That lawyer has in turn identified a second Dominican lawyer who he said gave the woman a script and paid her to read the claims aloud. The first lawyer said he found out only later that the remarks would be videotaped and used against Menendez, the affidavits say. 
 
 The claims of two women that they had had sex with Menendez seemed to confirm a tipster’s allegations that Menendez had patronized prostitutes while vacationing in the Dominican Republic. The tipster, who last spring began e-mailing allegations to a government watchdog group and the FBI, said he had evidence that Menendez had relations with underage prostitutes and participated in sex parties arranged by Melgen, his friend and political backer. 
 
 FBI agents conducting interviews in the Dominican Republic have found no evidence to back up the tipster’s allegations, according to two people briefed on their work. 
 
 Menendez has denied the prostitution claims, saying they were made by enemies trying to undermine him as he sought reelection in the fall and became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this year. 
 
 Menendez said Monday he didn’t know the details of the two new statements. “But as I’ve said all along, there are obviously some people, some interests using right-wing blogs that have been perpetuating smears about me and I hope that all the truth comes out, because they are nothing but that — smears.” he said. “I’ve always said that these are all false. They’re smears, so I look forward to seeing whatever the Dominican courts have to prove what I’ve said all along.” 
 
 The videotaped claims of two women, made with their faces obscured, were posted on the conservative Web site the Daily Caller. The site reported that “the two women said they met Menendez around Easter at Casa de Campo, an expensive 7,000-acre resort in the Dominican Republic. . . . They claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500 for sex acts, but in the end they each received only $100.” 
 
 Daily Caller Editor Tucker Carlson did not reply to phone calls and e-mails requesting comment. 
 
 Melgen’s lawyer and allies in the Dominican Republic charged Monday that the video “confession” had been fabricated to tarnish Menendez as well as Melgen and his family. Melgen’s lawyer Kirk Ogrosky said his client was gratified to see local police unearthing “this campaign of lies.” 
 
 “Dr. Melgen is hopeful that the appropriate authorities will identify and prosecute the people who are responsible,” Ogrosky said. “As he has maintained from day one, Dr. Melgen has been cooperating with authorities in every way possible and he denies any wrongdoing.” 
 
 The escort, Nexis de los Santos Santana, 23, said in an affidavit she was hired by lawyer Miguel Galvan to do a taped interview with journalists in mid-October. Galvan explained to her that a false account was needed for a divorce case. De los Santos said she was surreptitiously taped implicating Menendez, Melgen and prominent Dominican lawyer Vinicio Castillo Selmán, Melgen’s cousin, in hiring prostitutes. 
 
 “Those are my words and that is me, but it does not reflect the truth,” she said in her affidavit. 
 
 In his statement, Galvan said the other attorney misled him about the purpose of the tape, saying he was working as a divorce lawyer for a client and simply needed someone to confirm infidelity on tape. 
 
 Santana and Galvan are now seeking a protective order and immunity in the court’s investigation. 
 
 Castillo released copies of the notarized affidavits given by Santana and Galvan that have been filed in a Dominican court. Dominican authorities had launched the investigation of the episode at the urging of the Castillo family. 
 
 “We are witnessing a perverse and criminal plot orchestrated by dark sectors of the Dominican Republic,” Castillo said in a statement. 
 
 The judge presiding over the case, Ismael Nehemias Ramirez, has summoned Melgen, Menendez and Castillo or their representatives for a Tuesday hearing on the protective order. 
 
 Menendez’s relationship with Melgen has brought both of them intense scrutiny. Melgen gave $700,000 to Menendez and other Democratic senators in the last election cycle. Menendez has repeatedly sought to help his friend, including efforts on behalf of a port security deal in the Dominican Republic that would benefit Melgen. 
 
 Peter Wallsten, Ed O’Keefe and Alice Crites contributed to this report. 
 
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 The Washington Post tells POLITICO it is standing by its latest report on an escort who had made sexual allegations against Sen. Robert Menendez, including reporter Carol Leonnig's claim that she reached out to the conservative news site The Daily Caller prior to publication of the piece. 
 
 The Daily Caller, which originally posted video of Dominican prostitutes claiming involvement with Sen. Menendez, said today that Leonnig did not reach out prior to publication, and that the escort in question "does not appear to be one of the women we interviewed in 2012." 
 
 "The Washington Post falsely reported a story yesterday claiming our source had recanted her statement, without contacting The Daily Caller for comment before posting," Daily Caller editors wrote in a statement this morning. "In reality, the prostitute in the Post’s story does not appear to be one of the women we interviewed in 2012." 
 
 Leonnig had reported on Monday that "the videotaped claims of two women, made with their faces obscured, were posted on the conservative Web site the Daily Caller," adding that "Daily Caller Editor Tucker Carlson did not reply to phone calls and e-mails requesting comment." 
 
 On Twitter, Carlson said the Post had not reached out and that time stamps show Leonnig emailed him at least 30 minutes after posting her story. 
 
 Asked for a response to these statements, Washington Post spokesperson Kris Coratti referred POLITICO to Leonnig's initial line about reaching out to Carlson. Asked if she stood by that reporting, Coratti replied in the affirmative. 
 
 "We stand by that and our reporting," she said.
– Yesterday saw a Washington Post report that raised fundamental questions about reports that Sen. Robert Menendez was involved with Dominican prostitutes. Now, the Daily Caller, which originally broke the story, says the Post's takedown is full of holes: The paper misidentified an escort at the heart of the case, the Caller holds. According to the Post report, an escort named Nexis de los Santos Santana attested in an affidavit that she was paid by a lawyer to appear in a video claiming she'd been paid by the New Jersey Democrat for sex. In the video, "those are my words and that is me, but it does not reflect the truth," she said, per the affidavit. That lawyer, in turn, says he was misled about how the tape would be used; the two said they believed it was to be used as evidence in a divorce case. The Daily Caller, however, asserts that neither of the women who appeared in its video exposing Menendez were named Nexis de los Santos Santana. The Caller points out other flaws in the Post story; for instance, it reports that de los Santos identified a prominent lawyer in her video confession, but the Caller said no such name was spoken in its video interview. The Post has now hit back, standing by its report and countering the Caller's claims that its reporter didn't reach out to the Caller before publication, reports Politico. Click for more tit-for-tat.