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EXCLUSIVE: Emails obtained by Pakinomist Digital show a former Yale University administrator telling an attorney for former Yale strength and conditioning coach Thomas Newman that he was taped during a meeting.
Other emails show that Newman’s attorney claims that Connecticut law requires both parties to consent to being recorded during telecommunications, which is state law, and that the recordings were allegedly used against him by higher-level administrators.
“A former employee recorded part of a meeting with your client without the university’s knowledge,” reads part of an email sent to Newman’s lawyer, Alan Granovsky, from a vice provost at Yale who no longer works at the university.
The attorney’s email was sent in response to an August 13, 2025, letter with the subject line “Continued Reputational Damage and Error Messages Regarding Thomas Newman.”
The lawyer’s email also included the lines, “The University has not made any defamatory statements to anyone regarding your client,” and “The University has not disclosed any medical information inappropriately, the University has not said that your client left the University involuntarily or is the subject of an investigation.”
The lawyer retired last January, as seen on the person’s LinkedIn page. Newman stepped down from his position in early 2021.
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Over 54,000 fill the Yale Bowl for the second half of the 141st play of “The Game” between the Yale Bulldogs and the Harvard Crimson on November 22, 2025 in New Haven, Connecticut. (Sean D. Elliot/Getty Images)
Newman’s attorneys at Granovsky & Sundaresh Employment law sent multiple emails to Yale regarding the matter and Newman’s eventual departure from the university in 2021, a source provided to Pakinomist Digital.
Newman confirmed to Pakinomist Digital that emails were exchanged between the university and his lawyers, but declined further comment.
An Oct. 10 email from Granovsky to the lawyer makes the following allegations:
“You now admit that a former employee recorded part of a meeting with Mr. Newman,” read part of the email, which later said: “Despite knowing the recording was unauthorized, the involved parties — specifically [Executive Deputy Director/Chief Operating Officer of Athletics] Ann-Marie Guglieri and [Athletic Director] Vicky Chun – tried to use the recording for disciplinary purposes.
“Despite my client’s repeated formal requests for a copy or transcript of this recording, both Ms. Guglieri and Chun refused to provide it, thereby preventing any opportunity to verify the alleged content or context. And yet they still used the ‘recordings’ as a pretext to undermine Mr. Newman’s leadership and credibility and ultimately force him out.”
An email from Granovsky to counsel on November 17 contains the following allegations:
“Legal violations implicated by Yale’s conduct. Secret recording/consent by all parties. The audio you provided appears to be a spliced compilation of segments from staff Zoom calls that included several staff and interns (some not Yale students).
“Connecticut law requires the consent of all parties to record private telephone/telephone communications and creates a civil cause of action for recording without consent (CGS § 52-570d) and criminalizes wiretapping and mechanical interrogation (CGS § 53a-189).
“If a portion was recorded via telephony/Zoom audio without the consent of all participants, both civil and criminal exposure is at stake. Yale’s use and retention of such recording compounds the violation.
“Yale’s Professional Conduct and Recording Policies (Policy 9001) prohibit the covert recording of meetings/classes by community members and guests. Retaining and weaponizing such recording to influence employment outcomes is, on its face, a violation of policy, regardless of who pressed ‘record’.”
No current or former administrator at Yale University has been officially implicated in any illegal activity.
Pursuant to Connecticut General Statutes § 52-570d, it is unlawful for any person to record a private conversation without informing and obtaining the consent of all parties involved.
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Newman voluntarily left the university in March 2021, after five years leading the Yale athletics strength and conditioning team.
A former Yale football player, who spoke to Pakinomist Digital on condition of anonymity, claims that under the staff that took over after Newman’s departure, he suffered multiple injuries during routine changes.
The former player said that unlike Newman’s program, the new program had him go to practice only shortly after doing a fitness test, and no Gatorade was available that day, and that he later suffered cramps so severe that he ended up in the hospital for three days.
The player claimed that he continued to suffer multiple injuries during the season, related to this cramp.
On Monday, Pakinomist Digital published a letter signed by former longtime employees Yale ice hockey coach Keith Allain, addressed to Yale President Maurine McInnis. In the letter, Allain claimed that other Yale coaches urged him to speak out against Chun to McInnis after his retirement.
“I am writing to you at the request of several head coaches in our athletic department. They told me that you asked for feedback from a few coaches regarding the contract extension of our athletic director and are concerned that with the culture of fear that permeates the athletic department, you will not receive honest feedback,” the letter began.
Allain went on to call Chun the “worst leader” he’s ever been around, claiming she has prioritized “silencing any dissent.”
“As a Yale alum and someone who has a great love for our university and the role of athletics in the greater Yale community, I felt compelled to write to you as my former colleagues requested. Vicky Chun is the absolute worst manager I have ever been around in my life,” he wrote.
“She is dishonest, self-centered and unavailable. Vicky’s unique talent is self-promotion and has created a toxic environment in the department where she is isolated by a cadre of administrators whose main job seems to be to silence any dissent.”
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Head coach Keith Allain of the United States during practice before the 2011 IIHF World U20 Championship Group A match between the United States and Finland on December 26, 2010 at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
A source provided the letter to Pakinomist Digital. Allain later confirmed to Pakinomist Digital that he wrote the letter and sent it to McInnis in October, shortly after he stepped down after 19 years as head of Yale hockey. Allain declined further comment.
Pakinomist Digital reached out to the Yale president’s office and athletics department for a response.
