[Vision2020] New York's Governor Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (March 10, 2008) New York Times at:

http://tinyurl.com/2qsdms

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Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring 

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration 
officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an 
administration official said this morning.

Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides inside his Fifth Avenue 
apartment early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his 
scheduled public events for the day. He scheduled an announcement for 2:15 
after inquiries from the Times. 

Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform and 
end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children. 

Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection 
with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would 
not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.

But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person 
believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court 
papers.

The governor’s travel records show that he was in Washington in mid-
February. One of the clients described in court papers arranged to meet 
with a prostitute who was part of the ring, the Emperors Club VIP on the 
night of Feb. 13.

Mr. Spitzer appeared on a CNBC television show at 7 a.m. the next morning. 
Later in the morning, he testified before a Congressional committee.

An affidavit filed in federal court in Manhattan in connection with that 
case lists six conversations between the man, identified as Client 9, and 
a booking agent for the Emperors Club. 

He had a difficult first year in office, rocked by a mix of scandal and 
legislative setbacks. In recent weeks, however, Mr. Spitzer seemed to have 
rebounded, with his Democratic party poised to perhaps gain control of the 
state Senate for the first time in four decades.

Mr. Spitzer gained national attention when he served as attorney general 
with his relentless pursuit of Wall Street wrongdoing. As attorney 
general, he also had prosecuted at least two prostitution rings as head of 
the state’s organized crime task force.

In one such case in 2004, Mr. Spitzer spoke with revulsion and anger after 
announcing the arrest of 16 people for operating a high-end prostitution 
ring out of Staten Island.

“”This was a sophisticated and lucrative operation with a multitiered 
management structure,” Mr. Spitzer said at the time. ”It was, however, 
nothing more than a prostitution ring.”

Albany for months has been roiled by bitter fighting and accusations of 
dirty tricks. The Albany County district attorney is set to issue in the 
coming days the results of his investigation into Mr. Spitzer’s first 
scandal, his aides’ involvement in an effort to tarnish Majority Leader 
Joseph L. Bruno, the state’s top Republican.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"People who ridicule others while hiding behind anonymous monikers in chat-
room forums are neither brave nor clever." 

- Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch (August 21,
2007)

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