My experience with Anita Busch was one that came from the heart in my initial contact, and again that was what I feel. It was a little disconcerting that she had forgotten all of the support I tried to give her, and the advice to try and keep her safe. No, I did not believe all of what I was hearing and apparently was wrong as to my thinking the L.A.P.D. was not involved (now we know Sgt. Arneson was!).
On the day that Ms. Busch gave her testimony she made statements as to her being “used” by two people who were to do a book with her. Well, I sat next to one of these guys in court for almost a week and I have to say he seemed like a complete gentleman to me. He introduced himself to me as a friend of Tom Lange (retired LAPD detective on the O.J. Simpson case) and that he had written Tom’s book. We spoke and even laughed at times through this trial. I knew him as “Dan,” I never put the name “Moldea” to this big powerful man that I had enjoyed speaking to for almost a week!
I received an e-mail from Mr. Dan Moldea this morning telling me what he thought of the comments I had received from John Connolly. I have a very large man who is angry with me, I recalled the first time I shook his hand and I may have even said, “wow, you could squeeze grapefruits.” A firm handshake — not one of intimidation, but strong!
When I said that John Connolly told me that the problem was that “Moldea was hitting on her,” I never gave it a thought, Anita is an attractive young woman. Also when John Connolly told me that “Moldea” wanted to use “code names,” that too, did not seem like a big deal based on who they were dealing with. Also the comments were not my allegations, they were comments that John Connolly had given to me over the phone.
Having met Dan and now putting the name with the face, and based on my experiences with Anita Busch and John Connolly, I have to give Dan’s comments as much thought and respect as the others’. And if I did anything to upset Mr. Moldea, I apologize; however, the comments that John Connolly made about “Moldea” did not seem then and do not seem to me now to be terrible in the way they were said. The following is a copy of Dan Moldea’s e-mail to me in its entirety:
Dear John:
I’m the one you said in your story was “some guy named Moldea”
John Connolly is being less than truthful when he told you that I was the reason for the breakup of our partnership. The simple fact is that John, while under contract with Anita and me, intentionally concealed the fact that he had made a separate deal with Vanity Fair to write an article about Pellicano. We were caught completely flat-flatfooted by this news. It was an unadulterated act of betrayal by John, whom we had treated as a close friend. In the end, Anita and I rewarded John’s treachery by forcing him off our team in January 2004.
Please ask John about all this. If he denies it, I’ll be happy to supply you with the documentation, as well as correspondence from John, lauding me and my work. (In addition, I don’t know what John is talking about when he claims that I “wanted to use code names.”)
Next, for my response to Anita’s testimony, please go to this link: http://www.moldea.com/Busch-response.html.
Also, please note that her very friendly postcard to me was sent seven months after the last time I saw her. Do you interpret her words as evidence that she was upset with me or that I had behaved inappropriately towards her? In fact, I was always a gentleman with her, as well as a loyal friend and colleague–just as I always was to Connolly until he double-crossed us.
And I resent like hell that you would publish this garbage without asking for my comment, especially since you and I have met, sat together at the trial, and then exchanged emails.
John, I’d like you to retract all of the allegations you made against me–because all of them are false and unfair.
Sincerely,
Dan E. Moldea