Splash for Cash: Mystery Internship Plagues Pryor
Updated 7:50 p.m. | Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis got Congressional panties in a bunch by announcing that the season 3 winner of his “Hottest Girl in America” hunt would be dispatched to Capitol Hill this summer for a Congressional internship.
Per the GGW blog, Francis claimed to have purchased a four-week internship in the office of Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) during a “private auction” at a “Los Angeles-based temple.”
Not so, Pryor’s peeps insist:
“This release is a hoax. This office does not sell, auction or donate internships. Internship positions are determined through an extensive application process,” Team Pryor asserted in a release.
Updated 4:40 p.m.
Pryor now wants to get the feds involved:
“We believe someone outside Senator Pryor’s office has broken the law by fraudulently impersonating a U.S. Senator, fraudulently attempting to sell a government position and using the Senate seal without authorization. We have asked the FBI to fully investigate who is perpetrating this fraud against the senator and the U.S. Senate,” Pryor’s staff asserted in a follow-up statement.
Updated 7:50 p.m.
Francis told HOH that the internship will no longer be offered.
“The charity has refunded the money. This whole thing’s over,” he said.
Francis stuck to his story that his purchase was on the up-and-up, asserting that his online bid and subsequent prize were thoroughly vetted by all the parties involved. “It went through a lobbying firm,” he said of the since-canceled transaction.
And although he has washed his hands of the entire affair, Francis predicts someone in Pryor’s office will get burned for peddling access.
“I think he may still have some problems … for selling a Senate internship,” Francis suggested, adding, “He’s gonna get cooked.”