Eliot Spitzer: Crazy Like a Fox
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, a Hillary Clinton superdelagate, ``Sheriff of Wall Street’’, and a Time Magazine``Crusader of the Year’’ has been implicated in a high-priced prostitution ring that will likely lead to his resignation as early as Tuesday.
A New York Times news alert went out at 2:01:50 PM on Monday, reporting how the reform-minded governor had been caught on a federal wiretap, arranging a meeting with a prostitute connected with the Emperors Club VIP, an upscale escort service, which services clients in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami, London and Paris.
In a typical fallen from grace vignette with a doting wife by his side, Spitzer read a brief statement saying he ``acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family; that violates my or any sense of right and wrong’’.
The Emperor’s Club’s website has been shutdown, but the Internet archive managed to capture its contents, which claimed, true to its name, that:``Every Client is an Emperor””
As is widely known by now, the luxury hotel where the tryst with Spitzer and the prostitute, identified only as ``Kristen’’ took place was in Suite 871 at the historic Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C., the same hotel where Monica Lewinsky, oddly enough, was interviewed on the 10th floor of the Presidential Suite on February 1, 1999. The presidential suite normally runs $5,000 per night, but on this date, a House Republican prosecutor was given the room free of charge to interview the former White House intern and build their case against President Clinton on obstruction of justice charges. Suites at the Mayflower run from $250 to $5,000.
The Mayflower, indeed, has a rich political history. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover lunched there for 20 years, President Harry Truman made it his home during the first 90 days of his presidential term; and Franklin Roosevelt stayed in Suite 776 for a few days prior to his 1933 inauguration, according to The National Register of Historic Places. The Mayflower first opened in 1925.
According to the court filings from the Southern District of New York, which has been scanned in by a number of news sites, including the New York Sun, Spitzer was known as Client-9 and met with an ``American, petite, very pretty brunette’’ who stood 5 feet- five- inches, weighed 105 pounds and collected $4,300 from the New York governor on February 13th, on the eve of Valentine’s Day.
The New York Times was reporting later in the day that Spitzer used the alias ``George Fox’’ at the Mayflower on February 13th, the same name of a friend of the governor’s and former donor.
So what happens now?
The Bronx-born former attorney general could be prosecuted for prostitution and money laundering, a much more troublesome violation which carries penalties up to 20 years for transporting someone over state lines for prostitution, a violation of the Mann Act of 1910
One interesting footnote: In 2005, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act which authorized the Department of Justice to conduct a study on the illegal sex industry in the U.S., as a way of measuring how widespread the industry had become. The study, for reasons that are unclear, was never undertaken.
Donna Hughes, a Women Studies professor at the University of Rhode Island and international researcher on trafficking of women and children, suggests someone ask the ``Bush Department of Justice why the study was never done’’
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
A New York Times news alert went out at 2:01:50 PM on Monday, reporting how the reform-minded governor had been caught on a federal wiretap, arranging a meeting with a prostitute connected with the Emperors Club VIP, an upscale escort service, which services clients in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami, London and Paris.
In a typical fallen from grace vignette with a doting wife by his side, Spitzer read a brief statement saying he ``acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family; that violates my or any sense of right and wrong’’.
The Emperor’s Club’s website has been shutdown, but the Internet archive managed to capture its contents, which claimed, true to its name, that:``Every Client is an Emperor””
As is widely known by now, the luxury hotel where the tryst with Spitzer and the prostitute, identified only as ``Kristen’’ took place was in Suite 871 at the historic Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C., the same hotel where Monica Lewinsky, oddly enough, was interviewed on the 10th floor of the Presidential Suite on February 1, 1999. The presidential suite normally runs $5,000 per night, but on this date, a House Republican prosecutor was given the room free of charge to interview the former White House intern and build their case against President Clinton on obstruction of justice charges. Suites at the Mayflower run from $250 to $5,000.
The Mayflower, indeed, has a rich political history. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover lunched there for 20 years, President Harry Truman made it his home during the first 90 days of his presidential term; and Franklin Roosevelt stayed in Suite 776 for a few days prior to his 1933 inauguration, according to The National Register of Historic Places. The Mayflower first opened in 1925.
According to the court filings from the Southern District of New York, which has been scanned in by a number of news sites, including the New York Sun, Spitzer was known as Client-9 and met with an ``American, petite, very pretty brunette’’ who stood 5 feet- five- inches, weighed 105 pounds and collected $4,300 from the New York governor on February 13th, on the eve of Valentine’s Day.
The New York Times was reporting later in the day that Spitzer used the alias ``George Fox’’ at the Mayflower on February 13th, the same name of a friend of the governor’s and former donor.
So what happens now?
The Bronx-born former attorney general could be prosecuted for prostitution and money laundering, a much more troublesome violation which carries penalties up to 20 years for transporting someone over state lines for prostitution, a violation of the Mann Act of 1910
One interesting footnote: In 2005, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act which authorized the Department of Justice to conduct a study on the illegal sex industry in the U.S., as a way of measuring how widespread the industry had become. The study, for reasons that are unclear, was never undertaken.
Donna Hughes, a Women Studies professor at the University of Rhode Island and international researcher on trafficking of women and children, suggests someone ask the ``Bush Department of Justice why the study was never done’’
-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net
Great story!! I can certianly relate to the scandal... I think it's interesting that men in positions of power often think they are above the law or moral code, whereas women in positions of power seem to feel exactly the opposite and realize they are being more closely scrutinized. We don't often here of this with female politicians... just, weirdly, school teachers??
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