Congress
Posted: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 9:00 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Congress
Roll Call broke the news: “Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men’s public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call on Monday afternoon. Craig’s arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court.”
VIDEO: NBC's Bob Faw reports on Sen. Craig's guilty plea.
The article also has these details: “According to the incident report, Sgt. Dave Karsnia was working as a plainclothes officer on June 11 investigating civilian complaints regarding sexual activity in the men’s public restroom in which Craig was arrested. Airport police previously had made numerous arrests in the men’s restroom of the Northstar Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal in connection with sexual activity. Karsnia entered the bathroom at noon that day and about 13 minutes after taking a seat in a stall, he stated he could see ‘an older white male with grey hair standing outside my stall.’ The man, who lingered in front of the stall for two minutes, was later identified as Craig.”
On the heels of that Roll Call story, the Idaho Statesman runs this five-month investigation into the senator’s personal life. Craig’s “June 11 encounter with the officer was similar to an incident in a men's room in a Washington, D.C., rail station described by a Washington-area man to the Idaho Statesman. In that case, the man said he and Craig had sexual contact… In an interview on May 14, Craig told the Idaho Statesman he'd never engaged in sex with a man or solicited sex with a man. The Craig interview was the culmination of a Statesman investigation that began after a blogger accused Craig of homosexual sex in October. Over five months, the Statesman examined rumors about Craig dating to his college days and his 1982 pre-emptive denial that he had sex with underage congressional pages.”
The Washington Post adds that Craig “resigned yesterday as Idaho chairman of the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R). Craig ‘did not want to be a distraction,’ said Romney spokesman Matt Rhoades, ‘and we accept his decision.’”
“Last night, the Romney campaign restricted public access to a YouTube video in which Craig also praised Romney.”
