Al Franken, Lying Liar

A month ago Al Franken claimed ignorance of the transfers. "I didn't know anything about this until late last week," he told Air America listeners on Aug. 8. The network's brass echoed this: Air America CEO Danny Goldberg told the New York Sun this week that the "on-air talent" has "never had any responsibility for this loan." This seemed plausible at the time, since no one expects the talent to be arranging finances, so in our Aug. 3 editorial on the subject we gave Mr. Franken a pass.
Regrettably, it appears we shouldn't have. In light of documents that surfaced last week, it looks to be the case that as of November 2004, and possibly earlier, Mr. Franken knew the amount of money, the money's origins and the dates the transfers occurred. This came to light after a settlement agreement between former and current owners of Air America -- a document which details the Gloria Wise transfers -- was leaked to Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney, who promptly posted the document on their Web sites. The document shows that Mr. Franken signed off on the settlement, and did so in the presence of a notary public, no less.

Read the rest of the sordid tale here.