Hart Withdrawal Tied to Report by Detective of Second Liaison

Gary Hart, reeling from reports that he spent the night with Donna Rice, ended his presidential bid when he learned a detective had evidence linking him to another woman, according to a published report.

Hart’s press secretary, Kevin Sweeney, said he was contacted May 6 by a reporter for the Washington Post who said the paper had obtained a private detective’s report detailing Hart’s whereabouts last Dec. 20, the New York Times reported Sunday.

The detective trailed Hart from his Capitol Hill town house to a woman’s home in downtown Washington, where the former Colorado senator was not seen leaving until the next morning, the newspaper said.

Sweeney said the detective’s report included photographs of Hart entering the woman’s house and leaving the home the next morning.

The New York Times said it could not be learned who the detective was or who hired him, but reported one account that the detective was hired by a former senator who suspected his wife was having an affair with Hart.

Sweeney said Post reporter Paul Taylor confronted him about the report at a New Hampshire hotel May 6, a day Hart was busy fending off questions about a story in the Miami Herald that he had spent the night with Rice in his Washington town house. Hart denied the story.

Sweeney said he was not given a copy of the detective’s report and photographs. But he said the Post had corroborated the detective’s report, confirming the liaison with the woman.

Sweeney said Taylor told him the woman lost her composure when she was confronted with the detective’s report and said she was “devastated” by the disclosures about Hart’s relationship with Rice.

Hart withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on May 8.