Daily Mail online has published explosive claims about Armstrong Williams, the campaign aide to Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. According to the Daily Mail, Williams was paid thousands of dollars to funnel information about Oprah Winfrey to the tabloid magazine National Enquirer.
Williams was a trusted friend and business partner with Stedman Graham in the Graham-Williams Group. As such, he had unprecedented access to Graham and Oprah Winfrey and their personal life. According to the National Enquirer, Williams gave details on Oprah’s schedule, eating habits and hinted at her sexuality. One unnamed source at the tabloid claims that Oprah ordered two pecan pies while vacationing and ate them by herself during a food binge. According to the former assignment editor, “Our reporter helped the waiter with the delivery. Oprah answered the door. No one else was in the room with her. An hour later she called room service to pick up the empty tins outside her door, which our guy photographed. Of all the stories we did on Oprah and her weight over the years, that one stands out in my mind because of what it told me about the kind of obesity bingeing she did in secret when no one was around.”
In addition, Williams was rumored to be gay and once was sued by his male personal trainer for sexual harassment. The trainer, identified as Stephen Gregory, claimed in court documents that Williams grabbed his buttocks and penis, tried to kiss him as well as climbed into his hotel bed asking for “affection.” The lawsuit was settled out of court and Williams denied paying Gregory any money and has maintained that he is straight. Carson received criticism over his comments that homosexuality is a choice and that “Many people go into prison straight, but come out gay.” Carson also equated gay marriage to pedophilia and bestiality but later apologized for his comments.
For his part, Williams does not deny that he worked for the National Enquirer, stating, “My days of working with the National Enquirer were some of the most enjoyable days of my life. We had an honorable relationship, very professional with a lot of trust on both sides. I have done a lot of things in my life, but I never sold the National Enquirer stories. Yes, I received money from them, but not for selling stories. I worked with them in the ’80s and early ’90s. I have had no relationship with them since the late 1990s.”
