"some relationship .. they contend .. an associate of ... with knowledge of ... it was unclear .."
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, considering it came from the NY Times
You are so right. And I love the way the New York Post slams the TU and exposes their inconsistencies.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
With last week’s report by Albany County District Attorney David Soares, we now know what we suspected from the beginning of the nine-month-old scandal called “Troopergate”: former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was lying when he said he wasn’t actively involved in the gathering and dissemination of travel records as part of a political plot against his archrival, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. In the last three weeks, Spitzer has been disgraced — exposed as a serial user of call girls — and now discredited — exposed as a blatant liar. Soares eventually discovered the truth, but one wonders what took him so long, and whether he would have been so quick to have it come out if Spitzer were still governor. In his first report last year, Soares, after a limited inquiry, gave fellow Democrat Spitzer and his aides a clean bill of health. He found not only that no crime had been committed by using state police to provide damaging information about Bruno, but that nobody had done anything wrong. This was very helpful to Spitzer, coming shortly after a much tougher report by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that blasted the governor’s aides for improper behavior. The truth was revealed to Soares in February by Darren Dopp, Spitzer’s former communications director and designated fall guy. In last year’s investigation, Dopp (never placed under oath) apparently lied to protect the boss. But after discrepancies were found between this testimony and testimony that Dopp gave to another investigative body, Soares called him back and offered him immunity from prosecution if he told the truth. And the truth, if Dopp is to believed (and at this point, there seems no reason not to), is that Spitzer was involved up to his eyeballs, in both the gathering and release of the information about Bruno. We hope it’s a coincidence that Soares has issued this damning report, and is pushing for the release of all e-mails, phone and other records that Spitzer was withholding under the claim of executive privilege, only after the governor stepped down because of the prostitution scandal. We also think it’s a shame that no further action can be taken by Soares. The fact that Spitzer never testified under oath makes him immune to prosecution for perjury. And his resignation from office means he can no longer be removed from it.
spitz · er v.tr. 1. To unexpectedly -- and spectacularly -- destroy your career in a single act so obviously wrong that having someone tell you "you should know better" would be blatantly redundant: Bob was on track to make regional manager until he spitzered himself.
How about---
spit ' zer (spit-her) v.tr.
1.to pay for sex by her and then run like hell after everyone finds out
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Spitzer call girl sues 'Girls Gone Wild' STORY HIGHLIGHTS
From Christina Chinnici CNN
(CNN) -- The call girl involved in the sex scandal with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer filed a lawsuit Monday suing the founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series for more than $10 million.
In the complaint filed in Miami, Florida, Ashley Alexandra Dupre says she was vacationing in Miami Beach when she was approached by agents and representatives of the defendant, Joe Francis, and offered alcoholic drinks.
While intoxicated, Dupre was persuaded to expose her breasts and then told to sign a release form, according to a statement from her legal counsel, Richard C. Wolfe. Wolfe contends that Dupre "was 17 years old and therefore not legally competent to enter into a contract with the defendants."
Dupre was the high-priced call girl, known as "Kristen," documented in court papers as the woman Spitzer arranged to meet at Washington's Mayflower Hotel in February. Spitzer's involvement turned up in a federal investigation of suspicious transfers from his checking account.
The investigation led agents to the alleged organizers of a prostitution ring, four of whom were charged in a criminal complaint in March. Spitzer resigned when a leak identified him as a client of the ring.
In March, Francis was negotiating to pay Dupre $1 million to appear in the "Girls Gone Wild" magazine and on the company's touring bus. The deal fell through when Francis found he already owned video footage of Dupre.
Francis said Monday he and his company "have nothing to worry about."
"But I think it's ironic that she charged Gov. Spitzer $2,000 for sex and she wants to charge me 10 million for taking some naked pictures of her," Francis told CNN. "I feel like I'm getting a raw deal."
Personal responsibility begins long before ya take that first drink or even engage in conversation with a bunch of exploiters.....these 'guys' are no different than the polygamists and Dupre bought it all lock stock and barrel......
I hope Miley Cyrus takes a lesson and learns quick-----Madonna did,,,,she took a dump on an American generation/culture, made her own golden calf and then moved to England.....
And we continue to raid polygamist camps as if they are the devil him/herself----I'm sorry did someone say "how could/did this happen?"
