Move over, Client # 9 — “Client # 1″s the hottest philanderer in town.
David Letterman felt “threatened, alarmed and concerned” about damage to his family and career when CBS News producer Robert “Joe” Halderman threatened to expose the late night king’s sexual affair with Halderman’s former live-in lover, according to newly unsealed court papers that identify Letterman as “Client #1.”
Halderman told Letterman in a “demand letter” dropped off in the funnyman’s limo last month that “he needs to ‘make a large chunk of money’ ” by selling evidence of Letterman’s affair with “Late Show” staffer Stephanie Birkitt, records show.
The affidavits in support of a warrant to search Halderman’s Norwalk home and his 2006 Honda Accord on Oct. 1 came after the “48 Hours” producer was busted in New York for allegedly demanding $2 million from Letterman to keep the affair quiet.
SEARCH WARRANT FOR HALDERMAN’S HOUSE
SEARCH WARRANT FOR HALDERMAN’S CAR
The use of “Client # 1” to refer anonymously to Letterman echoes the way federal prosecutors identified then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer last year as “Client # 9” in court papers describing his rendezvous with a prostitute in Washington.
The Halderman search warrants and affidavits were unsealed after a Norwalk Superior Court hearing in which Judge Bruce Hudock agreed with a lawyer for The Post, over the objections of a prosecutor, that they be made public.
The warrants indicated that when cops searched Halderman’s home, they seized a copy of a New York magazine issue featuring Letterman on the cover — along with a computer, digital memory devices, copies of checks, photos and other items.
PHOTOS: DAVID LETTERMAN EXTORTION PLOT
The documents also say that on Sept. 9, Halderman left in Letterman’s limo a “so-called screenplay treatment” which “refers to Client # 1’s great professional success.”
“The document then describes that Client #1’s ‘world is about to collapse around him,’ as information about his private life is disclosed leading to a ‘ruined reputation’ and severe damage to his career and family life,” the records state.
“The letter further states that Halderman has a ‘lot more documents ostensibly establishing the truth of the story outline in the screenplay treatment,” according to the records.
Halderman told Letterman’s lawyer in several subsequent meetings in New York that he wanted $2 million “to ensure that the information in the screenplay treatment and supporting materials would not be made public,” the affidavits state.