Morgenthau Reveals Letterman Blackmail Details

At 11:30 AM, the Manhattan Disctrict Attorney's Office held a press conference to address the extortion attempt against David Letterman.

DA Robert Morgenthau said that his office caught 48 Hours producer Robert "Joe" Halderman with "an undercover sting operation at a hotel, with New York City police detectives in an adjoining room with recording equipment and surveillance," explains Newsday.

Wall Street Journal has a liveblog of the press conference that includes the details of Letterman's first encounter with Halderman:

Halderman waited outside Letterman’s Manhattan apartment Sept. 9 at 6 a.m. to give him a package and say that he needed a “large chunk of money.” He was hoping to sell a “screenplay treatment.” The one-page treatment mentioned “your beautiful loving son” and said Letterman’s “world was about to collapse around him.” He also referred to “ruined reputation and severe damage to his professional and family lives.”

Halderman and Letterman's lawyers had three meetings between September 9th and 30th; the last two were taped.

CNN says that Halderman is now being held at the Manhattan Detention Center, where he was booked at 9PM last night. He will be arraigned today on a charge of grand larceny.

And CBS News just posted an AP story naming Halderman and including a photograph of their erstwhile colleague.

UPDATE: An AP video from the press conference--Morgenthau describes the timeline of the extortion plot: