Was New York Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald directly supporting child porn while investigating Justin Berry’s online world of pedophilia? That’s what some might suggest after new details emerge regarding the current Portfolio scribe’s 2005 series of articles that landed him testifying before Congress.

As Eichenwald already admitted, he sent $2,000 to Berry during the course of his kiddie porn ring reporting, but didn’t tell his editors because it “slipped my mind.” But the muckrakers at GenerationQ, a gay Aussie website who claim to have first reported that original payment, say they’ve matched IP records and PayPal transfers that show Eichenwald had his own JustinFriends account.

Eichenwald allegedly registered under the name “Andrew McDonald” – a name that’s also appeared in Amazon.com reviews for Eichenwald’s books – where a Yahoo and an AOL email address, belonging to the Times‘ scribe, were tied to payments made by credit card as such:

June 6 2005: “McDonald” pays Greg Mitchell (Berry’s partner and webhost) and Justin $311.

June 8: Kurt Eichenwald writes a $2,000 check and express mails it to Justin Berry and Greg Mitchell in Virginia.

June 9: Justin Berry uploaded pornographic material to his PC. The images included shots of the minor referred to as Taylor. These photographs were shot at approximately 1 AM and uploaded to his computer at 4 AM.

June 14: “McDonald” pays Greg and Justin $200 via PayPal.

June 17: On June 17th 2005, Justin Berry creates a JustinsFriends.com account for “McDonald.”

The timing of these events and the payments suggest that not only was Eichenwald aware and viewing Justin Berry’s websites, he was also paying Berry money to keep them online. He also spoke with Taylor on the phone and paid $2000 to Justin Berry the day before Berry took photos of Taylor and posted them online.

Which, supposedly, begs the question: Did Eichenwald’s payments resurrect the JustinFriends site so he could put together a story for the Times? And, thus, was Eichenwald paying for child porn? We’re going to guess that, in the “flood” of events, those minor details slipped his mind. Eichenwald, after all, is very busy putting together his libel lawsuit against reporter Debbie Nathan.

In the meantime, Eichenwald’s original explanation for how his money got in Justin Berry’s pocket is worth revisiting.

Original post by Perez Hilton and software by Elliott Back