In the heat of Alabama’s special election between U.S. Senate candidates Roy Moore and Doug Jones, Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon, who had endorsed Republican Moore, sent two reporters to Alabama in an effort to discredit the women who had accused Moore of sexual assault and discredit the extensive reporting on the accusations by the Washington Post.
Now the Washington Post is reporting on new and alarming details outlining just how far some Roy Moore supporters were willing to go to help him win, including an attempt to bribe the attorney representing one of Moore’s accusers.
They asked lawyer Eddie Sexton to drop the woman as a client and say publicly that he did not believe her. The damaging statement would be given to Breitbart News, then run by former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon.
In exchange, Sexton said in recent interviews, the men offered to pay him $10,000 and promised to introduce him to Bannon and others in the nation’s capital. Parts of Sexton’s account are supported by recorded phone conversations, text messages and people in whom he confided at the time.
The Moore supporters, Gary Lantrip and Bert Davi, wanted Sexton to discredit his client and the other women, creating a “cloud” on the issue for voters.
“What they’re saying, all they want to do is cloud something,” Gary Lantrip, who attended at least one private fundraising event for Moore, said during a phone call recorded by Sexton. “They said if they cloud, like, two of them, then that’s all they need.”
Lantrip also made references to money — at one point speaking haltingly about the “the ten [pause] dollars,” a shorthand for the $10,000 offer, Sexton said.
“We got some chance to do something, make some quick little-bitty for you … and then, on down the line, we can go to D.C.,” Lantrip said during the recorded call.
Both men denied the attempted bribe, but did acknowledge their old buddy Steve Bannon would offer Sexton legal work if he played along. In fact, two Breitbart reporters turned up in the conference room meeting where Lantrip and Davi tried to iron out a deal with Sexton; they even provided the handwritten statement for Sexton to sign.
Sexton said he arrived at the Pelham office and joined Lantrip and Davi in a conference room. He said Lantrip told him that they had the money for him. Boyle, Breitbart’s Washington bureau chief, soon joined them, he said. Minutes later, Aaron Klein, Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief walked in, Sexton said.
Sexton said he was too nervous to record the meeting from his phone.
On the table was a notebook, he said, opened to a page that contained the handwritten statement he was expected to sign. There was little small talk, Sexton said. He said they began discussing the possibility of issuing a statement about Corfman’s credibility.
The Washington Post story contains an incredible amount of detail. I’d highly recommend reading the full article here.