While there are stories I’d have less preferred to wake up to this morning, allegations that former Vice President Al Gore has been accused of sexually assaulting a masseuse is certainly one I could have done without. While NPR didn’t touch on it during the “Morning Edition” opener, it’s dominating the overnight blog discussion.
The National Enquirer, naturally, is breaking the story along with “Joran AIDS Schocker,” “Brad Tells Angie: I Don’t Love You Anymore,” and “Garth Brooks Cancer Tragedy.”
ENQUIRER WORLD EXCLUSIVE: AL GORE has been accused of sexually attacking a masseuse in Portland, Oregon – and is named in the official police report about the alleged assault, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively!
The bombshell story will appear in the new issue of The ENQUIRER and will include the secret police documents, a photo of the woman making the stunning charges and will reveal the shocking details about the pants she saved as evidence!
Our investigative team uncovered the amazing story just weeks after the former Vice President announced that he and wife TIPPER were ending their 40-year marriage – amidst reports she suspected her husband was involved with “a gorgeous massage therapist.”
This appeared at 3:58 EST yesterday morning and didn’t garner much attention. An update at 6:51 in the evening did:
In a bombshell new development in the AL GORE sex scandal — broken EXCLUSIVELY earlier today by The ENQUIRER — the Oregon District Attorney says there’s “the possibility of a criminal prosecution.”
In a statement just released by Multnomah County (OR.) D.A. Michael D. Schrunk, the official reveals that “our office was notified by the Portland Police Bureau that further investigation of this matter had been conducted by it in 2009 and we were provided with the reports from that further investigation.”
The Portland Oregonian finally ran with the story at 9:55 PST:A Portland massage therapist gave local police a detailed statement last year alleging that former Vice President Al Gore groped her, kissed her and made unwanted sexual advances during a late-night massage session in October 2006 in a suite at the upscale Hotel Lucia.
The woman told investigators that she informed two friends and kept the clothes she wore that night, including her black pants with stains on them. But Portland police didn’t contact any of the woman’s friends, obtain the potential evidence or interview anyone at the hotel, records show.
“The case was not investigated any further because detectives concluded there was insufficient evidence to support the allegations,” the Portland Police Bureau said in a prepared statement Wednesday, responding to inquiries from all over the world after the National Enquirer broke the story on its website.
[…]
While the Police Bureau considers it a closed case, it said it would reopen it if new evidence is received.
Portland police spokeswoman Detective Mary Wheat said police didn’t go to the hotel or talk to the woman’s friends because it wouldn’t help prove or disprove the woman’s allegations.
“We’re not disputing Al Gore was in the hotel room with this woman,” Wheat said. “The two people in that room were Mr. Gore and this woman. If a bellhop came in and saw something, that would be different.”
The Multnomah County district attorney’s office was aware that the woman’s attorney filed a complaint with police about two months after the encounter, but the woman didn’t show up for three scheduled interviews with police investigators. At that time, police were told the woman didn’t want to proceed with a criminal case and would pursue a civil case instead.
So: We have four-year-old allegations that police didn’t think credible at the time from a woman who apparently was more interested in profiting from a civil suit than prosecuting. That’s pretty thin grounds for believing Gore committed a crime.
Still, it’s pretty clear that Gore was in a hotel room with a woman not his wife. And it appears that Mrs. Gore believes something illicit was going on in that room.
And what’s with the top slots in the Clinton Administration? We now have both the president and the vice president involved in illicit affairs with women who like to keep stained clothing as souvenirs. Ugh.
