Friday, January 8, 1999
FLYNT DOING CARVILLE’S BIDDING, SAYS DAUGHTER
From today’s Washington Times:
Flynt's daughter says Carville is behind her father's bounty hunt
-- By John Godfrey
Pornographer Larry Flynt's daughter charged Thursday that her father is being used by presidential adviser James Carville in a bounty hunt for embarrassing sexual information about politicians critical of President Clinton.
Tonya Flynt-Vega offered no specifics during a press conference at the National Press Club, saying she is holding that information as protection against murder threats her father has made to her.
Both Mr. Carville and Mr. Flynt denied all the allegations. But Republican National Committee spokesman Cliff May seconded Mrs. Flynt-Vega's charges.
"There's no question that Clinton has Larry Flynt working for him," Mr. May said Wednesday on MSNBC. "He has private eyes working for him. He has James Carville working for him."
Mr. Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine and a supporter of the president, is planning a news conference Monday to reveal sexual secrets about Mr. Clinton's political opponents.
With an offer of up to $1 million to anyone who will admit to a sexual affair with a member of Congress or other high official, Mr. Flynt says he wants to prove that lawmakers are being hypocritical in their prosecution of Mr. Clinton.
Mr. Flynt said in a television interview this week that he hopes to "make some money" and has had a lot of laughs, but is "serious as a heartbeat about what I'm doing."
Mrs. Flynt-Vega insists, however, that "my father is being used as a journalistic front for this sleaze" and that Mr. Carville is behind the effort.
"Mr. Carville is connected," she said, but she wouldn't say how. She said Mr. Carville has been a friend of Mr. Flynt's since appearing in the movie "The People vs. Larry Flynt," which dramatized the publisher's 1977 obscenity trial in Cincinnati. Asked how she is familiar with the relations of a father from whom she has been estranged, Mrs. Flynt-Vega said, "I know." Mr. Carville and Mr. Flynt both said the claims are bizarre.
"That's ludicrous," said Mr. Flynt through his spokeswoman. "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard," Mr. Carville responded. "Did she have any evidence? What can I say?" asked Mr. Carville, who "absolutely, positively" denied the accusation, adding that he has only spoken with Mr. Flynt once since making the film and that was only after meeting him accidentally at a restaurant.
Mrs. Flynt-Vega recently published the book "Hustled," an autobiographical book critical of her father, She has made a number of radio and television talk-show appearances since her father promised to make public the dalliances of at least a dozen public officials.
Mrs. Flynt-Vega, 33, said she held her press conference Thursday to point out her father's hypocrisy in "outing" adulterous lawmakers. She called her father "sick," said that he abused her as a child, and charged that Mr. Flynt raped a woman who danced at a nightclub he owned in the 1970s. Sharon Franks Dunbar, 51, of Gaithersburg, Md., said she was raped at gunpoint by Mr. Flynt and one of his employees in 1971. She contacted Mrs. Flynt-Vega earlier this week after hearing her on a radio call-in show. Mr. Flynt's spokeswoman said the rape charge is also ridiculous. "This is a heinous accusation," Mr. Flynt said in response to the charges that he abused Mrs. Flynt-Vega.
Mr. Flynt said he barely knows his daughter. "I spent about 30 days with her in her entire life and almost all those days were after she turned 18," he said.
"I know my father, I know what he is up to," she said. Mrs. Flynt-Vega insisted she could substantiate her claims, including the charge that Mr. Carville had supplied or might have supplied her father with more than 900 secret FBI files on politicians. While conceding that the latter would be illegal, she said she had not turned over the evidence to law enforcement agencies because she needed to be "protected" from Mr. Flynt.
Asked how turning over evidence could jeopardize her safety, Mrs. Flynt-Vega said explaining that would also put her at risk.