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The Enigmatic Man
(By Ron Edmonds -- Associated Press)
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"And I said, 'Oh, that's not my boyfriend; that's a friend.' And I was immediately given the dog."
They rode back to Durham. Allen held the puppy as Kraham drove.
"I remember thinking that Claude was nowhere near as upset or angry or disturbed as I was," says Kraham, now an assistant city attorney in Bellingham, Wash.
They never talked about the day's events. Kraham did not know, could not know, what Allen really thought, really felt.
The Charges
There are things unseen, unknown, that Allen does not reveal about himself, people who know him say.
He is personable, charming and easy to talk to, and yet there are hints of a space that he maintains around his life, his personal thoughts, like a moat.
Even before his arrest on March 9, after a sterling career in which he rose to become a senior White House adviser, there was something enigmatic about him, a sense that more was happening beneath the surface than was readily apparent. And now, many of his friends are wondering just what that might have been.
It is impossible, these friends say, to even imagine Allen strolling into Montgomery County Target stores in full view of security cameras and committing serial fraud.
The cameras recorded a casually dressed Allen, 45, "making purchases at Target stores, leaving the stores, returning a few minutes later empty handed, selecting the same merchandise from the shelves, and then refunding the money back to his credit card, even though he has the merchandise in his vehicle." That's the narrative from the District Court of Maryland charging document.
Allen did this 25 times between Oct. 29 and Jan. 2, hitting both Target and Hecht stores, the document says. All told, it alleges, his American Express and Visa cards were credited around $5,000 from the transactions.
Allen allegedly walked away with clothing, a theater system, a printer, a stereo, some random items worth $2.50 and cleaning products.
On Jan. 2, the day he was charged with a misdemeanor (before police knew the felonious extent of the alleged fraud), Allen informed then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. He reportedly told Card there had been a misunderstanding with his credit card.
