(Newser)
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The former wife of Todd Palin's business partner has denied rumors that her ex-husband, Scott Richter, had an affair with Sarah Palin, Us magazine reports. "I can tell you with 1000% certainty, Sarah Palin never had an affair," said Debbie Richter, who was treasurer of Palin's gubernatorial campaign and now is the director of the oil-revenue fund that doles out payments to Alaska residents. The National Enquirer claimed this week that Palin had an affair in the '90s with a business partner of her husband.
The charge, based entirely on unnamed sources, might have been ignored by the mainstream media, but the McCain campaign issued an outraged denial Wednesday, calling it a "vicious lie" and threatening to sue. Meanwhile, several other sites have identified another Todd Palin partner as the man the Enquirer had in mind: Brad Hanson, who owned a snowmobile dealership with Palin. An Alaskan journalist's blog, cited by British news site ThePost and online gambling site Gambling911, apparently says the two were flirtatious, but didn't have an affair. That blog is no longer accessible.