Photo: Win McNamee/2012 Getty Images

Michele Bachmann dropped out of the presidential race more than a year ago, but she still hasn’t paid five Iowa staffers according to Peter Waldron, her former national field coordinator. Waldron says the former staffers are owed just $5,000 — a paltry sum for Bachmann, who has more than $2 million in her campaign account — but the money isn’t the real issue. He alleges that Bachmann is demanding that the staffers sign a nondisclosure agreement that would forbid them from discussing any “unethical, immoral, or criminal activity.” That probably has something to do with the fact that Bachmann and former senior aides are being sued by a home-schooling group for allegedly misusing a list of member’s e-mails, which was allegedly stolen from a staffer’s personal laptop. “It’s just immoral what they’re trying to do,” Waldron tells Salon. “They’re trying to shut us up. You want to get paid? You gotta sign this agreement and not talk to either the police or lawyers.”

If Waldron’s name sounds familiar, that’s because the longtime Republican operative was arrested in Uganda for possession of assault rifles in 2006, imprisoned for a month, and supposedly freed by a call from President George W. Bush. If you need a refresher, it’s all covered in the trailer for the low-budget film The Ultimate Price: The Peter E. Waldron Story.

Waldron says Bachmann’s Finance Chairman, James Pollack, promised to send the money several times, but it never showed up. “It is sobering to think that a Christian member of Congress would betray her testimony to the Lord and the public by withholding earned wages from deserving staff,” Waldron told Christian Newswire. On the plus side, the allegations of theft, coverups, and high-level political intrigue will make a fine sequel to The Ultimate Price.

