S.C. Officials To Investigate Bogus Emails About Newt Gingrich's Ex-Wife, Marianne

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A South Carolina prosecutor says officials will launch an investigation into fake emails aimed at Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign.

Deputy Attorney General Bryan Stirling said Friday that the chief of South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division, Mark Keel, has been asked to conduct a preliminary review of the facts surrounding the fake emails.

One of the bogus emails falsely claims to be a Gingrich campaign response to a news report, also false, that he had forced his ex-wife Marianne into terminating a pregnancy.

At a campaign stop Friday night, Gingrich called the emails "disgusting" and said the offenders should be prosecuted.

Stirling says that the findings of the investigation will be presented to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who will determine if any laws have been broken.

 

 

Comments

[frankath]

05:41 PM on 01/22/2012

kimpjones: I've tried to respond twice, but you got modded both times, I think for using a "cheat" word for doo-doo. They don't take to nasty words. OR, like me, they misunderstood your posts and thought you were saying that the things you were mentioning about the Obamas were true, when it is well known that they were untrue or "twisted" truth.

Hope you don't consider THIS a rant, as well.

[capn moose]

02:51 PM on 01/22/2012

Ain't politics grand? South Carolinaians should have learned by now that their political world is as bad or worse than plenty of other states where this kind of stuff goes on all the time. It is rotten stuff, but the voters should have learned by now to ignore most ads, any negative repoirt that comes out within about a week of the actual election. For example, ABC did not need to run that interview with Newt's 2nd wife, it was not really new, it was unproven -- as much as I detest Newt -- and it added nothing new to the picture of Newt. He was a dog, and we all knew it.

[ProbStat]

11:50 AM on 01/22/2012

The investigation should take a hard look at the possibility the rumors came out of the Gingrich campaign.

Think about it: Gingrich clearly has some ugly personal history, and what better way to contain it than to concoct an outrageous -- and false -- story that can be disproved, blamed on others, etc., etc., and then when real stories come out it can be claimed that "these sort of stories have been being put out by Newt's enemies again and again, and they're just patently false," and people will remember the fake rumors where this was actually true.

There is a different logic necessary when dealing with sociopaths, and Newt Gingrich is a sociopath.

[hgersh65]

02:29 PM on 01/22/2012

A stretch...but not impossible. "Shocked. Shocked I tell you! Gambling going on in Ricks?"

[ProbStat]

03:03 PM on 01/22/2012

'Your winnings, sir.' ;-)

There are only two questions that I think would need to be answered: did they think of it, and did they think they could get away with it? And, possibly, did someone else do it earlier for some other reason.

[7dr361]

07:37 AM on 01/22/2012

Newt has 0 morality left in his body.............

[Shieldwolf]

05:37 AM on 01/22/2012

I bet the same commenter’s crying about wasted tax money on Gingrich would be crying bloody murder if someone had been posing as the Obama Campaign to miss-inform their platform and actions.

[Gary Gans]

10:42 AM on 01/22/2012

They do daily. It’s called Fox News, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Willard ‘My First Name is Mitt’ Romney, Newt ‘Open Relationship Family Values’ Gingrich, Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, Rick ‘I hate Gays but why do Gays keep talking about it’ Santorum, and on and on.

[Gerald OHare]

11:08 PM on 01/21/2012

Does Newt wear a wig or some type of hairpiece?

[7dr361]

07:30 AM on 01/22/2012

Newt and his wife trade off hairpiece.............

[clivechristy]

10:47 PM on 01/21/2012

Which ex-wife?

[MayberryClark]

10:31 PM on 01/21/2012

So Mitt Romney's going the Karl Rove route, eh?

[Aurical]

12:01 PM on 01/22/2012

Rove is working on Mitts campaign.

[MayberryClark]

01:00 PM on 01/22/2012

Next up, Willie Horton.

[acspore]

10:04 PM on 01/21/2012

I would not be surprised if it was the Gingrich camp that put out the emails themselves.

[dalejohno]

04:11 AM on 01/22/2012

Whoever did it, if this is the way they conduct themselves before getting into power, god help us if they ever win.

[Tresmilanos]

09:37 PM on 01/21/2012

An investigation of waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money should be launched against the investigators.

This is not a criminal offense or a matter concerning South Carolina; it is a civil matter regarding Newt.

[dalejohno]

04:14 AM on 01/22/2012

Your probably right, but it does show that whoever did it - Newt or any other tabpole, that they are not too far away from using corruption to gain their personal ends.

[Tresmilanos]

09:17 PM on 01/22/2012

10-4

Yikes!

God help us all.

[Cynthia Colone]

09:33 PM on 01/21/2012

Newt probably wrote that email himself...

[caution08]

11:13 PM on 01/21/2012

LMAO; fan@faved....

[scottymac11]

09:29 PM on 01/21/2012

Is it possible? Could Newt have put this out himself ?

[Marty Jarvy]

09:28 PM on 01/21/2012

If there was a smear attempt as described, that would be appalling, and hopefully would be fully investigated and action taken.

While they're at it, there are also several hundred entirely dishonest, immoral smear campaigns from Gingrich over the years - but I'm not sure if the investigating bodies will have the staff budget to deal with the backlog.

[7dr361]

09:19 PM on 01/21/2012

made several remarks..............where are they

[Horatio Nelson]

09:15 PM on 01/21/2012

OOOOOOOO . . . The SC NCIC CID EIEIO R2D2 speaks. I'm shaking in my bathrobe.