By

Lindsey Boerma /

CBS News/ March 4, 2013, 6:29 PM

Report: Escort says she made up Menendez prostitution claims

Updated 6:10 a.m. EST March 5, 2013

One of two women who appeared in videos that seemed to corroborate a tipster's allegation that Sen. Robert Menendez engaged with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic last year now says she was paid to make up the claims and has never seen or met the New Jersey Democrat, the Washington Post reports.

The Post story is being challenged by the website that reported the initial allegations against Menendez.

The female escort in the Post story identified a lawyer who she said approached her and a colleague and offered them money to read from a script, but did not tell them it would be videotaped. That man then identified another lawyer who he says gave him the script and paid him to find women who would be willing to fabricate the claims, according to affidavits obtained by the Post.

Days before his reelection last November, the conservative news site The Daily Caller published the videos, which blurred the women's faces, along with an article alleging that Menendez had flown to the Dominican Republic and slept with prostitutes at a resort where Dr. Salomon Melgen, an eye doctor who has made sizeable donations to Menendez, had a home.

FBI agents conducting interviews in the Dominican Republic have not found any evidence to back up the original tipster, sources told the Post. Last month, Menendez, who has maintained his innocence, slammed the allegations as "smears" being peddled by "right-wing blogs."

"It's amazing to me that anonymous, nameless, faceless, individuals on a website can drive that type of story into the mainstream, but that's what they have done successfully," Menendez said. "Now, nobody can find them, no one ever met them, no one ever talked to them, but that's where we are at. So, the bottom line is all of those smears are absolutely false, and that's the bottom line."

The Daily Caller reported online Tuesday that the woman who came forward in the Post story was not one of the two women in the Daily Caller video. "The Washington Post mistook one prostitute for another Monday in a report that initially seemed to debunk a November 2012 Daily Caller expos? of New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez. While the Post said it had an affidavit from a woman in the Dominican Republic admitting she fabricated claims Menendez paid her for sex, that woman was not one of the two prostitutes TheDC interviewed for a Nov. 1 report," the website says.

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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    Lindsey Boerma is senior video producer for CBSNews.com.

58 Comments Add a Comment
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highlndr55 says:
Fox Parrots Lie:( You should listen and watch as many news sources as possible. You will not hear any critcism of the Obama Admin. from the mainstream media. If they were doing there job, they would be reporting all things good or bad. But, they are not doing their job. At least when you watch FOX, they always give both sides of a story a voice. That does not happen with the Liberal news.
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bobnjersey says:
[I think I will take the word of 40 + vets as opposed to 1 lying sack of crap John Kerry.]
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you think?

you can actually do that?

i would say you would ignore the facts from 40+ nuns telling you things you didn't agree with ... and accept without any critical assessment anything from anyone who told you what already wanted to believe.
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Barry-been-inhalin says:
The WaPo is definitely between a Barack and a hard place on this one.
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BuckeyeChuck says:
Typical republican flag waving trash.
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VO142857 says:
Republicans employing lies to smear Democratic candidates? Nothing new here. Remember "Swift Boat Veteranes"?
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Barry-been-inhalin replies:
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I think I will take the word of 40 + vets as opposed to 1 lying sack of crap John Kerry.
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keote_poet says:
nice try republicons...the only unethical behavior is from rightwingnuts paying her for false stories.
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BENJ0RD0N replies:
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That's because the leftwingnuts are alway truthful!
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matt6052 says:
And if people are just being paid to say things, how can we know the current prostitute is not just being paid to say things?

Why is today's uncorroborated prostitute credible to the WaPo when last fall's prostitutes who independently corroborated each other are not?
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Ambivalent11 says:
zionistwarcrimes replies:

I am shocked.......SHOCKED I SAY.........that the anti American, GOP, economic terrorists, would pay a hooker to lie!!!!!!!!


True dat. Lying is best left to Democrat Presidents who get impeached and claim he did not have sex with that woman in the blue dress.
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Ericcassel says:
the democratz have bought the hooker off ,,,,she slept with him repeatedly so there is another hooker turned socialite in america this is a no brainer just like the liberals
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Barry-been-inhalin says:
WaPa got the wrong hooker. LOL

Even ABC news has refused to run or print this story as they doubt the woman's veracity and identity.
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FakePres replies:
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And ABC news IS credible ???? lol!
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