Image: AP

Alabama governor Robert Bentley is widely suspected of having carried on an affair with a woman named Rebekah Caldwell Mason, who currently serves as one of his most senior advisors. Although the rumors of infidelity are public enough that several fellow state Republicans asked the attorney general to investigate, Bentley, who divorced his wife last year, has always denied he was unfaithful.

In Bentley’s defense, no one had put their name to an on-the-record quote alleging personal knowledge of the supposed affair. Until yesterday, when Spencer Collier, who led the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency until being fired, provided firsthand knowledge—including new details—of a relationship between Bentley and Mason to AL.com.

Collier says saffers close to Bentley first became aware of the exact nature of that relationship in August 2014, when one of his underlings noticed a sext from Mason when picking up Bentley’s cell phone after he had dropped it:

Collier said the first evidence of an affair arose Aug. 2, 2014, when Stan Stabler – who took his place as the head of ALEA – saw a text message from Mason on Bentley’s cell phone. Collier said Stabler saw the message after the governor dropped his phone at a Business Council of Alabama conference at Point Clear.

He said Stabler notified his then-boss, former Bentley security officer Ray Lewis, of the “sexual nature” of the text.

Further, Collier says that three days later, Lewis played him a recording in which Bentley and Mason talk about screwing each other:

Three days later, at 3 p.m. on Aug. 5, 2014, Lewis brought a laptop to Collier and played an audiotape of conversations between the governor and Mason, Collier said. The tape, purportedly created by a Bentley family member hoping for an “intervention,” left no doubt about the relationship, he said.

“’If we’re gonna do what we did yesterday we’re going to have to lock that door,’” Collier says Mason said.

The governor responded, Collier maintains, with improper comments about “her breasts and behind.”

Collier says the tape was erased but members of Bentley’s family are still in possession of it. Per AL.com, Bentley is continuing to deny that he had an affair with Mason. Stabler, who allegedly saw the sext and still works closely with the governor, told the paper that “the allegation and implication from Mr. Collier is completely false and without merit.”