For two years, Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz, R-Utah, defended her husband, Joe, against continual allegations of financial deceit. That ended Tuesday as she filed for divorce.
"I want this man tracked down, arrested and punished for what he has done to me, my family and the people of Utah," she said in a statement announcing the divorce."I can't begin to describe the anger and hurt over the incredible level of deception that we have uncovered in our own investigation of Joe's activities," she said.
That was only one of numerous dramas unfolding as disclosures widened about Joe Waldholtz - who has been missing since Saturday. Others included:
- Joe's family has charged in court that Joe embezzled $600,000 or more from the estate of his aging grandmother. A cousin of Joe also charges in court documents that Joe and his father may have both used the grandmother's assets improperly as collateral on loans.
- Sources say Joe may have taken similar amounts from Enid's family. Press reports say he may also have embezzled $250,000 from a former employer.
- Joe persuaded Aaron Edens, an aide to Enid, to make him a cardholder on Edens' personal American Express card. Joe then charged up more than $45,000 in bills. American Express canceled the card when Edens, who makes $32,000 a year, couldn't cover bills because Joe did not pay him. Edens, however, was eventually reimbursed by Joe.
(Of note, two weeks ago Enid Waldholtz assured the Deseret News that Edens had not been pressured by Joe to let him use that card. When Edens resigned last week, Waldholtz's office said it had nothing to do with such financial irregularities. Now, Enid says the situation was caused by Joe's lies - and Edens decided Wednesday to rescind his resignation and stay with the office.)
- Enid and Joe Waldholtz habitually fell so far behind on rent for their posh Georgetown town home that their landlord had an attorney threaten to evict them to receive payment. A few months later, he had to threaten eviction again.
- When Joe disappeared Saturday, he had driven with Jim Parkinson, a brother-in-law helping investigate financial matters for the Greene family, to Washington's National Airport to supposedly pick up two men from Pitts-burgh who could clarify some financial matters. Joe asked Parkinson to wait by the baggage claim and has not been seen since.
- Just after she filed for divorce Tuesday, Enid Waldholtz had one of her first legislative triumphs. She was present as the Rules Committee passed her bill to ban most gifts by lobbyists to House members, which, ironically, she said is needed to improve the image of Congress.
- With tears in her eyes after that committee meeting, Wald-holtz told the Deseret News reporter in a brief conversation, "I want you to know that I never knowingly lied to you" as he researched earlier stories that helped eventually to publicly disclose the chaotic way Joe managed their finances - but which she initially defended.
- Members of Congress were rallying around Enid. She received a standing ovation at a Republican caucus Tuesday, women members have formed a support group for her and the Rules Committee chairman chased away TV cameras that were a bit too much in the face of Waldholtz.
- Meanwhile, Joe still has not been found - but Enid's attorneys said that his automatic teller machine withdrawals suggest he is working his way toward Canada. Kevin Ohlson, special counsel to the U.S. attorney in Washington, said no warrant has been issued yet, but Justice Department officials seek him for "questions about various financial irregularities."
- Enid Waldholtz once again said she will eventually disclose all she knows but not yet. "Once I know the facts, I will go to Salt Lake City to meet with the people of Utah and the media to answer all the questions that I can about these incredible events."
The divorce
Enid Waldholtz said Tuesday in a brief conversation with the Deseret News that "I had no choice" but to file for divorce. "It was the right thing to do now."
In papers filed in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City, she said Joe "has treated her cruelly to the extent of causing her great mental distress."
She sued for sole custody of their baby daughter, Elizabeth. A statement said she planned to seek restoration of her maiden name, but that request was not included in court papers.
"My first reaction in all this, of course, was to stand behind my husband and defend him," she said in a press release. "I trusted him. I was wrong. My daughter has been abandoned by her father and that is unacceptable."
Grandma's money
Court documents reviewed by the Deseret News in Pittsburgh show that Joe's family alleges that he took $600,000 or more in assets from his grandmother, Rebecca Levinson, 86, who is mentally incapacitated suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Harvey Waldholtz - Joe's father - and Steven Slesinger - a cousin of Joe - were appointed as guardians of Levinson's estate earlier this year.
Court records say that as Harvey Waldholtz and Slesinger reviewed the assets of the estate, they discovered that Levinson in 1986 had transferred "an amount believed to be in excess of $600,000" to Joe to invest on her behalf.
Joe's relatives said in documents that "Joe Waldholtz has failed and refused to supply any information and/or otherwise return the money and investments," and they said they believed Joe had converted the money to his own personal use.
The court issued a subpoena served on Joe at his Washington home on Oct. 10 that ordered him to appear Nov. 12 - two days after he disappeared - to turn over all assets. And by Feb. 1, 1996, he was to show an accounting of all actions on Levinson's behalf.
Slesinger also filed court documents alleging that both Joe and Harvey Waldholtz had used a bank account for Levinson - which Joe controlled - to secure personal loans. It also blamed both Harvey and Joe for failing to communicate about control of assets.
Because of that, Slesinger has asked the court to remove Harvey Waldholtz as co-guardian of Levinson's estate - which he values at $1.75 million.
The Greenes' money
Sources told the Deseret News that investigations by lawyers for Enid Waldholtz had found that Joe may have also taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from her extended family. Parkinson, her brother-in-law, declined comment on behalf of the family.
