'A bad look': GOP crisis 'fixer' coached Jeffrey Epstein

A former White House media relations director under President Ronald Reagan whom insiders call a “fixer” for Republicans and CEOs facing public relations crises coached late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on PR strategies in 2008 when he was facing allegations of sexually abusing children, reports The Dallas Morning News.

Texas crisis communications specialist Merrie Spaeth's work with Epstein was first reported by Bloomberg News after they obtained over 18,000 emails from Epstein's Yahoo account.

According to the emails Epstein paid Spaeth, who was hired by Epstein's lawyers because she was an "expert steeped in the world of politics," $1,900 for consulting in 2008, and sent an additional $5,000 for other work, Bloomberg reported.

The 77-year-old public relations professional, who started her own business after leaving the Reagan White House, honed her reputation working with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group raised questions about John Kerry’s military service during his 2004 presidential campaign against George W. Bush.

She also coached independent counsel Ken Starr on his congressional testimony about the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

Spaeth was well known for announcing the “Bimbo” awards that "spotlighted poorly framed responses to accusations in which the subjects’ denials repeated the allegation," The Dallas Morning News says. The awards took their name from Jessica Hahn’s assertion, “I am not a bimbo,” after an affair with married televangelist Jim Bakker.

According to Bloomberg, Spaeth's services to the convicted sex offender included drafting potential public apologies for him and coaching him on how to answer interview questions about preying on innocent young girls.

In the 2008 Epstein emails published by Bloomberg, Spaeth sent Epstein three versions of a public apology as well as coaching on words she encouraged him to use in interviews.

She also shared “the Spaeth methodology” to avoid “being trapped by the parameters” when answering questions, according to Bloomberg, which said she noted that those questions were undoubtedly going to face Epstein "for years to come."

One question Spaeth cited in the email was, “Mr. Epstein, as you preyed on these innocent young girls, did you actually know any of them were under the age of 18?”

Cal Jillson, professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, who doesn't know Spaeth personally but is familiar with her work, told The Dallas Morning News that he's not so sure how her efforts helped, if at all.

“People need [crisis communicators] most when they’re in the deep water, when they really need professional help to get out of a certain circumstance,” he said. “And so she’s good at that, but at the end of the day, you’re swimming in dirty water, can you come out clean?”

Jillson also said that any connection to Epstein is hard to shake.

“It’s a bad look and Epstein is so toxic that connections that are even glancing, and that’s what this appears to be, are hard to explain,” Jillson said.

Though she declined to comment for the story, Spaeth issued a statement to The Dallas Morning News.

“In 2008 Mr. Epstein’s counsel engaged Spaeth Communications to provide communications options for Mr. Epstein and his legal team. He and his legal team made all decisions as to use of the communications,” Spaeth said in the statement. “I ultimately terminated the engagement because of my discomfort with it. Principles of confidentiality and privilege preclude further comment about the substance of this engagement.”