Free Republic

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON, ALLISON HOPE WEINER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM The New York Post is cooperating with a federal investigation into whether a longtime contributor for the Page Six gossip column — the avidly read daily log of wrongdoing, double-dealing and sexual indiscretions by celebrities both minor and major — tried to extort money from a California billionaire, according to a spokesman for the newspaper. Several people involved in the investigation said the reporter, Jared Paul Stern, had been captured on a video recording demanding a $100,000 payment and a monthly stipend of $10,000 from Ronald W. Burkle in return...

NEW YORK -- For months, former New York Post scribe Jared Paul Stern was at the center of unseemly accusations that he tried to shake down billionaire Ronald Burkle in exchange for good press in the newspaper's gossip pages. Now Stern has fired back in a lawsuit filed Thursday against Burkle, the Post's archrival Daily News _ even former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom Stern accuses of attacking him in an effort to suppress negative stories about themselves. Represented by a longtime critic of the Clintons, Stern alleges the defendants defamed and inflicted emotional distress on...

INTELLIGENCER Remember the Jared Paul Stern gossip-ethics kerfuffle? The FBI does. Stern, a longtime freelance contributor to the Post’s “Page Six,” was accused by billionaire Ron Burkle of trying to extort $200,000 from him in exchange for keeping negative stories about him out of the paper. Now the “Page Six” editor, Richard Johnson, has been contacted for questioning by a group that includes prosecutors from the Southern District and federal agents. Asked about a looming interview with the G-men, Johnson referred calls to a publicist. One of Johnson’s lawyers, Ed Hayes, says he is aware the Feds requested a routine...