AP Digs Up 28 Year Old McCain Lawsuits

From those relentless investigative reporters of the Associated Press:

Old legal feuds divided, linked McCain and ex-wife

By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer

08/16/2008

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—An old lawsuit on record at the city courthouse reveals a moment of friction between John McCain’s mother and his ex-wife. Years later, McCain and his former wife presented a united front in a lawsuit of their own.

McCain, the Republican candidate for president, calls the first lawsuit a mistake and professes no memory of the other. Both legal actions were settled out of court before they went to trial.

Curiously, although the records clearly list the plaintiffs, McCain’s campaign says his mother’s 1980 lawsuit was filed “unintentionally” and that the Arizona senator didn’t know about or authorize the 1990 lawsuit with his ex-wife, Carol. And McCain’s 96-year-old mother, Roberta, says she never sued Carol.

Others involved dispute those assertions.

In the 1980 lawsuit, filed shortly after John and Carol McCain divorced, Roberta sued Carol to reclaim some personal property, including paintings, a needlepoint screen and a pair of earrings. A settlement was reached in 1981.

In a brief telephone interview, Roberta denied filing the lawsuit.

“I have never heard of what you’re talking about. … I will put my hand on a Bible,” she said, to attest that she had never sued Carol.

Roberta’s denial prompted laughter from her former daughter-in-law.

“Yes, she sued me,” Carol said in a brief phone interview…

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said in an e-mail, “Of course, by all accounts the divorce was completely amicable. After John and Carol McCain’s divorce, there was apparently some confusion about belongings that were Roberta McCain’s but we understand the court papers were unintentionally filed, and the matter never went further in the legal system. It went nowhere, and was of no consequence.”

In the 1990 lawsuit, John and Carol McCain jointly sought $1 million in punitive damages after a property management firm mistakenly threw out some McCain family treasures from a garage the McCains shared with an adjacent townhouse. The lost items included letters McCain wrote to his wife as a prisoner of war in Vietnam…

Isn’t this shocking? McCain’s 96 year old mother doesn’t recall some trivial (non) lawsuit from 28 years ago?

Mind you, this was dug up by the same media that did not report on John Edwards and his mistress — while he was running for the Presidency.

But of course they have their priorities.