Melodee Hanes, Baucus’ former state director and now his live-in girlfriend, reportedly met at least twice with the Montana Democrat’s divorce attorney to talk about the Baucuses’ divorce eight months before the senator and his wife separated.
FoxNews.com
December 11, 2009
The last person to know that Sen. Max Baucus wanted a divorce may have been his wife of 25 years.
It appears that Wanda Baucus was in the dark even as a member of Baucus’ staff — Melodee Hanes, the woman who is now his live-in girlfriend — was plotting out the senator’s life without a wife.
Hanes, Baucus’ former state director, reportedly met at least twice with the Montana Democrat’s divorce attorney eight months before the senator and his wife separated.
That revelation, reported by Lee Newspapers on Thursday, adds a twist of intrigue to a story that broke last week when Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, acknowledged to Mainjustice.com that he was in a relationship with Hanes when he nominated her for U.S. attorney.
Baucus has been on the defensive ever since as details have emerged, including a Politico report Friday that Baucus gave Hanes a $14,000 raise last year and took her on a government-funded trip to Asia and the Middle East.
Hanes withdrew her nomination in March and now works at the Justice Department; she and Baucus, both divorced, now live together in Washington.
In the summer of 2007, Hanes met with Baucus’ attorney, Ron Waterman, who worked on the senator’s April 2009 divorce, according to billing documents obtained by Lee Newspapers.
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