Just days before coming forward with allegations of a 13-year affair with Herman Cain, Ginger White was repeatedly having contact with the presidential candidate, according to her cellphone records.
Between Oct. 22 and Nov. 18, there were 70 text messages between White’s cellphone and Cain’s cellphone. Some were as early as 4:54 a.m., and some came late into the night.
Lin Wood, Cain’s attorney, told the AJC on Wednesday that he thinks most of the messages were asking for money, which Cain has admitted to providing the Dunwoody woman who has repeatedly faced eviction. Cain has denied a physical relationship with White.
“Maintain common sense,” Wood said in an interview. “Mr. Cain was extremely busy in his campaign. He didn’t have time to send a lot of texts.”
A review of the records by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows Cain sent 17 text messages to White, almost always responding to messages from her.
On Wednesday, Wood sent a letter to White’s attorney, Edward Buckley, asking for her phone records to “test her credibility and motive” for coming forward to the media. Wood, in the letter, said he wanted to “ascertain whether the decision to grant interviews was politically motivated and to determine whether she has received or [been] promised money for participating.”
White, 46, first disclosed her relationship with Cain on Tuesday in an interview with Fox 5 Atlanta, where she produced months of phone records detailing 60 calls and text messages between her and Cain. White has given two more television interviews this week talking about the alleged affair, the latest coming Wednesday on national television. During an interview on “Good Morning America,” White said she knew Cain, 65, was married. She claims the retired McDonough executive lavished her with gifts and flew her around the country to meet him at places where he was speaking, or on one occasion, to Las Vegas to watch a Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield boxing match. Cain denies that trip happened.
White’s attorney, Buckley, said his client had nothing to gain from revealing the alleged relationship and came forward only because a former friend was pitching the story to the media. He said White did not seek money to keep the relationship secret and wants only to tell her story on her terms.
“I can’t imagine waking up and deciding to come out with this if this was not true,” White said in the “Good Morning America” interview. “This has been a very difficult situation for myself, for my family. It is nothing I am proud of. The truth of the matter is, when I entered into this inappropriate relationship with Mr. Cain, I was single. I was not married. Mr. Cain has been married throughout the entire relationship and it is unfortunate.”
Critics of White, including Cain supporters, said they think money is at the root of her allegations. Both White and Cain acknowledged that Cain has helped her financially, but White said in the GMA interview the relationship was not “sex for cash.”
White’s cash flow problems have followed her for years. In 2001, she filed for bankruptcy, and she has been sued numerous times for allegedly failing to pay rent, including nine times this year, most of them by Ashford Park Apartments in Dunwoody.
“She’d come up with the rent and they’d dismiss their claim,” Buckley said.
Cain has said White is “troubled.”
Wood, who has made a name for himself filing defamation and libel suits, said he and Cain are frustrated by the accusations. “There’s no way to effectively defend yourself in the court of public opinion,” Wood said. “It boils down to a he-said, she-said.”
White said she was disappointed that Cain has now labeled her as “troubled.” She said only Cain can decide if he should continue to seek the presidency in light of their relationship becoming public.
“That is something that he has to look himself in the mirror and ask himself,” White said. “Last night, I slept very well telling the truth. I am not sure what is going on in his head right now, but it is unfortunate that any of this is going on.”
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