A Minneapolis police officer has accused Senator Larry Craig of lying in an interview after his arrest.
Posted on 08/30/2007 6:37:17 PM PDT by Stoat
Thursday, August 30th 2007, 7:57 PM
A Minneapolis police officer has accused Senator Larry Craig of lying in an interview after his arrest.
WASHINGTON - The officer who arrested Sen. Larry Craig in a police undercover operation at an airport men's room accused the senator of lying to him during an interrogation afterward, according to an audiotape of the arrest.
On the tape, released Thursday by the Minneapolis Airport Police, the Idaho Republican senator, in turn, accuses the officer of soliciting him for sex.
"I'm not gay. I don't do these kinds of things," Craig told Sgt. Dave Karsnia minutes after the two men met in a men's room at the airport on June 11.
"You shouldn't be out to entrap people," Craig told the officer. "I don't want you to take me to jail."
Karsnia replied that Craig wouldn't be going to jail as long as he cooperates.
At one point during the interrogation, the officer told Craig: "You're not being truthful with me. I'm kind of disappointed in you, senator."
Meanwhile, more of Craig's Republican colleagues moved away from him Thursday in the wake of his guilty plea earlier this month to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct in the undercover police operation aimed at sex solicitors.
Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who chairs the GOP's senatorial campaign committee, stopped short of calling on Craig to resign, but suggested strongly that he should.
"I wouldn't put myself hopefully in that kind of position, but if I was in a position like that, that's what I would do," Ensign told The Associated Press in his home state. "He's going to have to answer that for himself."
Sens. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, each turned over to charity $2,500 campaign donations they had received from Craig's political action committee. Coleman and Collins both face potentially tough faces for re-election next year.
Coleman and several other Republicans - including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. - have called for Craig to resign his seat in the Senate. Craig already has agreed to a request by Republican leaders to give up his ranking status on the Veterans Affairs Committee and appropriations subcommittees.
Craig said Tuesday he had committed no wrongdoing and shouldn't have pleaded guilty. He said he had only recently retained a lawyer to advise him in the case, which threatens to write an ignominious end to a lifetime in public office.
GOP Senate leaders said they did not act lightly in asking Craig to give up his leadership posts temporarily. But they said their decision was "in the best interest of the Senate until this situation is resolved by the ethics committee."
On the tape, Craig and the arresting officer can be heard arguing over what happened in the men's room minutes earlier. Craig acknowledges that the men's feet bumped, but says nothing improper happened.
"Did we bump? Yes, I think we did. You said so. I don't disagree with that," Craig said.
But Craig disputes the officer's account that he swept his hand under the stall next to him in an apparent effort to advance the encounter. They even disagree whether Craig used his right hand or his left hand.
Craig said he was merely trying to pick up a piece of paper - an account the officer disputes.
"I'm telling you that I could see, so I know that's your left hand. Also I could see a gold ring on this finger, so that's obvious it was the left hand," Karsnia tells Craig.
"Well we can dispute that," Craig says. "I'm not going to fight you in court. I reached down with my right hand to pick up the paper."
Meanwhile, Idaho Republican Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter told CNN that Craig's loss of his committee leadership posts was "problematic," adding: "I'm sure Larry and his family are going to take those things into consideration as they go forward with their decisions."
Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, said that "like most Idahoans, I was shocked by the allegations against Larry and by his guilty plea. However, I tend to judge people by the totality of their career and Senator Craig has been a dedicated public servant who has been an asset for Idaho for almost 30 years. At this time, I will not pass judgment on this matter."
I don’t want policemen in there trolling for queers.
If this is in fact what is happening then American conservatives and our knee jerk reactions to these types of allegations are becoming the lefts most effective weapons in their war on our society. They know how to push our buttons and we fall for it every time.
Whether the allegations are true or not Larry Craig is toast. McCain and a slew of self serving RINOs have jumped ugly all over this for their own political purposes, never concerning themselves with whether the allegations are true or not. Regardless of what Craig has or has not done, these RINOs disgust me.
Well if you want to defend a pervert who has priors you go right ahead. He plead guilty because he didn’t want those priors to come out in a public trial.
Why should he resign and thereby admit his guilt? Why shouldn’t he stay and fight while continuing to be Senator? I want him to stay and to fight! Others do too. Many are sick and tired of Republicans surrendering their ground for NOTHING. George Allen - it was for one word he said!!!! This is just as nothing as that. Senator Craig can stay, can fight, and can show America that he will not be railroaded out of office for this stupid toe tapping charge!
