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Much chatter on the Inter-nets this morning about the Idaho Statesmen story charging that more men have come forward claiming to have witnessed homosexual behavior involving Sen. Larry Craig. Four claim to have had sexual encounters with the Idaho Republican, while four others claim that Craig made advances on them. Two of the alleged incidents have Denver connections.Craig made headlines earlier this year when he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after police said he solicited sex from a male undercover officer in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. He is appealing his conviction. He has denied being gay and has a long record of voting against gay rights.Among the current charges, the one getting the most attention concerns former male prostitute Mike Jones, who in 2006 claimed to have had sex with evangelical Rev. Ted Haggard. Jones now says Craig paid him $200 for sex in his Sherman Street apartment.
Jones said a man phoned to make an appointment, not giving his name. The man, whom Jones later recognized as Craig, then arrived at a studio apartment on Sherman Street in downtown Denver. Craig asked whether Jones followed politics but then quickly changed the subject. “When I said, ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘Oh, gee, it’s cold outside.'” Jones said he immediately deduced from his client’s odd response that he was servicing a politician.
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Jones said the encounter took place between November 2004 and March 2005. The Statesman checked Craig’s travel records and found he was in Denver Feb. 11, 2005, and in Keystone on Feb. 12.
Craig’s Senate travel records also show six other trips where Craig may have had layovers in Denver between November 2004 and March 2005.
A Craig spokesman says the encounter never took place and that Jones is just trying to sell copies of his book. However, Jones is not the only one whose story has a Denver connection.
Another gay man, a 46-year-old professional from Boise, told the Statesman that Craig reached his hand into his restroom stall in September 2006 during a layover at [Denver International Airport]. The man, who travels in political circles, had met Craig before. He asked that he not be named by the Statesman.The man said he was flying from Boise to Washington, D.C., on the same flights as Craig and Craig’s wife, Suzanne. Denver, like Minneapolis, is a key connecting hub for flights between Boise and Washington.During the layover in Denver, the man said he was in a men’s restroom stall when a hand came under the divider and reached toward him. The hand was palm up, as the officer in Minnesota also described, and slid toward him for two or three seconds. The man said he noticed unpolished, dark, lace-up shoes worn by the man in the next stall. He did not respond to the gesture.”I freaked out,” said the man, who was traveling with his long-time partner. “I finished my business and left.”The man said he then waited outside the men’s restroom on a bench. Shortly after, a man wearing the shoes he saw in the adjacent stall exited. The man was Larry Craig.”Those shoes came out, and I looked up, and it was like, ‘Oh, my God.'”