Released audio of Senatory Larry's interrogation

We can’t say, let’s go to the tape and ask you to watch video. But we can suggest that you may want to listen to the tape-recording, just post the restroom arrest, of Senator Larry Craig, Republican of Idaho, that has now been broadcast (repeatedly) in the last few hours on several cable television and news networks. That way you can hear him in his own voice in the immediate moments following his arrest.
Audio: Larry Craig’s Arrest (mp3, The Minneapolis Airport Police, via MSNBC.com)
The opportunity to hear Mr. Craig’s voice occurs because the police department has released the audio version of its interrogation, so to speak, of the senator just after he was arrested by an undercover officer in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on June 11. This encounter led to Mr. Craig’s decision to plead guilty, not to the original charge of lewd conduct, but to a less serious charge of disorderly conduct that allowed him to pay a $500 fine and avoid a possible 10-day jail sentence that was stayed pending a clean one-year probationary period.
In a news conference this week, Senator Craig called his decision to enter the plea a “lapse in judgment” made in the hopes of making it all go away. He did so — astonishingly — without a lawyer’s counsel, he said in Boise, once the incident became publicized. Roll Call earlier this week first reported the formal guilty plea and outcome that was recorded on Aug. 8.
The audio-recording details how the officer was hanging out inside a stall, patrolling, not trolling, because this particular restroom, he said, had been the site of illicit sex in a place, the department and others reminded, where the public, with children, tend to, um, go.
You can hear, if you want to listen, Senator Craig arguing with the police officer about his hand and foot gestures. You can hear Senator Craig arguing as to whether this entire scene involved entrapment. This could be a critical point, now that the senator has retained a lawyer to review his plea agreement and the circumstances of his arrest.
Right now, the audio tape is being played over and over on television, in some cases alongside his mug shots from the side and frontal views. And it plays right into pressure — sustained pressure — from Republican leaders calling or nearly calling for Mr. Craig to resign his Senate seat. (The link is to our earlier post, Idaho Guv: The Bell Has Rung on Craig.)
For one, the Republican minority leaders in the Senate and House do not need another scandal akin to last year’s Mark Foley page scandal as they go into a difficult re-election cycle. Given Iraq and other issues, defending 22 Senate seats will be tough enough. (We asked the spokesman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for additional comment other than his remarks that the conduct was “unforgivable” and required an ethics investigation, but were told the senator had nothing more to say right now.)
Second, Mr. Craig faces a lot of upset on the home front in his native state of Idaho, where the leading newspaper is calling for him to resign.
So, if you don’t want to listen, or don’t turn on the television, here are a few snippets from that police interview, where the senator was read his Miranda rights but continued to talk.
He acknowledged that his foot might’ve bumped up against the officer’s in the next stall, but then there’s this whole issue of which hand ran along the divider of the stalls.
Larry Craig: What about my hand?
Sgt. Dave Karsnia: Well, you’re not being truthful with me, I’m kinda disappointed in you Senator. I’m real disappointed in you right now. Okay. I’m not, just so you know, just like everybody, 1,1,1, treat with dignity, I try to pull them away from the situation
Sgt. Karsina: Okay. Was your was your palm down or up when you were doing that?
Mr. Craig: I don’t recall.
Sgt. Karsina: Okay. I recall your palm being up. Okay.Mr. Craig: All right.
Sgt. Karsina: When you pick up a piece of paper off the ground, your palm would be down, when you pick something up.
Mr. Craig: Yeah, probably would be. I recall picking the paper up.
Sgt. Karsina: And I know it’s hard to describe here on tape but actually what I saw was your fingers come underneath the stalls, you’re actually ta touching the bottom of the stall divider.
Mr. Craig: I don’t recall that.
Sgt. Karsina: You don’t recall
Mr. Craig: I don’t believe I did that. I don’t.
Sgt. Karsina: I saw, I saw
Mr. Craig: I don’t do those things.
Sgt. Karsina: I saw your left hand and I could see the gold wedding ring when it when it went across. I could see that. On your left hand, I could see that. LC: Wait a moment, my left hand was over here.
Sgt. Karsina: I saw there’s a…
Mr. Craig: My right hand was next to you.
Sgt. Karsina: I could tell it with my ah, I could tell it was your left hand because your thumb was positioned in a faceward motion. Your thumb was on this side, not on this side.
Mr. Craig: Well, we can dispute that. I’m not going to fight you in court and I, I reached down with my right hand to pick up the paper.
Sgt. Karsina: But I’m telling you that I could see that so I know that’s your left hand. Also I could see a gold ring on this finger, so that’s obvious it was the left hand.
Mr. Craig: Yeah, okay. My left hand was in the direct opposite of the stall from you.
Sgt. Karsina: Okay. You, you travel through here frequently correct?
Mr. Craig: I do.
Sgt. Karsina: Um.Mr. Craig: Almost weekly.
Sgt. Karsina: Have you been successful in these bathrooms here before?
Sgt. Karsina: I am trained in this and I know what I am doing. And I say you put your hand under there and you’re going to sit there and…
Mr. Craig: I admit I put my hand down.Sgt. Karsina: You put your hand and rubbed it on the bottom of the stall with your left hand.
Mr. Craig: No. Wait a moment.
Sgt. Karsina: And I, I’m not dumb, you can say I don’t recall…Mr. Craig: If I had turned sideways, that was the only way I could get my left hand over there.
Sgt. Karsina: it’s not that hard for me to reach. (inaudible) it’s not that hard. I see it happen everyday out here now.
Mr. Craig: (inaudible) you do. All right.
Sgt. Karsina: I just, I just, I guess, I guess I’m gonna say I’m just disappointed in you sir. I’m just really am. I expect this from the guy that we get out of the hood. I mean, people vote for you.
Mr. Craig: I’m a respectable person and I don’t do these kinds of…Sgt. Karsina: And (inaudible) respect right now though
Mr. Craig: But I didn’t use my left hand.
Sgt. Karsina: I thought that you…
Mr. Craig: I reached down with my right hand like this to pick up a piece of paper.
Sgt. Karsina: Was your gold ring on your right hand at anytime today.
Mr. Craig: Of course not, try to get it off, look at it.
Sgt. Karsina: Okay. Then it was your left hand, I saw it with my own eyes.
Mr. Craig: All right, you saw something that didn’t happen.