David Letterman Shocking Admission: Office Sex Affairs Led to $2M Extortion Plot

By: Neil Katz
Topics: Daily Blotter

(CBS/John Paul Filo)

NEW YORK (CBS) David Letterman, during a taping of tonight's Late Show, admitted to having sexual affairs with women in his office and said that there has been a recent attempt made to extort money from him.

The following is part of a statement released by Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants:

Letterman said that three weeks ago he received a package from an individual who claimed to have information about Letterman's alleged sexual relationships with female employees of the Late Show and threatened to reveal them if Letterman did not pay the individual a large sum of money. Subsequently, according to Letterman, the individual identified the necessary sum to be $2 million.

Letterman said that he referred the matter to the Special Prosecution Bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney's office, which Letterman said conducted an investigation, which included his issuing a "phony" $2 million check to the individual, and culminated in the individual's arrest earlier today.

"This morning, I did something I've never done in my life," said Letterman. "I had to go downtown and testify before a grand jury."

Letterman said that, in his testimony, he acknowledged sexual relationships with members of his staff.

"Would that be embarrasing? Yes it would, especially for the women," he said half in jest.

"My response to that is, yes I have. Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would," said Letterman. "I feel like I need to protect these people - I need to certainly protect my family."

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by nancygaye October 2, 2009 9:11 PM EDT: It was painful to watch Mr. Letterman admit his adultery on his show last night. His tone was the same that it always is and the audience thought is was a joke. He's the joke. The man literally showed no remorse despite any of his words. He is a married man aferwall. Shouldn't that stand for anything? Let's face it, Letterman is a jerk. He's a mean-spirited as*hole who makes his living poking fun at other people. Now the jokes on him. I hope his wife divorces him and CBS drops his show. Remember when Mr. Letterman said, ?One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game, during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.? First of all, not EVEN funny. I mean, NOT funny. It's a stupid statement. Second, he was referring to Ms. Palin's 14-year old daughter, Willow (not Bristol as he claims which would still be bad). Not EVEN funny. Now we find out that Mr. Letterman is an unfaithful lecher. Now THAT's funny!; Reply to this comment

by TellthetruthCBSNews October 2, 2009 4:11 AM EDT

TOP TEN Reactions to the Letterman got blackmailed by a CBS Reporter...

10. Well we now know NBC's Law and Order plotline for next week.

9. 48 HOURS!!!! The man is 62 years old...how does he do it for that long!

8. Johnny Carson is laughing his ass off right now! Trying to blackmail a Commedian..now that is funny!

7. So those were the after show stupid human tricks we heard about!

6. I knew David and Martha Stewart had something going on!

5. This is Walter Chronkite and I am now turning over in my grave...

4. David should never have told Paul what he did after work!

3. I always thought David looked at the guy in the bear suit in a kinda weird way....

2. IF the blackmailer had just thought about this he would have realized that Letterman has no pride what so ever and could never be blackmailed.....David is on CBS after all.

1. I was just absolutely stunned by the story that a CBS News reporter has attempted to Blackmail David Letterman over the knowledge that David has had affairs....

I just had absolutely no clue that CBS still had a news division let alone any reporters!

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by kathleenGA October 2, 2009 4:50 AM EDT: Funny!
It is obvious you are not a fan of CBS news though. :)


by nancygaye October 2, 2009 9:19 PM EDT: Too funny!


by TellthetruthCBSNews October 2, 2009 3:25 AM EDT: When I first heard about the Letterman Story all I cold think of was which one was Paul, Biff, Tony the Cue Card Guy....Was it the guy in the bear suit?

Then it just turns out to be a slimmy CBS reporter....what a let down!; Reply to this comment


by TellthetruthCBSNews October 2, 2009 2:47 AM EDT: Neil Katz

This is directed at you. Do you not think that since a current or former CBS News Employee on 48 Hours has been fingered as a Blackmailer that perhaps the title..."David Letterman Shocking Admission Office Sex Affairs Led to $2M Extortion Plot"..should actually be a statement from CBS News that they intend to find out if any other of your co-workers are involved? Are you involved?

Have you or other co-workers used your CBS News resources to blackmail others for information, favors, money, sex, seats at Knicks games?

Just how many CBS News so called stories are actually true and how many are nothing more than fabrications put together by individuals who are so stupid to think that they can blackmail David Letterman?

When you work for what has become a 6th rate news division that regulary has ratings below repeats of Gilligans Island I can see where someone might want to get a second job. However threatening to expose contract employees sex lives if you do not receive two million dollars may just warrent a different headline.

How About this shocking headline...

CBS News....Thank you and goodbye forever.....by Neil Katz; Reply to this comment

by acles3 October 2, 2009 2:36 AM EDT

If you google the name Robert Halderman, one of the links that comes up is his political contributions. He's contributed over $5,000 to McCain and Palin. It's interesting that he's choosing to blackmail Letterman. I wonder if he was recruited to do this by someone else?

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by TellthetruthCBSNews October 2, 2009 3:05 AM EDT: Do you have a link? Because when I googled this I did not come up with a donation for Robert J. Halderman. All I came up with was a rather large list of Robert Haldermans with various middle intitials and addresses that made donations to McCain and Palin.


by kathleenGA October 2, 2009 5:08 AM EDT: I think you have the wrong Robert Halderman.


by kathleenGA October 2, 2009 2:04 AM EDT: The person arested for trying to extort Letterman was Robert Halderman of "48 Hours". What was his position with the "48 Hours" show? How did he know of Letterman's sexual conduct? Why did he think he could extort Letterman? Why would anyone care about his sex life? Is it really bad?, like do all these women not know about each other? Is CBS going to fire him for messing around with employees and putting CBS at risk for sexual harrassment lawsuits? Is that why Mr. Halderman thought Dave would be willing to pay th $2 million dollars? If it wasn't for the fact that these women worked for him I don't see why it would be so bad, except for the embarassment of course. Does Mr. Halderman have pictures, videos, or emails that would humiliate Dave?
I don't know what all Dave has done but I think so far he has handled this situation well. He did the right thing by going to authorities and telling the truth. I have a feeling there is a lot more we don't know yet. Hopefully it is just sex and hopefully these affairs happened prior to March when he got married (for his wife's sake).
Okay 48 Hours, do a show on this and tell the truth about your employee. Why did this guy do this? This is a great "mystery" to investigate. You should have a lot of info since it involves your own employee and Dave who works for CBS too.; Reply to this comment