Or misuse of public funds and money laundering?
Life's a party when you're governor of New York!
Posted on 03/20/2008 8:30:56 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department used some of its most intrusive tactics against Eliot Spitzer, examining his financial records, eavesdropping on his phone calls and tailing him during its criminal investigation of the Emperor’s Club prostitution ring.
The scale and intensity of the investigation of Mr. Spitzer, then the governor of New York, seemed on its face to be a departure for the Justice Department, which aggressively investigates allegations of wrongdoing by public officials, but almost never investigates people who pay prostitutes for sex.
A review of recent federal cases shows that federal prosecutors go sparingly after owners and operators of prostitution enterprises, and usually only when millions of dollars are involved or there are aggravating circumstances, like human trafficking or child exploitation.
Government lawyers and investigators defend the expenditure of resources on Mr. Spitzer in the Emperor’s Club V.I.P. case as justifiable and necessary since it involved the possibility of criminal wrongdoing by New York’s highest elected official, who had been the state’s top prosecutor.
Bradley D. Simon, a veteran Justice Department trial lawyer who was federal prosecutor in Brooklyn throughout the 1990s, said that although it was rare for the department to use so many resources on the workings of a prostitution ring, the involvement of such a high-level politician must change the equation.
“If they’ve got some evidence of a high-ranking public official involved in violations of federal criminal code, it may not be unreasonable for them to pursue it,” he said. Still, he said, “I don’t think prostitution has been a high priority at the Justice Department.”
The focus on Mr. Spitzer was so intense that the F.B.I. used surveillance teams to follow both him and the prostitute in Washington in February. The surveillance teams had followed him at least once before — when he...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
So now the Ny TImes is defending him?
Or misuse of public funds and money laundering?
Life's a party when you're governor of New York!
Although I disagree with the law, apparently it’s against federal law to transport a woman across state lines for “immoral purposes.” So, NY Slimes, there’s your violation.
(It could well be that the vigor with which he was surveilled is simply because of how many people he burned because he’s a grade-A S.O.B. and deserves every single retaliation he gets.
Spitzer was hated by both democrats and republican in Albany.
There are very few tears being shed.
doesn’t Viagra make you go blind?
Will Joe Bruno Be New York's 3rd Governor This Year? [Breaking Update]
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
There’s a lot we don’t know. Why was Spitzer paying so much? Usually a man in his position gets it for free (it’s like a get out of jail free card for the operators of the prostitution ring). What connections did the prostitution ring have with organized crime and/or drugs? This was an international prostitution ring - what international connections did they have?
Thanks for the ping!
Good for him, the stupid, ugly, hypocritical, democrap bastard.
LOL
Much as I detested Spitzer and am glad to see him gone, the investigation which lead to his demise was totalitarian and violated almost all of our human rights.
Okay, they need to get their facts straight. Intel gathering is not intrusive if the guilty don’t know they are being investigated. It may be aggressive, but it’s not intrusive. Plus, I am glad that my taxpayer dollars are actually being spent investigating fraud by politicians rather than welfare for those unwilling to contribute in some manner to our society.
The old “Clinton Sex Life Defense”, albit too late. Perhaps Spitzer should have held out?
So does Syphilis.
Obviously there's a lot about this case that isn't being said. For instance: Who's Client #1?
"Liberals DAVID JOHNSTON and PHILIP SHENON of the NY Times
are ticked off a Democrat got caught."
Great gif file.
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