FBI tapes show a defiant Bromwell

“I?m sick to my stomach,” Bromwell said, according to recently unsealed wire transcripts. “Christ, I had to, I had to take a home equity loan. I still owe people for building my house.”

The course of the conversation with James Eick, who pleaded guilty to related charges and is expected to testify against Bromwell during his federal public corruption trial in the fall, took a bizarre path from flat denial, to blame, to fear.

The pair met outside a Damon?s restaurant in Bel Air, where a paranoid Eick chose a secluded table. Bromwell lit a cigarette, a new habit. Eick said federal agents had questioned him on kickbacks from construction projects he secured with Bromwell?s influence.

The agents, Eick said, knew details. They knew dates, times.

“I?m scared to death, you know, we?re going to go to jail,” Eick said. “I know they got me. I mean, I know they got us.”

But Bromwell denied wrongdoing.

“They ain?t got me,” he said. “I didn?t do anything. I mean, I?ve got everything invoiced.”

Eick admitted defeat and said he was prepared to accept consequences.

Bromwell wasn?t. He wondered how much it would cost to prove his innocence, and worried about media exposure and embarrassing his family.

Bromwell suggested the government would target him because of his high-profile career. They both wondered about general contractor Paul Matthews, who had agreed to tape conversations with Bromwell for prosecutors. Neither had heard from him in months and suggested he pinned the blame on them to save himself.

“I?ll probably wind up losing my job for doing nothing because of some guy that?s in trouble,” Bromwell said.

The conversation veered on tangents that included Bromwell?s daughter, sick with mono, his son?s campaign and other mutual friends. Bromwell grumbled about a friend who owed him money and the two discussed their cars.

But the man who built columns in his new house just because fictitious New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano, from HBO?s hit series “The Sopranos,” has them in his on-television house, and talked freely of prostitutes and his young, gorgeous wife, seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation. He said he was going to go home and think about what he did and when he did it.

He offered to split the tab with Eick.

“I?m not writing this one off,” he said.

The transcripts

Some of former state Sen. Thomas Bromwell?s remarks are taken from recently unsealed transcripts of wiretapped conversations with FBI informants. Portions were edited for publication to remove obscene material.

» “You know, I could hustle. I could hustle for the rest of my life. You and I could make some serious dough together.”

» On a company going bankrupt: “I?d be standing there with my **** in my hand waiting for something to happen with $3,000 a month house payments.”

» “We oughta try to wean some of that money off, ah, legally.You know what I mean? Do a project here, a project there, you know?”

» On his role with Network Technology Group: “I?m a rainmaker. You got that right. I make it rain for ?em.”

» “I?ve been hustling all my life and right now, politically, money ain?t a big deal with me. I can be the county executive of Baltimore County, 750,000 people, bigger than this f****g city.”

» On his dual roles as a state senator and general contractor: “Ain?t this a bitch. I just made a deal for $10 million, and I?m on my hands and knees laying tile.”

» “Comcast needs me big time. To the tune of about $75 million.”

» On Pimlico race track owner Joe DeFrancis: “The guy I just told to **** my ****. I said, ?Look, I?m your f****g whore in the Maryland, in the Senate side, and you turn around and **** me like this, **** you.? I?m going to see him tomorrow night. He?s going to be licking my f****g boots.”

» “The only thing that offends me is if you **** with my kids or my wife. That?s the only thing that offends me. And if you **** with my honor.”

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