C Street

Watch: Maddow On C Street

Zachary Roth | November 18, 2009, 9:30AM

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow picked up our report -- with credit -- on the C Street house losing its tax exempt status last night.

She tied residents of the Christian house to the effort to stop health-care reform, and interviewed Jeff Sharlet, the author of a book on the shadowy religious group that owns the house.

Read more »

C Street

Christian News Show Poses The Real Question On C St.: How Many Affairs Has It Thwarted?

Zachary Roth | August 14, 2009, 1:33PM

Here's some summer Friday fun.

The right-wing Christian Broadcasting Network does damage control for C Street, explaining that the real question isn't, how many affairs were covered up, but rather, "how many affairs were thwarted."

Read more »

Sex

Abstinence-Supporting GOP State Lawmaker Admits To Sex With 22-Year-Old Intern

Zachary Roth | July 23, 2009, 4:19PM

Paging Keith Olbermann. You can call off the search...we've found your Worst Person in the World for tonight.

Meet Tennessee state senator Paul Stanley. He's a solid conservative Republican and married father of two, who according to his website is "a member of Christ United Methodist Church, where he serves as a Sunday school teacher and board member of their day school." (Check out the religious imagery on the site -- the sun poking through clouds, as if manifesting God's presence -- which of course shows Stanley's deeply pious nature.)

Read more »

C Street

Sign Of The Times: Lawmaker Won't Say Whether He Lives At C Street

Zachary Roth | July 23, 2009, 11:33AM

These are tough times for C St.

The usually low-profile Capitol Hill-based Christian dorm and bible study group has been at the center of a media frenzy after three separate Republicans with ties to C St admitted to extra-marital affairs in recent weeks. And now, things have gotten so bad that one Christian lawmaker is treating the issue like a state secret, refusing even to say whether he lives there.

Read more »

C Street

Suit: Pickering Chose Mistress Over Senate Seat

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2009, 6:48PM

Former Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS) and erstwhile C Street resident turned down Trent Lott's old Senate seat so he could be with his mistress, according to the lawsuit filed by his estranged wife this week.

The suit alleges that when Trent Lott resigned in 2007, Gov. Haley Barbour offered Rep. Pickering the seat. But the congressman turned it down after his girlfriend, Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd, "insisted" that their relationship could not continue if he accepted the seat, as he would have to stay married for public appearances. She allegedly gave him an ultimatum, and he chose her.

A spokesman for Barbour told Muckraker that he never offered Pickering the seat.

Shortly afterward, the suit says, Pickering moved out of his home. He filed for divorce in 2008, but that case is sealed.

Other gems from the suit, which Leisha Pickering filed against Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection:

Creekmore-Byrd is allegedly on the board of Telepak, her family's Internet company, which employs the lobbyist organization Capitol Resources. Pickering claims the mistress got her husband a job with the lobbyists. (A visit to the company's web site shows he does work in their Mississippi office.)

The suit alleges that Creekmore-Byrd aimed "to entice and tortuously interfere" with the Pickerings' marriage, with the help of seven unnamed defendants. It also says the alleged mistress's actions would "evoke outrage and disgust in civilized society."

Pickering alleges that Creekmore-Byrd showed up at a family ski vacation intending to cause a marriage-ending rift.

Leisha Pickering apparently gleaned this information from her husband's journals and other documents, which a judge ordered returned to Rep. Pickering. The judge also apparently forbade Mrs. Pickering and her lawyers from discussing what was in the documents.

You can take a look at the lawsuit here.

C Street

Another C Street Vet Falls To An Extramarital Affair

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2009, 5:05PM

Former Congressman and C Street resident Chip Pickering's estranged wife has filed a lawsuit against Pickering's alleged mistress. Leisha Pickering is suing Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection.

Rep. Pickering, a Republican from Mississippi, allegedly continued seeing his college sweetheart while they were both married. According to the suit, some of the "wrongful conduct" occurred at the C Street facility for Christian congressmen -- the same one where Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) have lived, and where Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has recently sought counseling.

What's with this place?

The suit alleges Pickering and Creekmore-Byrd are still together. Perhaps they're soul mates?

The complaint, filed Tuesday in Hinds County Circuit Court in Mississippi, is 28 14 pages long, plus evidence, so we'll be posting more if we find anything particularly juicy.

Late Update: The suit says Rep. Pickering and Creekmore-Byrd rekindled their relationship while he was a congressman, before and while living at the C-Street facility. The relationship was "completely unknown" by Leisha Pickering, as it occurred in Washington on weekdays, and the congressman would return home to his wife and five children only on weekends.

Later Update: The suit also alleges Pickering declined Trent Lott's Senate seat and instead quit Congress altogether when his mistress gave him an ultimatum. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour denies he offered Pickering the seat.