Washington Post Now Claims "Authorized" to Access MD4BUSH Account

Saturday, November 5, 2005 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

After yesterday's press conference in front of The Washington Post building in downtown Washington, D.C. that criticized The Post for violating their sourcing guidelines and for accessing a FreeRepublic.com account in possible violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, an editor for The Post is now claiming authorization to log-in to the account of MD4BUSH.

Earlier this week, Post Maryland editor R.B. Brenner made statements that reporter Matthew Mosk had logged in to MD4BUSH's account "two or three times" after being given the password by an "intermediary" in order to authenticate private messages sent between MD4BUSH and NCPAC on Free Republic.

Brenner has maintained that The Post does not know who MD4BUSH is.

Brenner is reported to have made the following statement to The Post for their story today about the press conference:

"As part of our reporting, we needed to verify that the chat room postings were authentic. We were authorized to view them, and it was appropriate to do so under the circumstances."

Link to Post article here.

[shutup_you_idiot]

Another good catch. That one may be a stretch, but who knows?

I still like the MrEd(itor)1964. :)

[decal]

"Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a con voy spiracy."

[VRWCTexan]

Me too!! Hope FR has a good case to take them to the cleaners....

Again Chloe as a WaPo hang-out in DC is yet another slim link....

[Quilla]

So sorry. I reported abuse on myself and have asked the mods to delete my post. While using a new mail message to do the html for me, I meant to paste in the source code rather that the actual text. I hope this one is formatted better, because there appear to be similarities worth noticing.

I've go it - I'm so stressed by what the Post has done to NCPAC, I can't sleep or think straight. ;-)

• I heard this a week ago about Sade being pregnant and now the plot thickens Sade was was hit by a car in New York and the car fled

 

53 posted on 07/24/2004 7:42:10 AM CDT by MrEd1964 (Mayor Martin O’Malley Sade Baderinwa)

 

• There have been lots of posts about MOM and Sade on the baltimoresun.com web site boards. All have been deleted quickly. I was thrown off the board for two weeks for posting on the subject. MOM is the Sun's favorite son, and they will hide his dirty laundry, just like they tried to hide Glendening's.

 

55 posted on 07/24/2004 5:07:04 PM CDT by demopublican

 

• They are and will.

I have heard that from several people. My question is why it has not come out in the news yet?

60 posted on 07/26/2004 9:58:48 AM CDT by baltimore

 

• I live in the Columbia area and have heard rumors of a high profile person getting Sade pregnant.
  
  I wonder if it is a coincidence that she is not working for the leftist tv station any longer?
  
  Question: Has this been reported on talk radio yet?\

61 posted on 07/26/2004 10:16:45 AM CDT by rbmillerjr

 

 

• At my work I heard from the hairdresser of a person connected with O'Malley and the thought is that Sade Badeirnwa is with his baby (now hit by a car on work, WJZ).

63 posted on 07/27/2004 4:54:56 PM CDT by Bug10

 

• I live in Baltimore County and last year O Malley's wife came and gave a speech at our Law Day Ceremonies. When asked about her husband she said he as wonderful and that the sky was his limit. I can't believe that one year later she's kicked him out of the house! ANyone know the condition of this Sade woman? Was she really hit by a car? And how come the local media hasn't said anything about this?

71 posted on 08/13/2004 10:22:18 PM CDT by tskitmir

 

• O'Malley not only got Sade pregnant, but Dina Napoli another local reporter and she moved to Italy to have his twins.

72 posted on 09/02/2004 9:46:21 PM CDT by chloec

 

• Yeah I know about this they tried to run the girl over and everything. She is in the hospital now and my people's meet her hope she survives.

74 posted on 09/10/2004 9:40:15 PM CDT by superwoman4u2

 

• Yeah, he cheats on his wife. I heard that he is not allowed in the house and is living in some new high-rise near city hall. He's is a young arrogant punk for sure. I can't him, he is like Slick-Willy.

75 posted on 10/08/2004 10:30:19 AM CDT by MD4Bush (Bush must win)

 

• First off, let's address the affair. Mayor O'Malley was smeared by Ehrlich's aides to make him look bad. There was no affair. Anyone who is dumb enough to continue talking about it as if it happened is probably dumb enough to vote for Ehrlich amidst his corruption. Don't believe that this happened. It's just another big political scandal because Ehrlich knows he has no chance of winning re-election to O'Malley next year after what O'Malley has done to greatly improve Baltimore. I look forward to seeing all you conservative lowlifes weep when O'Malley wins next year.

92 posted on 07/22/2005 1:42:52 PM CDT by theheadman (There Was No Affair Morons!)

As someone mentioned above, this does sound like the same person posting under numerous screen names. Notice the number of times "I heard" and "I live" are used.

55 posted on 07/24/2004 5:07:04 PM CDT by demopublican

I have heard that from several people. My question is why it has not come out in the news yet?

[Rain-maker]

some quick links:

MD4BUSH User Posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?id=173184

NCPAC User Posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?id=130752

[DoughtyOne]

Nice post. What, the Washington Post lie? LOL

Well, well, MD4BushGate is going to hit the WP fan smack in the face. Can't wait!

[conservative in nyc]

Remember the Michelle Lane angle? This may be something or may be nothing.

Michelle Lane was an Ehrlich appointee who was fired from the Governor's Office for Children, Youth and Families in June 2004. Four days after the MD4Bush story broke, she sent a threatening e-mail to Governor Ehrlich's office, claiming she'd release information as retaliation for alleged rumors spread by the Ehrlich administration against her. According to press reports, she may have had a romantic relationship with Steffen. Her lawyer, Daniel Clements, denied any romantic relationship. He also denied that she was MD4Bush.

