Monday 25 January 2010

Bristol Palin and the custody trial: Interested in confidentiality, or hypocrisy as usual? Part 2 - UPDATE

This is a follow-up to a previous post, "Bristol Palin and the custody trial: Interested in confidentiality, or hypocrisy as usual?".

Our friend Older_Wiser had a closer look at all three pdf documents of Bristol's motion for child support and noticed something curious: the documents received by Riehl and ET Online, with time stamps, were created after the document was filed at 4:03 pm on January 21, 2010.


(Date and time stamps on Riehl and ET Online documents)

The TMZ document was created at 14:49 by "chelsea" on January 21 and modified on the same date at 18:28. It has no time stamp. This information can be obtained by right clicking on the pdf and looking at the document properties.

Therefore, the pdf document that TMZ had posted was created before it was filed with the court more than one hour later on January 21!

properties pdf screenshot

(No time stamp on TMZ document)

How come TMZ were the only recipients of a document without a time stamp, created before the filing? Who had access to this document before it was filed? Who sent it to TMZ? There are a few possibilities.
  1. Thomas Van Flein - All documents contained in the pdf: motion, letter to Rex Butler, Bristol's affidavit and the wishful thinking approval of the motion originated from Van Flein's office, they were all typed by somebody in that office.
  2. The Palins - They could have received a copy for approval before the actual filing.
  3. The Notary Public, Chelsea Greene - Is "chelsea", creator of the document, a random Chelsea who works for TMZ (highly unlikely) or is she Chelsea Greene, the notary public who seems to work closely together with Van Flein ? TMZ's pdf is covered in their watermark, possibly added at 18:28, when the document was altered, according to the properties of the document.
  4. Rex Butler - His office did receive a copy, but it was sent by first class mail, not electronically. We don't know how long it takes for first class mail to be delivered in Anchorage. The TMZ article was posted on January 22, at 8 am (7 am in Alaska). CORRECTION: The article in TMZ was posted already on January 22 at 2.00 am, see the update below!


Two of these people don't appear to have an interest in sending the document to TMZ: Chelsea Greene, who has nothing to gain and lot to lose by doing so, unless she has a close connection to Van Flein's office? Rex Butler, who wouldn't have sent it to people who had been hostile to Levi in previous articles and doesn't appear to have had time to do it, unless Van Flein's office sent another copy by e-mail on the same day the papers were filed. Still, it wouldn't have been in his client's best interests. In addition, Rex hadn't even written a response to Van Flein's motion.

That leaves Thomas Van Flein or somebody from his office and the Palins.

+++

UPDATE:

carriesblank sent us a correction regarding the time TMZ published the document:

Just one correction. TMZ first posted these docs on Jan. 22 somewhere around 2:00 a.m. not 8:00. eastern time. I saw the post about 3:00 am and sent you and Bree the link around 3:30 a.m. The 8:00 that TMZ has on the post now is because they updated the post with Tank Jones comments.

Thank you for the clarification, carriesblank. This information and series of events clearly rules out Rex Butler as a candidate for the leak.
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