MCM: Did you ever contact her again?
LA: No, per my promise, I did not--not even after Mike died, because I'd said I wouldn't.
I conveyed my sympathies through other folks with whom I was in contact, but I did not attempt to contact her in any way
MCM: Did she ever contact you? Or did Mike, for that matter?
LA: On that, I can say only that there was contact, as one might put it with a source, but the details I am not free to discuss. I want to say again, however, that I never contacted Heather Connell's home or emailed her or mailed her anything, or otherwise did anything to justify the misreporting by the Cleveland Scene.
MCM: Speaking of which, what do you make of Renner's claim that the Connells asked their lawyers to file for a restraining order?
LA: I really don't know what to make of it. She elected to meet me on her own, alone, in a park. She talked with me for around an hour. I then went my way and never broke my promise not to contact her again. How that would translate into her then going home and having Mike file a restraining order is beyond me. I think the reporter may have gotten it wrong, or maybe Heather was referring to someone else. I can't believe that she would lie about that.
At the same time, I couldn't get an answer from the Cleveland Scene as to how Renner went about confirming it. The editors would only say that they refused to make corrections or retractions on any point, while Renner, as I said before, was too contemptous of online journalism to discuss that point or any other. So I'm still wondering, did he talk to Connell's lawyers, to see if they ever had such a discussion? I simply find it hard to believe, since her one talk with me was voluntary, and I never tried to contact her again. There simply were no grounds for a restraining order. So I don't know what it means--or why it was reported as it was.
Everyone comes off looking bad in that article: Heather comes off looking unstable and a little crazy--which she certainly is not, at least from what I saw. Cliff Arneback comes off looking like he's chasing aliens, while I've always found him to be a very moderate and restrained attorney. And worst of all is Connell himself. He comes across as someone leading a double life, with no mention of his struggle to come forward. That's not fair. As I told Heather during our meeting, someone can be a good person, go to church and do all the right things, and still end up in a bad situation, surrounded by unethical people. It's not an either/or situation. I don't think he intended to do wrong. I believe he was exploited by others, and came to understand that later, and hoped somehow to set things right.
MCM: Finally, a question about something else that Connell was involved in, according to Stephen Spoonamore: the missing White House emails. Do you think that they're out there somewhere, in backup form?
LA: Yes, I do. And I think that there are others who know where. The question is, how do we get to them, and get them to talk? Mike Connell was apparently our closest link to that essential evidence. Sadly, we have lost much with his death.
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