NEW GAY CLAIMS ABOUT TOILET SENATOR

Eight men have come forward claiming to have had sex with conservative US Senator Larry Craig or to have been the targets of his sexual advances.

Craig pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct in August after he was arrested for soliciting sex from a plainclothes police officer at a Minneapolis airport toilet.

The married Republican politician later attempted unsuccessfully to withdraw his plea and insisted that he was not gay.

In October, David Phillips came forward with claims that he had sex with Craig in 1987 after meeting him at a Washington DC gay bar.

Now the Idaho Statesman newspaper says that eight other men have come forward also claiming to have had some kinds of gay encounter with the senator, known for his homophobic political stance.

One of the men is an escort who says that he was paid $200 by Craig for sex. Four of the men were prepared to be identified, while four others chose to remain anonymous.

While the newspaper said that it had no hard evidence to back up the claims, it had investigated a number of the men’s reports and said it not been able to disprove their accounts.

In statement, Craig said that the article was “completely false.” He added that, “Despite the fact the Idaho Statesman has decided to pursue its own agenda and print these falsehoods without any facts to back them up, I won’t let this paper’s attempt to malign my name stop me from continuing my work to serve the people of Idaho.”