Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton has launched another impassioned defence of his actions aboard an American Airlines flight on Sunday evening, insisting the steward involved was a liar and that he had done ?absolutely nothing wrong?.

Speculating that a campaign to discredit him on the part of sources speaking to The Royal Gazette was the reason for the incident being ?blown out of all proportion?, the Minister also vehemently denied allegations which emerged yesterday ? from two separate sources ? that he had threatened investigating officers at the Airport with the loss of their jobs and that a concerted effort had been launched behind the scenes to sweep the incident under the carpet.

One source, who did not wish to be named, told The Royal Gazette yesterday the Minister reminded investigating officers that he was the man in charge of the finances for the Bermuda Police Service and it would be in their best interests to discontinue the interview.

Another source meanwhile, who again spoke only on the condition of anonymity but was prepared to reveal he is a senior member of the Police Service, said that an exercise in damage limitation had been launched by the Minister and the Service ? both to cover up what exactly transpired at the Airport Police station and to undermine the credibility of the story first revealed in The Royal Gazette on Monday.

But last night Mr. Horton said the allegations were ?totally, absolutely ridiculous? ? challenging the sources to reveal themselves instead of hiding under a cloak of anonymity.

?It?s a complete and utter lie,? he said.

?I?ve got absolutely no reason to try and sweep this under the carpet because quite simply there is nothing to sweep under the carpet. I?d like for whoever is feeding you this information to stand up and be counted because the allegations are so outrageous that I can only conclude that somebody or some people are trying to discredit me. I would never, ever act in such a way and people who know me would confirm this.?

The Minister denied he had walked out of a Police interview ? instead claiming that no interview actually took place.

?I presented myself at the Airport Police station but when I got there nobody was there to interview me. A young officer who I know ? and I could see he was a bit shaken by my arrival ? was in the office and I waited, before telling him that whoever wanted to speak to me should give me a call and we could sort it out. I never called any Police officer a ?pip squeak? and I would never in a million years ask anybody if they knew who I was. That is just not me.?

Turning his attention to his acknowledged argument with the steward on flight number AA 308 on Sunday evening, Mr. Horton insisted the man had been in the wrong and had lied to Police about what had happened.

The ?very short and quiet? confrontation came about, Mr. Horton said, because he was prevented from using a toilet at the front of the plane which a white man sitting beside him had used moments before.

When he was directed to the toilets at the rear of the plane, Mr. Horton claims he refused and immediately sat down.

He freely admits questioning the steward over whether he treated black people differently from white ? a ?simple and appropriate question given the circumstances? of which he has ?no regrets?.

?The steward over-reacted to what was a straightforward question,? Mr. Horton said, denying the suggestion that the comment was inappropriate for a minister of government to make on a public airplane.

?He was upset and right up in my face saying he was going to have me arrested when we landed. And what he told the Police about what happened was an unadulterated lie. He might have been angry, but nothing happened on that airplane which warranted the involvement of the Police. The question I asked was a legitimate one in light of what took place.?

Meanwhile, a lady who was on the same flight as Mr. Horton, the office manager at the Bermuda Hotels Association Dee Smith, last night corroborated the Minister?s version of the spat with the steward.

And in a official release, Police said they had no evidence to suggest that Mr. Horton had ?stormed out? of any meeting with Police at the Airport or that he had called officers ?pip squeaks? ? while the information received by The Royal Gazette in the preliminary incident report filed on the Police computer system was reportedly ?disjointed and inaccurate?.