Yes he did - but he also sounded very dignified. He sounded like someone who respects the law and understood that police were there to protect the public....but that THIS particular policeman had solicited him, or tried to; that this policeman had stated something happened which did not occur (reaching over with his left hand under the stall wall); that this was an entrapment effort (which traps INNOCENT men); and that this Senator needed to get on his flight and of course did not want to go to jail. Thie police officer was also browbeating Senator Craig by saying "so embarrassing" "I respect you" "You wont go to jail and I won't take you to jail as long as you cooperate".....how did he mean cooperate???? I think he was blackmailing the SEnator on the spot to plead guilty to a lesser charge IN ORDER TO STAY OUT OF JAIL WHICH WOULD BE SUCH AN EMBARRASSMENT. If this cop was really after a pervert, he would NOT have pushed such a plea bargatin. He would have pushed taking this pervert OFF the streets so he wouldn't harm anybody. Thank you for your understanding of this situation. The other Republicans who are calling for Craig to resign are now enemies of what so many of us have been fighting for all these years. That is freedom, truth, fairness, justice, and the survival of our country in its original constitutional form.
Yes I know. ONE ANONYMOUS gay guy says “He knows” it was Senator Craig who had oral sex with him in a bathroom in Union Station.
That’s it.
For heaven’s sake - I could find someone anonymous to make that accusation about YOU, about ANYBODY.
Senator Craig has been OPPOSED to the militant gay agenda including gays in the military and gay marriage....in that he supported the pro marriage measures.
Is it so difficult to figure out WHO wants him gone???? Is it so difficult to figure out WHO might find an “anonymous” source who would accuse him of gay sex in a bathroom????
Did you read the report in the Idaho Statesman that was printed in that birdcage liner??? this week?
AFter interviews with HUNDREDS of people who know Senator Craig - they couldn’t tag him with anything substantial about anything close to being such behavior! NOTHING.
They came up with 3 incidences. 1 I just described.
That is NOT a legtimate allegation because that person is anonymous and has NO proof - in fact the Senator said he has never BEEN in the Union Station bathroom!
The other 2:
A guy in 1994 who believed the Senator was coming on to him because he beleived the Senator was following him around in an REI store and smiling and staring at him!!!!!
Get real.
And a guy in the 1960’s who was being rushed by the Senator’s Fraternity who says Sen. Craig came on to him there.
I could come up with such “witnesses” to any kind of bad behavior you want to name for anybody. BOGUS the lot of them.
And if anyone knows anything about people who engage in this type of “bathroom” sex - they know that when a person does it - it’s an addiction - it happens frequently - and there would be LOTS of “partners” who would be willing to come forward (in the name of the militant gay agenda which includes ridding congress of ANYBODY who opposes (votes) their agenda!)
There have BEEN ZERO SUCH ACCUSATIONS against this Senator.
Were you around for Justice Clarence Thomas’ hearings?????
THAT is what this reminds me of.
Pubic hair on a coke can or foot tapping / touching.
OPPOSED BY A LIFETIME OF INTEGRITY AND SERVICE and endorsed by HUNDREDS of people who knew both men.
Yet millions of people believed Anita Hill, didn’t they, despite Clarence Thomas standing and fighting the lies.
And he STAYED on in the fight to be confirmed - and he was confirmed - and we have had his solid constitutionalist vote on the Supreme court ever since - becuase he decided to FIGHT and not to let the high tech lynching take place!
Senator Craig needs to do just the same as Clarence Thomas!!!
Freedom
Please listen to me. Senator Craig is NOT TOAST.
Call his office. Encourage him to stand and fight.
He should resign for toe tapping?
IT IS an effort by the Clinton Crime Mafia’s gay mafia/Soros/and all the usual Demonic party operatives.
Clarence Thomas fought those ridiculous accusations against him about a pubic hair on a coke can! These charges are just as ridiculous - foot tapping.
Clarence Thomas stood and fought and we have had his very dependable constitutional vote on the Supreme court ever since!
We need Senator Craig’s solid conseravtive vote in the Senate!
He must STAY and FIGHT the bastards!
It WAS entrapment! The “officer” was CLEARLY trying to blackmail the Senator ON THE SPOT into pleading guilty to a lesser charge (cooperating) in order to keep from going to jail.
Senator Craig called the policeman OUT for remembering something that ‘did not occur’ - sliding his left hand under the stall wall.
The policeman, like Nifong, has brought shame and disgrace on the reputations of all those officers who DO catch real perverts and get them off the streets - for awhile anyway.
Do you think a policeman who really believed Senator Craig was trying to engage in homosexual sex in that bathroom with another man would have wanted to guarantee that the “pervert” was free to get on his plane and go his merry way and commit his crimes without hindrance from this “officer”???
GET REAL. (Not yelling at you).
Unless the cop is making it up, then there's not much question. One does not peep through the crack into a stall, wait one to two minutes (time that...it's not a little bit of time) while there are empty stalls, bump the foot of someone in another stall, sweep one's hand under the stall wall, etc., by accident.
These actions are not accidental, yet match exactly signals used by persons looking to engage in certain illegal activity (and people who have been in areas where such activity is common can confirm this...) It seems to me that either the police officer is not describing the actions as they occurred, or the Senator isn't.