But Michelle Lane was cut out of the picture of Joe Steffen and Governor Ehrlich that was sent to reporters in an e-mail from smitty_1945@yahoo.com. LITERALLY. Very strange.

Jim Robinson had this to say about whether he thought Michelle Lane was MD4Bush:

I don't think this is MD4Bush. We can probably rule out about half of the general population and this lady is one. Course, I would have no idea if they were working in concert. Not saying or even hinting they were, just have no idea. Some reporter mentioned in an article a few weeks ago that certain emails were circulated from mddems.org. Doubt the investigation can go there, but that'd probably be a good place to start if they could. I think it should be obvious to all that MD4Bush was a Democrat politcial operative. A dirty tricks communications specialist so to speak.

But what do we know about her lawyer? Daniel Clements has been described in the Washington Post as "a Baltimore trial lawyer with ties to the Democratic Party". He represents at least three disgruntled former Maryland employees who were fired by the Ehrlich administration. In a 03/28/05 post, FReeper advance_copy said about Clements:

Michelle Lane's lawyer, Daniel Clements is the top Democratic lawyer in Annapolis whose clients included former Governor Parris Glendening. The personal attorney for a former Democratic Governor represents Lane. Who referred Lane to Clements and why did Clements take the case? His fees aren't cheap.

Among threatening letters the Governor received on behalf of Michelle Lane was one from Gilbert Genn. Genn is a former Democratic Delegate from Montgomery County. Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan is expected to challenge Martin O'Malley for the party nomination in 2006. O'Malley is the subject of the MD4Bush/NCPAC private FReepmail exchanges that got published in the Washington Post. Duncan could only gain from the spread of O'Malley rumors, particularly if Joe Steffen (NCPAC) got blamed for it.

Some Links to FR Michelle Lane Threads:
TU employee, Ehrlich clash over job renewal (MD4Bush/NCPAC) (Towsend University Towerlight)
Ehrlich Alleges 'Blackmail' By Former State Employee (Possible identity of MD4Bush Revealed?) (Washington Post/Matthew Mosk)
Md. Foster Care Draws Scrutiny (NCPAC/MD4Bush)(Washington Post/Matthew Mosk)

FR Keyword: MichelleLane

[conservative in nyc]

And from this WBAL-TV article:

Lane's attorney [Clements] said she never discussed the rumors with the O'Malley administration, or who may have been spreading them. He said she merely tipped off the mayor's camp about Steffen's role as a political operative.

[Titan Magroyne]

Thanks for putting all that together. I'd wondered how NCPAC's RL identity became known.

[Quilla]

You're quite welcome. This article states:

In those postings, MD4BUSH coaxed Steffen into revealing his role in spreading rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, now a Democratic candidate for governor.

This just irks me to no end. MD4BUSH is far more guilty of spreading rumors than NCPAC. We generally only see the private freepmails written by NCPAC that were published on FR by MD4BUSH. Here are the freepmails authored by MD4BUSH.

[Dagny Taggart]

What was their so called reason for needing to access that account. I haven't been in on this from the beginning and was wondering that if they had no interest in it why did they take such interest in it? Thanks, Dagny

[advance_copy]

Yes, but if WaPo doesn't know who MD4BUSH is, how do they know their intermediary was MD4BUSH's lawyer? Attorney for an unknown person?

[nunya bidness]

Here's my take on Michelle Lane. She worked closely with Steffen and he revealed to her his participation here and may have encouraged her to do so as well. Nothing wrong with that. But when she became disgruntled she used what she could to try to get a piece of the Ehrlich administration but all she had was Steffen.

It's conceivable that she outed Steffen to O'Doherty and he took it from there under MD4Bush. This falls in line with the charges against the governor for firings. Something she was familiar with having worked with Steffen and ultimately the only possible transgression of the Governor if proven.

Spreading rumors just doesn't have the legs like a full-blown committee as we've seen.

[conservative in nyc]

Yes, but if WaPo doesn't know who MD4BUSH is, how do they know their intermediary was MD4BUSH's lawyer? Attorney for an unknown person?

I really don't have an answer that. Perhaps they asked the lawyer to have MD4Bush do something. Or maybe they just took it on blind faith. Especially if the lawyer was well known.

[An.American.Expatriate]

Robert Ehrlich is the Governor - Joseph Steffen is the out of work former staffer.

LOL - a little bird has informed me that Steffen (aka NCPAC) is considering a run for Governor!!

hey Joe - if true, do us all a favour and break the news here!!

[An.American.Expatriate]

Man. That's a lot of views.

obviously, since this story broke, that thread has had a lot of attention - I've personally re-read it at least three times......

[Quilla]

Joseph Steffen, right, also says he might run against Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. next year, as a candidate for the Libertarian Party.

Photo Credit: Wmar-tv2 Via Associated Press

That's just what Matthew Mosk is reporting in this Nov. 1, 2005 WaPo article.

[weegee]

Certainly the whole "Who leaked Ms. Plame's name" is no mystery. The press knows,they just won't disclose. They tried to get Rove but couldn't smear his name.

[dannyboy72]

I'm not in the local region, but I've been trying to follow this. If I'm off base please let me know, but..

Has anyone brought up the suspicion that MD4BUSH was in fact a Washington Post reporter?

[Quilla]

Yes, several times on this very thread.

What I find so curious (and confusing) is the six day old thread in Breaking News entitled MD4BUSH Identified! In that thread, Ryan O'Doherty, Communications Director of the Maryland Democrat Party is said to be MD4Bush. With all the continued speculation on this thread as to who MD4BUSH really is, it's possible that theory has been debunked.

Maybe someone can clear that up for me. Thanks.