UPDATE: Murray Waas' Revelations on Huckabee Pardon of Serial Rapist Produce Surprising Response

By: E&P Staff Murray Waas, the Washington-based investigative reporter who most recently broke several key stories on the Plame case for the National Journal, has posted today, at The Huffington Post, the results of his probe into an incident that has already surfaced in the 2008 race for the White House: Mike Huckabee's push, as governor of Arkansas, for the early release of convicted rapist who went on to rape, and kill, again.

Huckabee has admitted many of the basic facts in the case but played down his own role and expressed bafflement when the man struck again.

ABC News' Brian Ross Ross is also out with a report in this vein today. It includes a quote from David J. Sanders, a political columnist for Stephens Media in Arkansas: "The record clearly shows now Mike Huckabee did advocate for Wayne Dumond's release. I think there are real questions about whether he has been forthright on this issue."

Waas added a surprising update later in the day, reporting that, contradicting Huckabee's claims, his former senior aide told Huffington Post that, as governor of Arkansas, "Huckabee indeed told the state's parole board that he supported the release of a convicted rapist."

The senior aide, Olan W. "Butch" Reeves, attended a controversial parole board meeting with Huckabee in October 1996. "The clear impression that I came away with from the meeting was that he favored Dumond's release," Reeves said. "And I can understand why board members would believe that to be the case."

Huckabee had repeated at a press conference today that he "did not ask [the board] to do anything."

The original Waas piece, opened as follows.

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As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.

Confidential Arkansas state government records, including letters from these women, obtained by the Huffington Post and revealed publicly for the first time, directly contradict the version of events now being put forward by Huckabee.

While on the campaign trail, Huckabee has claimed that he supported the 1999 release of Wayne Dumond because, at the time, he had no good reason to believe that the man represented a further threat to the public. Thanks to Huckabee's intervention, conducted in concert with a right-wing tabloid campaign on Dumond's behalf, Dumond was let out of prison 25 years before his sentence would have ended.

"There's nothing any of us could ever do," Huckabee said Sunday on CNN when asked to reflect on the horrific outcome caused by the prisoner's release. "None of us could've predicted what [Dumond] could've done when he got out."

But the confidential files obtained by the Huffington Post show that Huckabee was provided letters from several women who had been sexually assaulted by Dumond and who indeed predicted that he would rape again - and perhaps murder - if released.

In a letter that has never before been made public, one of Dumond's victims warned: "I feel that if he is released it is only a matter of time before he commits another crime and fear that he will not leave a witness to testify against him the next time." Before Dumond was granted parole at Huckabee's urging, records show that Huckabee's office received a copy of this letter from Arkansas' parole board.

The woman later wrote directly to Huckabee about having been raped by Dumond. In a letter obtained by the Huffington Post, she said that Dumond had raped her while holding a butcher knife to her throat, and while her then-3-year-old daughter lay in bed next to her. Also included in the files sent to Huckabee's office was a police report in which Dumond confessed to the rape. Dumond was not charged in that particular case because he later refused to sign the confession and because the woman was afraid to press charges.

Huckabee kept these and other documents secret because they were politically damaging, according to a former aide who worked for him in Arkansas. The aide has made the records available to the Huffington Post, deeply troubled by Huckabee's repeated claims that he had no reason to believe Dumond would commit other violent crimes upon his release from prison. The aide also believes that Huckabee, for political reasons, has deliberately attempted to cover up his knowledge of Dumond's other sexual assaults.

"There were no letters sent to the governor's office from any rape victims," Huckabee campaign spokesperson Alice Stewart said on Tuesday when contacted by the Huffington Post.

Subsequently, however, the campaign provided a former senior aide of Huckabee's who did remember reading at least one of the letters.

But Huckabee and his aides insist that his receipt of the letters is irrelevant because the decision to release Dumond was made by the parole board.