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The Strange Case of Michael Caputo

by: phillip anderson

Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 13:28:19 PM EDT

The first Spitzer-bashing email from Michael Caputo's NYFacts.net went out on July 10th, 2007, at 12:41 PM Eastern. Since then, the group has sent out 35 further emails. Another site, Spitzerfile.com, which interestingly only loads through a redirect from NYFacts.net, went live sometime after July 10th, and has also been sending out emails.

NYFacts.net even briefly branched out into Obama-bashing on August 8th, with an email entitled "Obama pulls from all-white Harmonie Club', which contained a piece by Maggie Haberman in the Murdoch Post.

Both Bouldin and I were both on this email list as were pretty much every media outlet in the state. It was one hell of a list and it was apparently assembled in record time. what was interesting was not so much who those emails were going to but the addresses that were being used. Some folks were getting those emails at addresses they hadn't used in years, others at brand new ones. Some people were getting them at purely personal addresses.

But this story only gets curiouser and curiouser. Like the rampant speculation that Caputo is working for Bruno consultant, original Watergate CREEP critter, senior official on Bob Dole's 1996 campaign for president, 2000 Miami Mobster and general all around Super Freak, Roger Stone. Caputo denies that he is working with or for Stone, though they have a long history of collaboration. Here's but one example:

Two vendors for a current campaign assisted by Stone—the senate campaign of Larry Klayman—also donated in Florida, with public relations consultant Michael Caputo and Tasmania Productions owner Teddi Segal donating $250 (she says she doesn't know Stone). Caputo, ironically, was Stone's spokesman in 1996, when Stone was embroiled in the most embarrassing scandal of his career—the much ballyhooed revelation that he and his wife had advertised, with photos, for swinging partners in magazines and on the Internet. Caputo has, until recently, been handling press inquiries for Klayman, an evangelical who led the sex assault in Washington on Bill Clinton and is running a moral-majority, retake-Cuba campaign for senate.

Caputo says he's not working with Stone and "never worked in New York politics at Roger Stone's behest", but Robert A. George, a reporter for the New York Post asks this question on his personal blog:

I should make another obvious point: If Stone and Caputo aren't working together in some fashion, how did both of my accounts end up on Caputo's mailing list. I've never previously received e-mails -- to any of my accounts -- from Michael Caputo. On the other hand, as noted above, I have gotten them from Roger Stone.

You ain't seen nothing yet. MUCH more weirdness on the flip...

Michael Caputo, the man behind the Troopergate news-alert service NYFacts.net, today sent out an e-mail from another of his anti-Spitzer sites, Spitzerfile.com, with a subject line that read: "See Eliot Spitzer's meltdown."

On the site is a video of the July 26 Capitol Red Room bill signing ceremony at which The Post's Fred Dicker badgered the governor for refusing to answer his questions about the scandal.

The Politicker's Azi Paybarah was present that day and videotaped the back-and-forth, but he tells me he didn't provide the tape to Caputo, which raises the question: So who did? And, perhaps more importantly, why?

Caputo has repeatedly insisted that he's working independently and not in conjunction with the Senate GOP's consultant Roger Stone, with whom Caputo has a longstanding relationship. Reached in Florida, Caputo professed to have no idea who provided him with the footage, saying it was FedExed to his Buffalo office in the form of a DVD.

"The return address was some Hanna Barbara name, clearly something made up," Caputo said. "It came to me from a New York City FedEx office.

When it was pointed out that Stone keeps an apartment in the city, Caputo replied that he hasn't spoken to Stone in some time, but added:

"To tell you the truth, if Roger wanted to send me something, he would just send it."

Caputo again insisted that he is running NYFacts.net and Spitzerfile.com out of the goodness of his own heart and is not on anyone's payroll. He said he's having "a blast" with his "labor of love," and expects there's a lot more where this came from.

So, Michael Caputo, who isn't working with Roger Stone, the man Bruno is paying to preserve his Senate Majority at all costs, though they have worked extensively in the past and is now getting video of the governor, shot on scene at the governor's press conference in a package sent from NYC with a cartoon character's name in the return address slot. OK. Well, at least he's "having a blast", right?

Well, it's amazing what 12 hours or so can do. Apparently, his "labor of love" that was so much fun yesterday afternoon, has turned into something much darker. He now claims that he's being "attacked" and that his family is being threatened  "from the Democratic side of the aisle."

Spitzer's Attacker Claims He's Being Threatened

Michael Caputo, a Republican operative who has been circulating unflattering news stories about Eliot Spitzer to reporters, said this morning that Democrats are attacking him and threatening his family.

“They made very clear threats to me and my family in New York City,” Caputo said in a radio interview with WROW. “I’m getting abused and threatened. Harassing someone who is just trying to be an active conservative is just silly.”

Caputo declined to specifically characterize the nature of the threats or say who they were coming from.

He added “I’m fairly certainly this is coming from the Democratic side of the aisle.”

So, today he's being "threatened" and "abused", though he won't say how or by whom.

Can this story get any weirder? I have a feeling that it most certainly will.

Stay tuned.