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An unmarked envelope arrives for two investigative reporters at the local newspaper. Inside are papers that will be filed in court next week linking the state's Senior US Senator to a complicated plan to funnel him money from a wealthy businessman to his wife.
It sounds like a scene from "All The Presidents Men". But unlike that movie which was based on real life, this scene is based upon a fantasy in Senator Norm Coleman's head if you believe the Managing Editor at the Star Tribune.
Friday, Senator Coleman accused the Star Tribune of having documents from the potentially politically damaging lawsuit long before they were actually filed in a Texas court.
Star Tribune Managing Editor Rene Sanchez says that is simply not true. Sanchez old MinnPost that "we did not get a copy of this lawsuit until it was filed Monday."
It was questions from the Star Tribune's investigative reporters earlier this week that tipped other media off to the story. At a campaign event in St. Cloud, Senator Coleman refused to answer or even acknowledge the reporters who asked him about the lawsuit and payments of $75,000 to his wife from a Texas company controlled by a wealthy Coleman supporter.
On Friday Coleman said the lawsuit, filed by Republican Paul McKim, was politically motivated and indicated it was the work of his opponent Al Franken calling it "sleazy" and "11th hour".
Lawyers in Minnesota who examined the lawsuit documents were reasonably sure politics was not the primary motivation in the lawsuit. Talk show host and lawyer Mark Heaney and election law specialist Christian Sande examined the documents on Heaney's show this week.
Heaney noted that the firm filing the lawsuit was a reputable one, and would probably not risk that reputation by being involved in a lawsuit that had no basis.
Sande commented that this was really a lawsuit about a fired CEO trying to obtain money from his former employer. Sande suggested the Coleman allegations were probably included ...
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