Letterman, the "Master Manipulator"—Does Dave Want His Apology Erased?

Trying to turn the tables, the attorney for Letterman's alleged extortionist takes to the air and calls the host a master manipulator

By Josh Grossberg Oct 05, 2009 5:08 PMTags

Is David Letterman a master manipulator?

That's the word from the lawyer for accused blackmailer Robert "Joe" Halderman, who made the rounds on the talk-show circuit this morning.

"I look forward to cross-examining David Letterman," Halderman's legal eagle, Gerald Shargel, told Today. "If you only hear David Letterman's side of the story, take it at face value, and say, 'Turn off the sets, that Halderman's guilty'—I think that's plain wrong."

Spinning on behalf of his client, who pleaded innocent Friday to charges of grand larceny, Shargel said the Emmy-winning 48 Hours Mystery producer had an excellent reputation in the industry and that allegations that he tried to cash a bogus $2 million check from Letterman to pay off some debts made "absolutely no sense."

"In the history of extortion attempts, there's never been, as far as I know, someone paying by check," the attorney said.

Despite being given a platform by Today to explain Halderman's take on events, Shargel declined to do so. Though he did suggest that the prosecution's key evidence—a taped conversation between the television journalist and Letterman's attorney—was taken out of context.

Instead, the attorney focused on Letterman's attempts to "get out ahead of the story" with his public mea culpa.

"He's a master at manipulating audiences, that's what he does for a living," said Shargel. "So to think that David Letterman gave the entire story, and there's nothing more to be said, it's simply wrong."

Ironically, Letterman himself is giving some credence to this theory. He and his cronies at Worldwide Pants have reportedly asked CBS to try to wipe the funnyman's embarrassing revelations from YouTube and other websites.

Per the New York Times, several clips of his Late Show confession were erased from YouTube over the weekend. CBS, which typically posts the best Letterman bits on its Late Show site and the net's YouTube channel, has shied away from putting up Thursday's 10-minute segment in which Letterman called himself "creepy" for having "sex with women who work for me" while explaining the supposed plot against him. (An edited version of the mea culpa is available on CBS News' site, however.)

Neither CBS nor World Wide Pants would comment.

(Trying to keep embarrassing stuff off the Web? Let us know how that works out for you, Dave.)

It's worth nothing, however, that archival clips featuring Stephanie Birkitt—the employee at the center of the sex scandal—when she did bit appearances on The Late Show remain online and have been viewed more than 600,000 times. Birkitt also dated Halderman from 2005 to 2009.

(Originally published Oct. 5, 2009, at 8:55 a.m. PT)

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See what Letterman's old rival, Jay Leno, is saying about the scandal here.