New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has been lined to a prostitution ring which charges up to $5,550 per hour. The New York Times reports:
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.
An affidavit in the federal investigation into a prostitution ring said that a wiretap recording captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a hotel room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.
Mr. Spitzer today made a brief public appearance during which he apologized for his behavior, and described it as a “private matter.”
“I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family and violates my or any sense of right or wrong,” said Mr. Spitzer, who appeared with his wife Silda at his Manhattan office. “I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better.”
“I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”
I don’t devote much space to sex scandals, but I cannot help but wonder what could possibly be worth $5,550 per hour. Personally I don’t really care about his sexual activities, but also wonder how many prostitutes Spitzer prosecuted when he was Attorney General. Plus, whether or not I care what he does, there’s little doubt that enough people will care to probably end talk about him being a future presidential candidate.
Update: Eliot Spitzer Got Off Track
This is devastating news for dems in NY but I hope that Gov. Spitzer will stay on as governor though at this point it seems unlikely.
“This is devastating news for dems in NY but I hope that Gov. Spitzer will stay on as governor though at this point it seems unlikely”
Stay on as governor? I don’t agree he represents the NY citizens he should be thrown out if he doesn’t resign.
Perhaps that fee has blackmail factored in?
Probus,
This isn’t akin to infidelity. We’re talking about a governor who put himself, and the people through his position, at the mercy of organized crime. Perhaps they influenced him to push hard for drivers licenses, aka documentation, for illegal aliens?
We can not have elected officials who are the creatures of criminal organizations.
This “private matter” as the former “holier than though” Attorney General, involves something that happened on an official trip to Washington DC, meaning that it probably occured in hotel room paid for by the taxpayers of the state of New York, making it much more of a public matter.
I’m not terribly concerned about the sexual matter here. That is a private matter. If Spitzer did use public funds that would be a totally different matter. So far there are no allegations I’m aware of with regards to using public funds. I’m also concerned about the hypocrisy the more I read about how Spitzer behaved as Attorney General. I don’t get the feeling that he would have allowed someone else in a similar situation to get off with only a minor penalty on this.
On the other hand, there are questions regarding the investigation. The investigation started over questions of whether the movement of money involved bribes–which certainly should be been investigated. However, once it was determined that this was to pay prostitutes I’m not sure there was reason to continue the investigation (assuming no public funds were used).
My assumption is that the investigation into the prostitution ring continued, but that there was no direct link to use of public funds to pay for them. I base this on the fact that Spritzer was not named, just referred to as “client-9”, but was later outed, possibly by someone who was disgusted by the double standard that Spritzer held given that when as AG he went after a prostitution ring, even pushing for stronger penalties for customers.
This is a farce.
Out of nowhere comes prosecutor Boyd Johnson? No, look again.
This is the guy who got kicked off of the Haji Bashir Noorzai case for misconduct. He went from lead prosecutor to witness when it turned out he condoned illegal bribes paid by FBI contractors.
Is the corruption unit the last stop at the US attorney’s office, or do they want Johnson because he knows about government misconduct first hand?
I don’t think Spitzer has much to worry about as he has the money for good lawyers and I’m sure they can make hay out of this Johnson thing.