The gay-hating left outed Sheriff Paul Babeu tonight.
It’s their favorite sport.
The “progressive” Phoenix New Times reported:
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.
The latest of the alleged threats were made through Babeu’s personal attorney, who’s also running the sheriff’s campaign for Congress in District 4, the ex-lover says.
He says lawyer Chris DeRose demanded he sign an agreement that he would never breathe a word about the affair. But Jose (New Times is withholding his last name because Babeu and his attorney have challenged his legal status) refused.
The 34-year-old from central Mexico charges that the sheriff’s lawyer warned against mentioning the affair with Babeu. DeRose said gossip about Babeu would focus attention on Jose, attention that could result in his deportation, Jose says.
Melissa Weiss-Riner, Jose’s attorney, confirms her client’s account.
She says she spoke directly to the sheriff’s lawyer, DeRose, about the Babeu camp’s threats that Jose could be deported if he “revealed the relationship.” She says DeRose falsely claimed that Jose’s visa had expired.
“Jose came to our firm because he felt he was being intimidated, and he was in fear for his life,” Weiss-Riner says. “He wanted his legal rights protected.”
Babeu didn’t respond to requests for comment by publication time for this article, but his attorney, DeRose, says the dispute between Jose and the sheriff concerned Jose’s work on Babeu’s websites. He says Jose was a former volunteer who hacked into a campaign website.
DeRose didn’t immediately address the other claims against him and the sheriff, except to say, “I never threatened to deport anybody” and that “[Babeu’s] not threatening anybody.”
Informed of the situation, Nancy-Jo Merritt, a longtime Phoenix immigration attorney, says such a threat would be indicative of an “atmosphere that’s been created politically in this state, so that if you get angry at someone who is Hispanic, you immediately jump down to the level of threatening to deport him.
Sheriff Babeu is an outspoken critic of Attorney General Eric Holder and Barack Obama. Babeu called for a special counsel investigation on Attorney General Eric Holder for Fast and Furious in October. The left has been targeting him for years because of his tough stance on border security.
UPDATE: I just received this from the Babeu Campaign. Here is Sheriff Paul Babeu’s response to the New Times’ article.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 17, 2012CONTACT: Chris DeRose
480-343-8949
[email protected]At 2:30pm today, the Phoenix New Times contacted the Paul Babeu for Congress campaign via email asking for a response to a long series of allegations for a story they had been working on for two months from an anonymous source.
The allegations referred to an incident that occurred on September 6, 2011, when the campaign’s website, Twitter account, and online financial transaction system were illegally hacked. A cease and desist letter was sent to the suspected perpetrator who promptly returned access to the campaign. This individual was asked to sign an agreement refraining from similar activity in the future, but at no time were any threats made.At that time, the individual’s attorney assured the campaign that he was not interested in causing further trouble, which was accepted as true.
We strongly deny the sensationalist headline published by the Phoenix New Times.
Please see the attached documents for a copy of the cease and desist letter, as well as the response from the perpetrator, for more details on this incident.
And, here is a copy of the cease and desist order.
UPDATE: And here is a letter from the hacker to the Babeu Campaign.
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