NS politician says he’s being blackmailed over call to male escort agency

A Cape Breton councillor says an anonymous person tried to blackmail him over an expensed call to a male escort agency.

Steve Sampson has been in politics for a long time and says Thursday was the first time he has felt the need to address what he considers a personal issue, publicly.

Sampson has been a Richmond County councillor for the last 25 years. Tuesday evening, the 62-year-old says he received an unmarked envelope to his home in Lower L’Ardoise, Cape Breton.

According to Sampson, the envelope contained some paperwork, including a hotel bill from a night in February of 2014, when he was travelling for business in the United States.

In addition to the cost for the hotel room, the bill also showed a charge for a phone call made from the hotel to a male escort agency.

After repeatedly being asked if he did in fact call an escort agency while in the U.S., Sampson told Global News, “If the call is listed on my hotel room charges, one would think that a call was made.”

“But the fact that a call was made, does that constitute that something happened beyond that.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "But the fact that a call was made, does that constitute that something happened beyond that."

Sampson admits the cost for the hotel and the cost for the phone call were both expensed.

“It was an expense of a dollar something, a dollar fifty plus tax,” Sampson said. “But there again, I keep coming back to the fact that it’s an exercise of personal nature that I feel is really not the business of someone else.”

Sampson says a letter that accompanied the bill demand he resign from his position as councillor before Friday, April 8. If he did not step aside, the anonymous sender threatened to publicize the fact there had been a call made to the escort agency.

Sampson said he can’t believe “someone would stoop so low” as to try to blackmail him.

He calls the entire situation humiliating, embarrassing and degrading for himself and his family.

When Sampson was asked if he did anything illegal or thought he should resign over the incident, he replied “absolutely not.”

“I truly believe, in 2016, that people respect what goes on in one’s personal and private life is simply that. It has no bearing on what you do as an elected official,” said Sampson.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I truly believe, in 2016, that people respect what goes on in one's personal and private life is simply that. It has no bearing on what you do as an elected official," said Sampson.

Sampson says he has turned over the package to RCMP and have asked officers to investigate the attempted blackmail of a public officer.

He believes the entire incident may have something to do with the turmoil Richmond County is in at the moment. The area is not only dealing with a boundary review but also a forensic audit.