The website of the prominent South Carolina blogger who claims he had an “inappropriate physical relationship” with gubernatorial front-runner Nikki Haley is claiming in a new post that there are five years worth of emails, voicemails, and text messages between the two — though the site, FITSNews, isn’t saying much about what the correspondence reveals.
The blogger, Will Folks, claimed Monday he had the relationship with Haley several years ago, while she was married. Haley, a Republican state representative who has garnered national support for her campaign, promptly and “categorically” denied Folks’ claim.
Here’s what the new post on FITSNews — written with no byline — claims about the text messages: “All we can tell you for now is that the record of correspondence between the two of them began on November 20, 2005 – with an email sent at 8:33 a.m. from Haley’s State House email address (haleyn@scstatehouse.net) to Will Folks’ personal address (willfolks@hotmail.com) in which Haley complimented Folks on an article he had written praising her gubernatorial ambitions.”
It continues: “That four-and-a-half year record of correspondence ended on Saturday, May 22, 2010 – three days ago – with a text message sent from Folks’ cell phone to Haley’s cell phone at 1:04 p.m. alerting her to the fact that he had been placed in a position where he felt that he had no choice but to address the rumors regarding their relationship on his website.”
The site claims “a lot” happened in the period between those two dates, and that Haley “even refers to herself as the ‘Texting Queen,’ a reference to her favorite band, Abba.”
Now, remember Folks said in his post Monday that “I will not be discussing the details of that relationship, nor will I be granting any additional interviews about it to members of the media beyond what I have already been compelled to confirm.” So if he is in fact the source for (or the author of) the new FITSNews story, he appears to be willing to discuss the relationship.
In another wrinkle, as first reported by Ben Smith, it has emerged that Folks’ consulting company was paid over $1,000 by Haley’s state senate campaign in 2008. Folks told the AP, in an interview conducted before his original blog post was published, that the relationship took place in 2007 when he was doing communications work for the campaign.