Former campaign aides said they saw large money transfers coming from the Greene family. Some sources also said the Greenes - including Enid's father, Forrest - had given Joe and Enid loans supposedly guaranteed by the couple's holdings in what was called the Waldholtz Family Trust.
"There is no such thing as the Waldholtz Family Trust," said Joe's father, Dr. Harvey A. Waldholtz.
However, a Pittsburgh phone number listed in Joe's name has a recording machine announcing it is the phone for that trust.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Tuesday that Joe Waldholtz had asked Pittsburgh friend and political consultant Mike O'Connell several weeks ago to leave a false message on that answering machine. Waldholtz told him the recorded message was a practical joke he would explain later.
Joe had also told Enid and her lawyers that representatives of that trust were flying in last Saturday to help answer questions, according to Harvey Waldholtz.
But he said when Parkinson and Joe went to meet them, Joe left Parkinson at the baggage claim area to go look for the men - and has not been seen since. Harvey Waldholtz said, however, he was told that Joe called Enid a couple of times at the airport on a cellular phone saying he was still looking for the men.
In short, there is no trust that would have guaranteed any loans. If a loan was made to the Wald-holtzes for use in Enid's campaign, federal rules would require it to be disclosed on Federal Election Commission forms. The Deseret News could find no such loan reported.
More missing money?
Various press reports Wednesday also said Joe may have taken up to $250,000 from his former employer, Elsie Hillman, a national Republican committeewoman from Pennsylvania who is one of the most wealthy women in the world.
The Hill, a newspaper in Washington that covers Congress, said when it earlier asked Hillman if Waldholtz had left under a cloud, she replied, "Let's just say we had a mutual parting of the ways."
Edens acknowledged Wednesday that Joe pressured him into adding him as a card-holder on Edens' personal American Express card.
Joe then charged up $45,000 in bills. He didn't immediately reimburse Edens - which resulted in Edens losing his card and hurting his credit rating. He said Joe later reimbursed him.
Two weeks ago - for a story about how Joe had used Enid's congressional accounts to send personal Federal Express packages - Enid voluntarily disclosed that congressional accounts had also inadvertently paid for some trips by Joe that she said should have been charged to Edens' American Express card.
When asked then why the Wald-holtzes - who were then said to be millionaires - would charge Joe's trips to an aide's card, she said it had been done at Edens' request so he could earn frequent flier points from the charges.
She issued a statement Wednesday saying that was wrong, that Edens says Joe did pressure him.
She said, "When I confronted Joe about this last week, I found out that - once again - I had been lied to. . . . I will do everything I can to restore Aaron's credit."
When Edens resigned last week, a spokesman for Waldholtz's office said it - and two other resignations by top staffers - had nothing to do with ongoing financial irregularities, and Edens had declined comment.
However, on Wednesday Edens said he has decided not to quit now.
He was quoted in Enid's statement saying, "I feel victimized by what has happened. I trusted Joe as a friend and a co-worker. I realize that trust was misplaced. I have been reimbursed. I want to make it clear that I support Enid."
A tearful Enid also told the Deseret News in a brief conversation Tuesday that she has never knowingly told it lies as reporters researched stories that eventually disclosed many of Joe's financial irregularities.
Unpaid landlord
Mark Fink, lawyer for Richard A. Simon, the Waldholtzes' landlord, told the Deseret News Wednesday that twice since Waldholtz entered Congress they have threatened to evict them from their posh town home in order to receive the $3,800-a-month rent payments.
"Both times they eventually paid," he said. "But we had to push them. I'm not sure if they are paid up now or not."
The Hill newspaper quoted Simon saying he is in danger of losing the house because of late payments and at least three bounced rent checks by the Wald-holtzes.
"One check bounced after another, or they refuse to pay, and Joe keeps coming up with excuses," he said. "The latest is that he wants the roof repaired. Before that it was that the toilet didn't flush. They put me through the wringer."
Triumph amid tragedy
Only minutes after she announced she is divorcing Joe Waldholtz, Enid appeared at a Rules Committee meeting where it passed her proposed ban on gifts from lobbyists to members of Congress.
"The people want to have confidence that the decisions we reach are made without influences they could not have from home," Wald-holtz said in the firm, confident voice she normally has during speeches.
The committee unanimously adopted the bill and sent it to the full House - which is expected to vote on it later this week.
Friends in the House
At the committee meeting, a few too many TV cameras were getting too close to Waldholtz for committee Chairman Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y. He let them take only a few quick shots and then ordered out all TV cameras - but allowed still cameras to stay.
Sources said earlier that day Waldholtz appeared at a Republican caucus where members gave her a standing ovation in support.
Sources also said several Republican women House members have banded together to try to encourage and help Waldholtz. For example, Rep. Susan Molinari, R-N.Y. - who will soon give birth, as Waldholtz recently did - was at her side Wednesday in the Rules Committee (where Molinari does not serve).
However, a new saying is heard frequently now on Capitol Hill. Inspired by the "Where's Waldo?" comics, where children search for the title character hidden among chaotic scenes, they twist the title as they talk about the story to keep asking, "Where's Waldholtz?"