Maureen O’Connor | Gawker
Rep. Christopher Lee is a married Republican congressman serving the 26th District of New York. But when he trolls Craigslist’s “Women Seeking Men” forum, he’s Christopher Lee, “divorced” “lobbyist” and “fit fun classy guy.” One object of his flirtation told us her story.
On the morning of Friday, January 14, a single 34-year-old woman put an ad in the “Women for Men” section of Craigslist personals. “Will someone prove to me not all CL men look like toads?” she asked, inviting “financially & emotionally secure” men to reply.
That afternoon, a man named Christopher Lee replied. He used a Gmail account that Rep. Christopher Lee has since confirmed to be his own. (It’s the same Gmail account that was associated with Lee’s personal Facebook account, which the Congressman deleted when we started asking questions.)
By email, Lee identified himself as a 39-year-old divorced lobbyist and sent a PG picture to the woman from the ad. (In fact, Lee is married and has one son with his wife. He’s also 46.)
To: [redacted]@yahoo.com
From: Christopher Lee
Date: Friday, January 14, 2011, 2:41 PM
Subject: Will Someone Prove To Me Not All CL Men Look Like Toads – 34 (DMV)
Hi,
Hope I’m not a toad. 🙂 i’m a very fit fun classy guy. Live in Cap Hill area. 6ft 190lbs blond/blue. 39.. Lobbyist. I promise not to disappoint.
Lee’s Craigslist correspondent–a government employee from Maryland who asked not to be identified–liked what she saw. She replied flirtatiously. He replied with a PG-13 muscle picture
To: Christopher Lee
From: [redacted]@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, January 14, 2011 9:57PM
Are you sure that’s not a photo from a Jcpenney ad?
To: [redacted]@yahoo.com
From: Christopher Lee
Lol…no…Here.. I just took one..i’m relaxing at home.
By modern day standards, the conversation was relatively banal: No prostitutes, escorts, or madams were involved. Just good old fashioned lying and an apparent willingness to cheat on one’s wife:
From: [redacted]@yahoo.com
To: Christopher Lee
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:33:27 -0800 (PST)
Thanks…so do you always send shirtless pics to women from cl?
From: Christopher Lee
To: [redacted]@yahoo.com
Sent: Sat, Jan 15, 2011 3:34:27 AM
Sorry. Its all I had
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
From: [redacted]@yahoo.com
To: Christopher Lee
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:36:58 -0800 (PST)
I was only joking
From: Christopher Lee
To: [redacted]@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, Jan 15, 2011 3:37:52 AM
So when was your lasat date. And how did it go
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
From: [redacted]@yahoo.com
To: Christopher Lee
Date: Friday, January 14, 2011 10:40 PM
A few weeks ago with a coworker’s cousin..and it didn’t go . I wanted to leave after 10 min…yours?
From: Christopher Lee
To: [redacted]@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, Jan 15, 2011 3:41:30 AM
Lol. last Monday.. She was not as advertised. Lol.. how do people think you aren’t going to figure it out once you see them in person. J
From: [redacted]@yahoo.com
To: Christopher Lee
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 10:44 PM
They’re hoping you’ll let it slide.
Are you divorced?
From: Christopher Lee
To: [redacted]@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, January 14, 2011, 10:45 PM
Yes.. one child.. You?
The woman says she cut off contact when she searched for Lee online and concluded he’d lied about his age and occupation. Then she forwarded us the correspondence.
Yesterday, we reached out to Rep. Lee, whose support for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and vote to reject federal abortion funding suggests a certain comfort with publicly scrutinizing others’ sex lives.
A spokesman for the Congressman confirmed that the email address belonged to Lee, and that he had deleted his Facebook account because our initial inquiry had him fretting about “privacy.” (A screenshot of his account before it vanished is at right.)
So did the married Republican prowl Craiglist looking for hook ups? After first telling us that he couldn’t comment until we forwarded every single email in question, a request we refused–shouldn’t Lee know if he’s corresponded with women on Craigslist?–Lee’s spokesman eventually announced that the Congressman believed he’d been hacked, and provided an email he claims Lee sent to his staff about the security breach on January 21.
That could, theoretically, be true. But the evidence suggests otherwise. The emails were sent more than a week before the alleged hack. The shirtless photo–which, according to metadata contained in the picture, was taken in Washington, D.C.–was taken with a Blackberry, the same mobile device that Lee uses, which means the hacker would have also accessed the photos on Lee’s phone. (And he’d still be the kind of guy who takes cellphone pictures of himself topless.) Finally, if someone had hacked into his account and was seeking to discredit the politician, why shoot in the dark with such relatively benign emails to a totally random middle-aged woman on Craigslist, who didn’t seem motivated one way or the other to us, beyond wanting to share a funny story? And funny it is.
“The Congressman is happily married,” said Lee’s spokesman when pressed for answers to our questions. “The only time he or his wife posted something online was to sell old furniture when they changed the apartment they keep in DC.”
Update:
Christopher Lee responds to the controversy: “I have to work this out with my wife.”
Contact the author of this post at maureen@gawker.com.
The original version of the story appears here: http://gawker.com/#!5755071/married-gop-congressman-sent-sexy-pictures-to-craigslist-babe
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