The Nation : Bakker OKd Hahn Payoff, Ex-Aide Says

Jim Bakker authorized the $265,000 payoff in PTL funds to Jessica Hahn to keep her quiet about their sexual tryst, Bakker’s former top executive testified in court. Richard Dortch, former PTL executive vice president, told U.S. District Court jurors at Bakker’s fraud and conspiracy trial in Charlotte, N.C., that he told Bakker about calls from Hahn threatening a lawsuit over a 1980 sexual encounter she had had with Bakker in a Florida hotel room. Dortch, who pleaded guilty in August to four fraud and conspiracy counts in a plea-bargain exchange for his testimony against Bakker, said the television evangelist told him: “ ‘I have not raped anyone or assaulted anyone, but there is a problem. . . . Do what you have to do to get it solved.’ ” Dortch also testified that Bakker oversold PTL lifetime partnerships, then did not build lodging as promised.