A Republican campaign staffer who did work for Virginia GOP Senate candidate Corey Stewart claims a reporter for The New York Times allegedly broke into his suburban Virginia apartment while he was away.
Brian Landrum said he left the front door of his Woodbridge, Virginia, apartment unlocked Wednesday because a female friend was inside, an NBC affiliate reported. At about 2 p.m. ET, the friend came across an intruder whom Landrum identified as Times reporter Stephanie Saul, News4 reported.
"Walking out of the bathroom taking a right, hearing something, she turned around and Stephanie was standing right [there]," Landrum told the affiliate. Woodbridge is about 20 miles south of Washington, D.C.
The New York Times asserted Saul never entered the apartment.
"Ms. Saul went to an address for Landrum Associates in Woodbridge looking for Mr. Landrum," a Times spokesman said in an email to News4. "She was told by a woman who opened the door that he was not present. She left a note with the woman for Mr. Landrum asking him to call. At no time did she enter the premises."
Landrum disagreed.
"I had had absolutely no heads up that she even had any interest in speaking with me, until she decided to break into my apartment," he said, News4 reported.
The Prince William County Police Department confirmed police responded to an apartment in that same area for a report of a break-in, but declined to say if it was Landrum's residence. It said the matter was under investigation.
Stewart, who will face Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., in November, meanwhile, blasted the Times, News4 reported.
"The fake news media will stop at nothing to destroy Republicans, as we've seen with their coverage of President [Donald] Trump and others over the last few years," Stewart said, News4 reported. "Far left media from New York to Richmond have been working overtime to invent wild stories to try to give advantage to Tim Kaine, and now they're breaking into our team's homes in pursuit of their narrative."
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