We reap what we sow and Mr. Spitzer was fertilized right in our backyard........and so were the rest of them......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Woman pleads guilty in Spitzer prostitution probe Updated: 05/14/2008 By: AP Wire Service
NEW YORK (AP) - The woman said to have arranged a tryst between a call girl and former Governor Eliot Spitzer pleaded guilty Wednesday to money laundering and promoting prostitution and will cooperate with a grand jury investigating the pricey escort service, authorities said Wednesday.
Temeka Rachelle Lewis, who worked as a booking agent for the Emperor's Club VIP, is the first defendant to admit guilt in a case that brought down New York's crusading Democratic governor after just 14 months in office.
She entered her plea during a brief appearance at U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Woman pleads guilty in Spitzer prostitution probe The woman said to have arranged a tryst between a call girl and former Governor Eliot Spitzer pleaded guilty Wednesday to money laundering and promoting prostitution and will cooperate with a grand jury investigating the pricey escort service.
As part of the plea bargain, Lewis is obligated to turn over records, testify before the grand jury, if asked, and answer any questions investigators may have about her role in arranging dates between Emperor's Club prostitutes and the agency's deep-pocketed clients.
Her agreement to cooperate was revealed in court papers filed by prosecutors, then reluctantly confirmed by her lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, after a federal magistrate turned down his request to have the records sealed.
Agnifilo said his client has yet to be asked to appear before the grand jury. He added that prosecutors have not disclosed whether the probe's next target is Spitzer, who, so far, has not been charged.
Asked why his client had decided to plead guilty, Agnifilo said Lewis, who majored in English at the University of Virginia and has never been in trouble with the law before, just wants to put the case behind her.
Lewis, 32, entered her plea calmly while her mother and sister looked on, then left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. Under federal sentencing guidelines she could face around 16 months in prison or less depending on the level of her cooperation with prosecutors, her lawyer said. Her sentencing was tentatively scheduled for Aug. 6.
The Emperor's Club investigation began last year when banks flagged suspicious cash transfers to companies set up to disguise payments by the ring's clients. Some of the transfers were traced to Spitzer.
The FBI disclosed in court papers that agents secretly recorded conversations between Lewis and Spitzer about a Feb. 13 tryst in Washington with a prostitute named "Kristen." The former governor, identified in court papers only as Client 9, allegedly paid $4,300 for the night, with some of the money to be used as a credit against future encounters.
Spitzer, who is married and has three teenage daughters, resigned just days after his role in the case became public.
The real name of the woman identified as Kristen is Ashley Alexandra Dupre, a 23-year-old high school dropout from Beachwood, N.J. She has not been charged.
The other defendants are Mark Brener, 62, of Cliffside Park, N.J., who is accused of running the ring; Cecil Suwal, 23, who lives with Brener; and Tanya Hollander, 36, of Rhinebeck, N.Y., who authorities said also worked as a booking agent for prostitutes.
Investigators say the ring charged between $1,000 and $5,500 per hour for dozens of prostitutes in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Miami, London and Paris.
Prosecutors have refused to say whether they are contemplating charges against Spitzer, who was New York's attorney general for eight years before he was elected governor.
As attorney general, he built a reputation as a crusader against shady practices and overly generous compensation on Wall Street and, when he was elected, pledged to bring higher ethical standards to Albany. His cases as attorney general included prosecutions of prostitution rings.
After his role in the call girl ring became public, Spitzer - with his wife, Silda, by his side - apologized at a news conference without expressly acknowledging that he had visited prostitutes.