One thing I haven't heard confirmed is whether this men's room was in a different terminal from what would be expected for his flight.
I'm wondering...if such behaviour isn't held to be illegal, will heterosexual activist groups be protesting that there aren't unisex pickup restrooms at airports (with foot-washing basins, of course!) ;-)
Listen to the tape. Have you done so????? First of all we do not have ALL the conversation that took place. But we have some of it...enough of it to make clear the Senator was being blackmailed on the spot to plead guilty to a lesser charge in order to go on his way.
Think about it again - what policeman who really wanted to rid that bathroom and other bathrooms of perverts who engage in gay sex in them would WANT A PERVERT RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM TO BE FREE TO DO THIS AGAIN IMMEDIATELY IF HE SO CHOSE!
Listen to the tape.
You are claiming that the senator was encouraged to peep through the crack into the stall, and wouldn't otherwise have done that if not for police action? Hmmm... if you're going to claim "entrapment," then explain how the police enticed him to do that. (And to sweep his hand under the stall wall, also.)
I really can't see how the police induced him to do those things, so I'd like to hear your explanation. Of course, IANAL, so maybe there's some legal definition of entrapment that's different from the one I know.
Yep. Totally incompetent to be a US Senator if he doesn't know that!
Have you listened to the police “interrogation” tape?
This is the Senator’s account of what happened.
He came into the bathroom and it was full so he leaned up against the wall to wait.....as stalls emptied he moved in front of the stall beside the one where the policeman was because it looked like that person was about to leave....and obviously the Senator had been waiting and needed to use the bathroom!
He said he was looking at that stall beside the cop (not at the cop’s stall) to see if the guy in there was getting ready to leave.
The police officer I am sure saw the Senator standing there through HIS side of the crack of the door.....(but since it appeared there was no movement in the cop’s stall the Senator was NOT looking into it!!!! He was looking at the one where he was hoping to be able to move into and do what he was there to do...what bathrooms are for!
The Senator sat on the toilet and reached down to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor. Didn’t say it was toilet paper - for all we know it could have been put there by this “officer” to attract attention and just such reaching....who knows?
The “officer” claimed that Sen. Craig reached over with his left hand (on the opposite side of the stall from the cop) and moved it under the stall wall. Senator Craig flat out said that was not possible and that the cop remembered something that did not happen!
He challenged the cop saying that would be difficult to do and the cop said - no it isn’t difficult to do and then talked about his wedding ring being on the hand that reached under the stall wall. He charged that Craig had moved his wedding ring off his left hand onto his right hand (evidently to disguise which hand he reached under the stall with). To which Sen. Craig said he did not - and said that ring never leaves his right hand - and challenged the “officer” to remove the ring from his finger (implying it wouldn’t come off!!!)
The the real zinger.
The police officer said Craig slid his foot over towards the cops foot until it touched his foot. Sen. Craig said that may have happened....he is not sure bit may have...but that he recalls seeing THE OFFICER’S FOOT OVER NEAR HIS FOOT!!! And that he sits with a wide stance, he’s a pretty big guy, and keeps his feet spread because it keeps them from slipping.
Then the police “officer” keeps saying over and over - I’m not going to take you to jail as long as you cooperate....
What is that but blackmail plain and simple!
How cooperate? Not fight him? Sen. Craig keeps saying he is not going to fight him. What does that mean? Sen., Craig also said several times how much he needed to make the flight. And that he did not want to go to jail. (WHO WOULD????) The cop was entrapping the Senator / blackmailing him / whatever you want to call it - to PLEAD GUILTY to a lesser charge - but plead guilty - in order to CATCH THIS SENATOR AND USE THIS ALLEGED CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR AT JUST THE RIGHT TIME FOR THE DEMONAZI PARTY’S PURPOSES.
When did this news come out? The SAME DAY the damning case of the “mysterious” crook donating bigtime to Hillary and other’s campaigns!!!
Did you notice NO SUCH FUSS about the Clinton crime????
WAke up. This was a targeted “sting” set to bring down a conservative Republican Senator who could not be brought down by a local liberal rag’s eight month long attempt to do so!!!! And it was revealed at JUST THIS TIME in order to divert attention from Hillarys and the Democratic criminal machine’s latest criminal actions!
Read what i just posted.
While I have no sympathy for Craig, this toad-cop is really a treat. I can just picture his son telling his elementary school classmates, "My daddy went to college for six years so that he can bust wierdos in airport bathroom stalls!"
Uh, you still didn’t say a thing about your claim of entrapment. Do you know what entrapment is?
These are the same behaviors that were used to catch similar pickup attempts in many other locations. (I know of ones in Viginia and Delaware, for example, where even my pro-homosexual friends were getting irritated by the behavior in the mens’ rooms.)
Interestingly, in one area in Virginia, where officers concentrated some enforcement at a public park was no longer usable by families, they found that a majority (not plurality, but a majority!) of those caught were public school teachers.
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