No Objections from Mitt Romney on Gloria Allred's Support for Requested Testimony
UPDATE 12:09 p.m.:
Romney attorney Robert Jones said in a statement, "These tabloid charges being shopped by Gloria Allred, one of President Obama's most prominent supporters, are absolutely false. Every time a court has reviewed the allegations of her client over the last 24 years, they have been rejected. There is no new information here."
UPDATE 10/25/12 - 10:45 a.m.:
A Massachusetts court ruled today that Mitt Romney's testimony can be released to the media.
The judge did not lift the gag order on Maureen Sullivan Stemberg, which would have allowed her to discuss what transpired during the divorce proceedings.
It's fall. The leaves are changing colors. Politics is in the air. And for the third straight year, Gloria Allred is representing a woman claiming to have bombshell information she says will affect a political race.
Allred went to court in Boston Tuesday to support the Boston Globe's efforts to unearth testimony from Mitt Romney in a co-worker's divorce hearing.
She represents Maureen Sullivan Stemberg, the woman involved in the divorce case. With her client by her side, Allred told reporters that they supported making Romney's testimony public so those involved could speak about it publicly.
"We are here to express to the court that we have no objection to the motion by the Boston Globe, because we believe that the public has a right to know what Mitt Romney's testimony under oath was, and so that is why we're here this morning," Allred said.
A Massachusetts judge put off ruling on whether to release the testimony, according to the Associated Press. The parties will be back in court Wednesday. An attorney for for Romney indicated he would not contest unsealing the testimony, leading many to wonder if it would be damaging at all.
Rumors about what it could say circulated Tuesday, as both Allred and Donald Trump promised October surprises.
Tuesday afternoon, Trump unleashed his own October surprise. He'd promised a bombshell but it turned out to be more of a dud. He said he'd give $5 million to charity if President Obama released records related to unfounded accusations that he is not an American citizen.
But for Allred, catching clients with shocking political secrets is old hat.
Last year, Allred went on the attack with a client who alleged then-Republican primary candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed her in a messy back-and-forth that persisted for months.
Sharon Bialek, with Allred representing her, was the first woman to openly accuse Cain of harassment.
Cain denied the allegations but ultimately ended his campaign for the Republican nomination. When he dropped out of the race, Bialek said it was her " vindication."
In 2010, just before the congressional and gubernatorial races that rocketed Tea Party candidates into American government, Allred represented a woman claiming that California candidate for governor, Meg Whitman, had hired her as a housekeeper illegally and then fired her unceremoniously the year before the election.
Allred released a letter from the Social Security Administration on Sept. 30, 2010 that she said proved Whitman knew the client, Nicky Diaz, had been hired illegally.
Whitman and her husband, Griffith Harsh, denied knowing about Diaz's legal status before she confessed it to them and left their home in 2009. The candidate blamed her opponent, current California Gov. Jerry Brown, for the accusations, and called them "a baseless smear attack."
It wasn't the only scandal to rock the Whitman campaign, and though she reportedly outspent her opponent six times over, Whitman lost to Brown.
So far, Romney seems to have no qualms about what Allred might discover he said in 1991.
"This is a decades-old divorce case in which Mitt Romney provided testimony as to the value of a company," his lawyer, Robert Jones, said in a statement. "He has no objection to letting the public see that testimony."