The New York Times is reporting on a story I discussed a couple of days ago – the mystery surrounding ‘Betty and Veronica’ – with a stunning detail; apparently Mediaite reporter Tommy Christopher was given fake IDs by a woman claiming to be Betty’s mother…in a story that he ran on June 3rd.

One Twitter user the group observed seeking to interact with Mr. Weiner was called “Nikki Reid.” She started an online campaign to get Mr. Weiner to be her prom date at Hollywood High School in May, using the account @starchild111. Within days after Mr. Weiner started following her, a Twitter user, also using a fake name, Marianela Alicea, and pretending to be Nikki Reid’s classmate, contacted a member of the #bornfreecrew and said she had information about Mr. Weiner, but never provided any.

But there is no evidence that either girl exists. There is no Nikki Reid or Marianela Alicea enrolled at Hollywood High School. In response to requests from a reporter from the blog Mediaite, a woman claiming to be Nikki Reid’s mother provided documentation to substantiate her identity and her daughter’s identity. But records show the street address the woman provided does not list anyone named Reid as an occupant. State officials in California have confirmed that the driver’s license this woman provided to Mediaite was false, as well.

A friend on Twitter just told me..

Tommy has some serious explaining to do.. lecturing everyone while writing a story on 2 people who don’t exist (who he said were beyond question)

Hard to argue with that point

The New York Times piece has a fatal flaw; it gives the impression that these apparently fake people were trying to ‘set up’ Weiner. This fails to highlight a huge repercussion of this revelation – Tommy’s piece ran long statements from Betty / Nikki, Veronica / Maria and Betty / Nikki’s mom. These statements including emphatic defenses of Rep. Anthony Weiner. If all of these people are fake, then Tommy ran defenses of Weiner from fake people. Here’s an example from the ‘mom’.

When Rep Weiner followed my daughter the one and only message he sent her was welcoming her to his twitter followers and suggested he go to his website for more information. My husband and I were delighted with this message as it furthered our daughter’s interest in learning about government. We were very grateful to Rep Weiner for this and saw nothing wrong or inappropriate with this message.

This was the one and only message that Rep Weiner sent our daughter. Our daughter sent a message thanking Rep Weiner for following her and thanking him for the welcome message. This was the one and only message our daughter sent to Rep Weiner.

Soon after she was following Rep Weiner, a group of grown men and a few grown woman who described themselves as “concerned mothers” began harassing my daughter. I can assure you, as a mother, I’ve never heard of such disgusting behavior. My daughter, with our permission, responded to these attacks on Rep Weiner following her with grace and maturity – which is something that cannot be said for these “mothers” and their fellow grown men involved in the attack.

These mothers and their grown male friends attacked the intentions and character of Rep Weiner to our daughter and suggested that he was somehow perverse for following her. This disgusted myself and my husband. They were attacking a man, who has done nothing to them and has done nothing wrong.

That is not only pro-Weiner (and as we know now, patently false) but it also claims people in the #BornFree crew were harassing the (apparently fake) Betty and Veronica. But the New York Times piece continues the meme that the #BornFree crew were a bunch of nefarious conservatives out to get Anthony Weiner by any means necessary.

If Tommy Christopher’s sources aren’t real, then the #Bornfree crew are victims, not only of the Imposter but also of the New York Times and Mediaite.

ADDING: Let’s also remember another detail that’s come to light recently – Tommy told me on the phone several days ago that Betty / Veronica were trying to push a story on Tommy that Andrew Breitbart and Dana Loesch were attempting to force Betty / Veronica to lie about Rep. Weiner. Tommy didn’t run with this story, which had outrageous details but he didn’t report on the attempt to discredit Breitbart and Loesch, either.

If Betty / Veronia / Mom were an imposter, this makes this seem even more sinister. Apparently, a person or persons unknown was trying to discredit Breitbart & Loesch. Again, read the New York Times piece and it makes it seem as though Weiner is the intended victim here and makes no mention of the Breitbart / Loesch angle.

One other detail – apparently Tommy DID talk to a woman on the phone. That provides some starting point for uncovering this mystery.

At this point, Tommy REALLY needs to show his work and come clean. Putting the fake IDs up for other people to see would be a good idea, as well.