On Thursday a high-level staffer for Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's failed presidential campaign issued a press release alleging that Bachmann's finance chairman refuses to pay a number of former staffers because they declined to sign a non-disclosure agreement that "prohibits any discussion of any criminal, moral, and/or unethical behavior witnessed during Mrs. Bachmann's campaign in Iowa." That's a not-quite-veiled allusion, Salon suggests, to allegations that the Bachmann campaign illegally accessed a list of Iowa-area homeschooling families and emailed them solicitations. Bachmann's campaign responded to Waldron's claims by denying them:

Mr Waldren’s presentation of the facts and related allegations are false and inaccurate. Why Mr Waldren would be motivated to attempt to disparage the Congresswoman, the campaign, or fellow campaign members I can’t explain.

The campaign acknowledged a handful of outstanding invoices, and said that it's paid off "in excess of 90% of [Bachmann's] Presidential Campaign debt," but elided any mention of the non-disclosure agreements it supposedly asked staffers to sign. And, if you read the PR-ese closely enough, the campaign isn't denying any of the allegations — just former Bachmann for President National Field Coordinator Peter Waldron's "presentation" of them.

This would not be the first time Bachmann staffers have clashed with the law — Waldron himself was detained in Uganda, in 2006, for carrying an assault rifle. Nor would it be the campaign's first public spat: Bachmann has a well-documented history of alienating staffers. (In October 2011, her New Hampshire campaign staff quit en masse.)

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J.K. Trotter