Posted on 03/31/2016 5:12:09 AM PDT by VitacoreVision
A lawyer who represented the so-called “D.C. madam” says he has phone records that could influence the outcome of the presidential election, and he’s threatening to release one or more names on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court if he’s denied a hearing on his right to distribute them.
Montgomery Blair Sibley, the late madam Deborah Palfrey’s colorful attorney, has been subject to a restraining order since 2007 barring him from releasing the information, which he says includes 815 names, addresses and Social Security numbers of Verizon Wireless customers.
“Time is of the essence because people are casting votes in primaries and caucuses,” he says. “I believe this information is relevant to that political discourse.”
Sibley first said the records could be relevant to the presidential race in January, when there were 15 high-profile candidates. Now, just three Republicans and two Democrats remain – though Sibley won’t say if any are implicated, citing fear of being jailed for contempt.
He would not say if he was surprised by a National Enquirer report last week that alleged Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had engaged in five extramarital affairs. Cruz, currently in second place in the GOP contest, vigorously denied the report on Friday, and in doing so uncapped mainstream media coverage.
Cruz was first elected to the Senate in 2012 but represented Texas several times during Supreme Court arguments while Palfrey’s escort business operated.
Most of the other presidential candidates also lived in or visited the nation’s capital while Palfrey’s business operated, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Ohio Gov. John Kasich – a former congressman. Billionaire GOP front-runner Donald Trump likely visited the region during the decade-long time period.
Complicating Sibley’s bid to release one or more name from the records is that he’s been having trouble getting a court to give him a hearing.
In February, he filed a complaint of judicial misconduct against Richard Roberts, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, for instructing a clerk not to file his request for a hearing on modifying the restraining order. (Roberts resigned earlier this month on the day a woman filed a lawsuit claiming he sexually assaulted her while she was a 16-year-old witness in a case he prosecuted three decades ago. Roberts said the sex was consensual.)
About two weeks ago, Sibley asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to order the clerk to accept his filing and, feeling a sense of urgency and lacking a response, hand-delivered an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.
“The footnote to the pleading I filed today says this: If I do not get the right to file my request to modify the restraining order and if I do not get an expedited hearing, I’m going to publicly release those records and see what happens,” he says. “If they want to hold me in contempt of court for violating an order they will not give me a hearing on, I think they lose the right to enforce that order.”
By not promptly scheduling a hearing, he says, courts “are letting people vote blindly.”
Palfrey became nationally famous following her 2006 arrest and was found dead with a nylon rope around her neck in her mother’s shed in 2008. Before her apparent suicide, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and the then-leader of the U.S. Agency for International Development were outed as her clients.
Their names came from a set of call records that revealed Vitter – who remains a sitting senator – spoke on the phone with Palfrey during congressional votes. The large batch contained about 10,000 numbers released by Sibley and Palfrey in 2007.
The records had carelessly been left in Palfrey’s basement, Sibley recalls.
“When the Keystone Kop police came in to seize everything [from Palfrey’s house] they walked by these boxes saying Pamela Martin Associates telephone records, 1996-2006, and they just left them there,” Sibley says. “So I got my hands on them and released a portion of them.”
But about a third of the records were not released, he says.
“We held back these 5,000,” Sibley says. “I wanted to have something to negotiate with or surprise people at trial.”
Before trial, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler authorized subpoenas for cellphone companies requesting personal information. Verizon Wireless returned a list containing the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of about 815 people, Sibley says – a sizable subset of the 5,000 numbers not initially released.
Other companies did not respond before a different federal judge, James Robertson, quashed the phone company subpoenas two months later. Palfrey was convicted of money laundering and other charges two weeks before her death.
Sibley is known for being a high-energy attorney with an eccentric client list, including Larry Sinclair, who despite his lengthy rap sheet for forgery and other crimes gained significant attention claiming he had sexual relations with President Barack Obama. Sibley’s ability to practice law was suspended for three years in Florida in 2008 for filing “vexatious and meritless” lawsuits against judges and for a child support payment dispute. He faced reciprocal discipline in D.C.
Sibley is not yet giving judges a deadline to allow for the release of information before he does so unilaterally. "Their delay, in hindsight, will seem like they’re favoring one person over another,” he says.
Just release the names or shut up.
Well....it can’t be Hillary or Bernie.
So, I’d be guessing it’s both Republican Cubans. If it is...both are finished in politics.
Well, Trump has not been in DC so it cant be him. But if the list is released, then that will be pinned on him.
It brings back memories of all of the "to follow" exposures of Obama's birth status. I don't want to hear it. Shut up, just put up. Otherwise, if it's true it's just giving time for those exposed to weasel out of accusations or for the out-of-control judiciary to block revelations.
It’s worse than we thought. Hillary is one of the prostitutes. Those D.C. boys aren’t too particular.
Or, wouldn’t be a hoot if it was Hilary on a Carpet Munching Expedition?
Everybody copulates with everybody in Washington D.C.
A pox on all their houses.
This guy is shady, although he previously nailed other high profile names by releasing that list. It’s highly possible that the remaining numbers will reveal some high profile people, maybe even Rafael. However, also possible he just wants to create media attention at this opportune moment, get his court case, and then sell the numbers for a big profit, and the numbers may not contain anyone useful.
Then again, the “suicide” of that madame was highly suspicious. A call girl had committed suicide not long previously, and she had declared that she had a far stronger character. Would never kill herself if things went bad. Yet, she’s found dead. Considering there was more than one big name revealed just by what numbers WERE released, it is unreasonable to suspect that our politicians would kill people to maintain their money-power?
Guy needs to get the names out ASAP before he’s taking a dirt nap
As they say in Brooklyn. Fahgetaboutit. That lawyer would lose his law license and his legal career would be over if he publicly released those names. The politicians as usual can rest easy.
:: We held back these 5,000,” Sibley says. “I wanted to have something to negotiate with or surprise people at trial ::
Yet, he had the gall to file judicial misconduct charges on a judge.
That’s rich.
As they say in Brooklyn. Fahgetaboutit. That lawyer would lose his law license and his legal career would be over if he publicly released those names. The politicians as usual can rest easy.
Maybe Hillary but Bernie is a bit effeminate.
Cruz was in Texas so that leaves Kasich (he had left Congress but I can't confirm that he had left DC), Bill & Hillary, Huma, Mr. Huma, Obama, Creepy Uncle Joe Biden and Bernie as suspects.
Was Rubio even out of High School? There might be a Republican or two on the list but the remaining contenders probably aren't. (Unless their manhood is long enough to reach across state lines.)
Well, there's something for everyone. ;-)
The numbers themselves are meaningless.
“yes, I made that call to arrange an engagement for a visiting but nameless constituent fireman”
“yes that call was made from my office apparently but I was not the caller”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.