Utah Legislator Admits Paying Girl Hush Money

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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March 12, 2010

Utah Legislator Admits Paying Girl Hush Money

"In a tearful statement in a packed House chambers," Utah House Majority Leader Kevin Garn (R) admitted "to a nude hot tubbing incident with a teenage girl 25 years ago," the Deseret News reports.

Garn said the mistake has "now come back to haunt me" as the woman has gone public with the story.

Said Garn: "Years later, when I was running for Congress, she decided to bring this incident to the attention of the media. Shortly thereafter, my wife and I met with her, and at her demand, I paid her $150,000. While this payment felt like extortion, I also felt like I should take her word that the money would help her heal. She agreed to keep this 25-year-old incident confidential. Now that this issue is coming up again, it is apparent to me that this payment was also a mistake."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

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Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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March 12, 2010