This post will reveal the first batch of alleged direct messages and e-mails from Gennette Cordova to Nikki Reid.

There is much more coming. This is just the initial batch. Perhaps the most interesting line I see is Gennette telling Nikki on June 6:

Hey. I’m not supposed to talk over messages anymore. If you want my number/you’re able to call, let me know.

Here is a screenshot of the DM:

Oh . . . there is JohnReid9’s statement that the DMs from Gennette Cordova regarding flirting with Weiner are genuine. I forgot about that part. We’ll get to that.

Before we get into the messages themselves, I want to provide you with some background. It’s my intention to tell you, not just what I know, but also what I do not know, about the person who is sending me this information.

Last night I was in conversation with a person who claims to be the father of Nikki Reid, the name used by the person who contacted Tommy Christopher shortly after the scandal broke, to tell Christopher that she had been hassled by a group of right-wingers led by Dan Wolfe. Nikki is the “Betty” from Tommy Christopher’s “Betty and Veronica” story, which (while flawed) is required background reading to understand any of this. On Twitter, the person who claims to be Reid’s father goes by the name “JohnReid9.”

I should pause here to say that, while I will refer to him as “Reid” in this post, I have not talked to him on the phone or by Skype. I do not know whether the person sending me this material is an Internet jokester, or the actual father of a young girl. I might have an opinion, but I am not going to share it, because my opinion is not really relevant. The bottom line is: I am not going to pretend that I know things, when in fact I don’t. I am not going to try to dress up my opinions as facts and pass them off on you.

I will simply tell you what I know, and what I don’t know, and let you make up your mind.

Here’s what I do know: There is considerable evidence that the JohnReid9 account that sent me this material is the account that “Nikki Reid” used after she abandoned the “starchild111” Twitter account. I know that in part because Gennette Cordova admitted on Twitter last night that the John Reed account is the account that “Nikki” used to contact her:

Although I have redacted e-mail addresses from the material I am publishing here, I can confirm that the e-mail address used by Gennette in the e-mails Reid has sent me matches the e-mail address used by GennetteC in recent comments here. (I have e-mailed Gennette at that e-mail address to open a conversation and allow her to respond to this post, but she has not responded — which I expected, since in the past she has disdained responding to my questions, claiming I am not a “reputable journalist.”)

Ah, but how do we know that the GennetteC who comments here is the real GennetteC? Well, putting aside the tone of the comments, which I believe matches the tone of her Twitter messages, I can tell you that the IP address for GennetteC’s comments resolves to Bellingham, Washington. That’s where she lives. And GennetteC told us in one of her comments:

So this is where Nikki got her picture? Interesting. She made up a long story about the dog in the picture… his name was Max, named after her dog that she had before him who died.

She said that this morning. JohnReid9 last night sent me a direct message from Gennette to Nikki in which Gennette proves her bonafides to Nikki by saying Nikki’s dog’s name is Max:

Last night “JohnReid9” went on the attack on Twitter, raging against Gennette Cordova and Jen Preston of the New York Times. Like me, JohnReid9 complained that Preston asserted Nikki was collecting information “against” Rep. Weiner, when in fact (JohnReid9 says), Nikki has always supported Weiner. Among his milder messages to Preston were these:

@NYT_JenPreston If you took the time to research any of the girls PUBLIC tweets DEFENDING & singing Rep Weiner’s praise you would not have

@NYT_JenPreston you would not have put out such a garbage filled article. Worthless, and full of lies. Shame on you and shame on NYT!

Read this lengthy excerpt of his tweet stream from last night. He gets far more harsh than that.

Regarding Gennette, JohnReid9 complained that Gennette was lying when she said she suspected Nikki of being fake. JohnReid9 threatened to publish Gennette’s alleged communications with Nikki.

@GNCordova @wittier @NYT_JenPreston That’s right, Gennette. We saved EVERYTHING.

. . . .

@GNCordova @wittier @NYT_JenPreston Perfect timing, Gennette. Only it’s too late. You’re a liar. We’re releasing everything.

. . . .

@Patterico We weren’t ever going to release those but since Gennette has lied mercilessly about Nikki we will be releasing everything. about 1 hour ago via web in reply to Patterico

Late last night, JohnReid9 agreed to allow me to publish those communications. This is the first batch.

I am going to let the information speak for itself. Whether you believe that “JohnReid9” is who he says he is, or some kind of hoaxster, this is news, either way. I caution you not to reach any judgments until you have read everything he sends me, and have looked at his tweet stream from last night, in which he answered several of the questions people have had about his role in this matter.

What follows is the initial batch, which purports to be a set of communications from Gennette to Nikki after the scandal broke. In each case, to see the full screenshot more clearly, you will have to click on the screenshot, and open it in its own screen.

