and DA Scott Murray to become US Attorney. Sex rumors = money for law firms and the non-profits who refer clients to them. It is that simple.
Who created the “Senior Salute” national headline? Amanda Grady Sexton and the NHCADSV – Gordon MacDonald’s client when she did this in 2015. He sailed into the AG position boasting of the work he had done for domestic and sexual violence causes. He kept his name on the Nixon Peabody law firm listing for Gordon Humphrey’s company. He’s had incredible business out of the sexual assault rumor mill.
And now he’s saying it’s hurting him. Give me a break.
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