DR Ronald Robinson yesterday walked away from the embattled Bruce Golding-led Government, resigning as a senator and junior foreign minister.

The former junior minister, who cited family concerns as his reason for leaving the administration, apologised for his part in the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips affair, suggesting that the issue may have helped to play a part in his decision.

A co-founder of Generation 2000 (G2K) — the young professionals arm of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) — Dr Robinson was appointed senator and minister of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in September 2007.

Yesterday, in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Dr Robinson admitted that his contact with Manatt “could have been inappropriate”.

“For that I accept responsibility and should not have met with them, and for that I apologise. Note, however, that my only contact with the firm was twice between November 19 and 20, which was a full month or so after the website postings,” Dr Robinson said.

He was in April this year identified as the Government official who met with officials of Manatt, the firm that was reportedly engaged by the Jamaican Government to lobby the United States to drop its extradition request for Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke to face drug- and gun-running charges there.

The identity of the minister was revealed after the Washington Post reported that a Jamaican Government minister had sat in on at least one of several meetings that Manatt officials had with Obama administration officials, weeks after a New York grand jury indictment against Coke.

Up to that point Jamaican Government officials had denied that an arrangement was reached between itself and the firm.

In what has become an unending maze, JLP General Secretary Karl Samuda then identified Robinson as the government official, but downplayed his involvement.

“…Dr Ronald Robinson, minister of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, while on a visit to Washington on November 20, 2009, had a brief social encounter with a representative of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips after having declined an invitation by Mr Harold Brady to attend a meeting at the State Department,” Samuda said at the time.

Robinson himself, at the time, also denied that he met with US State Department officials and representatives of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and held that his encounter with the Manatt representative was over drinks and lasted for about half-an-hour.

Yesterday, further explaining the reason for his resignation, Dr Robinson said his wife, who had been ailing for some time and who had undergone two major surgeries, the latest being on May 18, needed his attention at this time.

He said it is clear that with the pressures of being state minister, over the last two-and-a-half years, have taken their toll “and I have not been able to be as supportive as I need to be to her”. He said after “careful thought” he and his wife had seen the decision to resign as the best at this time.

The People’s National Party’s Dr Peter Phillips, who has led the relentless charge on the Government to disclose its involvement with Manatt, yesterday said it was possible Robinson had been the ‘fall guy’ for the JLP.

“Based upon comments one has been hearing, I believe he was himself deeply troubled by not only the fact that he had been in contact, but by the circumstances surrounding the whole affair…,” Phillips said.

He, however, expressed respect for Robinson, noting that his resignation signalled a sense of honour which others in the JLP could do well to adopt.

Related story:Robinson denies Observer report that he met with Manatt