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[Geek Post by Lee Stranahan]

A camera that allows you to focus AFTER you shoot? Click on the part you want to focus on. Go ahead.

This is amazing.

Light field technology captures all the light rays in a scene, which allows photographers to focus a photo after it has been taken. In traditional photography, photographers have had to focus the camera first and then snap. Lytro cameras, the company claims, will be able to be perfectly focus photos after the fact, forever into the future.

Here’s a good video summary.

This official video is kind of dumb but stick with it.

Check about the Lytro here.

Adding – Allah is on this, too – and has some interesting uses for it.

– Lee Stranahan

[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

I am not sure I am going to be able to watch with my wife being sick (it’s not serious, but she is needy and it’s very easy to care more about her than whatever Obama is going to say).  But still, here’s a thread to talk about it on.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

Consider this a follow up to my last post about the accusations against Alcee Hastings.  And of course I am not saying Hastings did in fact sexually harass this woman, just that there is a real question on the subject.

But I wanted to take a moment to clear up a few common misconceptions about sexual harassment.  Mind you, I didn’t see any of the commenters getting this wrong, but I figured for readers generally this might be useful in helping you to understand what is going on, and frankly so you see what I know intuitively.

And let me start with a disclaimer.  Nothing I say here should be taken as legal advice. That’s always true but I want to emphasize it here.  You should bluntly consult with a lawyer before drawing conclusions about what your legal duties are.  And that goes double if you think you can find a clever loophole around any of these rules.

So let’s get into it, a little mini-seminar with Professor Worthing…

First, let me ask you this.  Suppose a white man worked with a black man and the white man constantly insulted the black man in racial terms.  He called him a n—-r, he left nooses on his desk, and so on.  What do you call that conduct?

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[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

Update: Althouse links. Thanks, and keep an eye on her, because she is about to go to a new address–obvious fallout from how Blogger treated her. She highlights a passage from the same article as “[a] lesson in how to say ‘no comment’ with maximum verbosity.” But frankly rereading it, this line from Hastings jumped out at me:

“Quite frankly your source has as much or more information than I do and I would suggest you rely upon them,”

Really? I mean wouldn’t you, Mr. Hastings, know if you actually harassed this woman? Wouldn’t that be something you know that the source didn’t?

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Alcee Hastings is probably most famous for being the sixth federal judge in history to be impeached and removed, having been found guilty by the Senate of accepting a bribe or $150,000.  And with political corruption, is it really a surprised he stands accused of sexual harassment, too?

Hey, Tony Montana, will you explain how this works?

So in my mind it is a cliché for a corrupt politician* to then try to use his power to get sex.  That’s what was so man-bites-dog about the whole Weinergate saga, although for Weiner he seemed to use his position to impress ladies, to entice into consentual sexting. By contrast, Hastings allegedly attempted to use his position to coerce:

A congressional ethics panel is investigating allegations that Florida Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings sexually harassed a member of his staff, according to people familiar with the matter.

The investigation of Mr. Hastings is being conducted by the Office of Congressional Ethics, the House’s independent ethics investigative arm, and it is at a preliminary stage.

It began at least a month ago after Judicial Watch, a conservative group, filed a lawsuit as the legal counsel for Winsome Packer, a staffer on a commission Mr. Hastings headed. She alleged that she had been sexually harassed by the congressman and that he retaliated when she tried to report it.

Read the whole thing.  And indeed, you can read the sexual harassment complaint, here.

My take away from the complaint is this.  First, the plaintiff seems to be a somewhat high-strung person.  I mean by the end of it she is almost having a heart attack from the stress of the whole thing.  It all struck me as a bit “dramatic” but then some people are like that, I suppose.  Still, because she frequently saw the doctor and allegedly told them that it was sexual harassment by Hastings that was stressing her out, there might be a long record of her telling others who have no axe to grind that she was being harassed.  That tends to lend credibility to her claims.

I found paragraphs 43 and 44 particularly damning.  And gosh, Hastings (allegedly) sure likes to hug her, doesn’t he?  Otherwise, as sexual harassment complaints go (in my work I have become kind of a connoisseur of them) what struck me was how ordinary it all was.  If there was ever a template for sexual harrassment, Hastings (allegedly) largely seems to fit into it.

Of course I can’t tell you how many times you get a complaint like this and you think your client is doomed, only to see if fall apart if you breathe too hard on it, so time will tell.  But right after Weinergate, I am not sure Democrats want to talk about another accusation of sexual impropriety.

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* I base my assertion that Hastings is a corrupt politician because of his conviction by the Senate of taking bribes.  I don’t know of any subsequent conduct, I just don’t believe a taint like that goes away.  I consider him corrupt for life.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]