Alleged madam enters guilty plea Former governor Spitzer was client of Emperors Club The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A woman who helped run a prostitution ring patronized by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer pleaded guilty to a pair of federal conspiracy charges Tuesday and called her former business “disgusting.” Cecil Suwal, 23, giggled and cried her way through a brief hearing at a federal court in Manhattan, then donned a pair of sunglasses and left quickly without speaking to reporters. Prosecutors portrayed Suwal in an indictment as the savvy manager behind the Emperors Club V.I.P. escort service — a confident madam who paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to prostitutes and controlled shell companies used to hide the profits. But as she entered her guilty pleas in court, the waifish college dropout struggled to express what she’d done. “I was involved in just the daily operations of this disgusting thing,” she said. “Basically, it was, I guess, a prostitution ring, that was attempting to launder money or whatever.” She stumbled onto a tangent when asked a standard question about whether she’d taken any medications or been hospitalized recently. “One time, I was hospitalized for taking poisonous mushrooms, which my body rejected, and that’s what happened,” she said. Her attorney, Alberto Ebanks, suggested after the hearing that Suwal was naively led into the business by her 62-year-old boyfriend, the escort service’s alleged ringleader. The plea bargain calls for Suwal, who has no criminal record, to get between 21 and 27 months in prison, although a judge could depart from that recommendation. There is no provision in the arrangement calling on Suwal to cooperate with investigators in the probe of the ring’s activities, and neither prosecutors nor the defense said anything in court Tuesday that revealed whether there could be charges against the agency’s clients. Spitzer hasn’t been charged, but he apologized and resigned on March 12, shortly after the case became public. Suwal, who pleaded guilty to one money-laundering conspiracy count and a second count of conspiring to promote prostitution, is the second person to plead guilty in the case. Temeka Lewis, a booking agent for the escort service, pleaded guilty to similar charges in May. Prosecutors say Lewis arranged a date between a prostitute with the pseudonym Kristen and a man identified in court papers as “Client-9,” later revealed to be Spitzer. The pair’s Feb. 13 rendezvous in Washington, D.C., was monitored by federal law enforcement. The Emperors Club V.I.P. escort service charged clients up to $5,500 an hour for the services of its women. A former University of Miami student who graduated from the prestigious Blair Academy in New Jersey, Suwal got her job at the Emperors Club after answering a helpwanted ad. She later moved in with the man accused of founding the service, Mark Brener. The couple lived in Cliffside Park, N.J. In a written statement released before the plea, Ebanks said Suwal wants to get on with her life. “She deeply regrets her actions. She is remorseful. She is contrite and she is determined to right her wrongs in a manner that is fair and just.” Two other defendants were charged in the investigation into the prostitution ring. Tanya Hollander, who, like Lewis, was accused of being a booking agent, pleaded innocent but has been negotiating a possible plea bargain, according to her attorney. Brener has also pleaded innocent and is awaiting trial.
Third guilty plea in prostitute ring case which led to Spitzer’s downfall The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A man accused of running an escort service that led to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s downfall will plead guilty, his lawyer said Monday. Murray Richman confirmed that Mark Brener, 62, will appear Thursday in federal court in Manhattan after negotiating a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s office. Richman declined to discuss the details of the plea but called it “fair.” “I think it would be inappropriate at this time,” he said. Richman did say the deal would be similar to the one federal prosecutors reached with Cecil Suwal. The plea deal was reached about a week ago, he said. Suwal, 23, ran the day-to-day operations of the escort service. She pleaded guilty to a pair of federal conspiracy charges on June 3. The plea bargain calls for Suwal, who has no criminal record, to receive between 21 and 27 months in prison — but a judge could depart from that recommendation. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment Monday on the Brener plea deal. Along with Suwal and Temeka Rachelle Lewis, one of the agency’s bookers, Brener would be the third of four defendants to plead guilty in the high-profile case. Prosecutors say that Spitzer was a client of the “Emperors Club V.I.P.” Spitzer resigned ignominiously March 12, leaving his reputation in tatters. He has not been charged. Lewis arranged a date between a prostitute with the pseudonym Kristen and a man identified in court papers as “Client-9,” later revealed to be Spitzer. The pair’s Feb. 13 rendezvous in Washington, D.C., was monitored by federal law enforcement. She pleaded guilty in May to promoting prostitution and money laundering. Lewis agreed to tell everything to federal authorities but there was no provision in Suwal’s arrangement calling on her to cooperate with investigators in the probe of the ring’s activities. Another hooker booker, Tanya Hollander, is also in plea talks with the federal government, her lawyer said. Michael C. Farkas said his client hopes to reach a resolution in the next couple of weeks. “We’ve been actively discussing a plea with the government,” Farkas said. Brener, a widower and former financial consultant from Israel, had a license to represent taxpayers before the IRS. He lived in Cliffside Park, N.J. with Suwal — a former University of Miami student who graduated from a prestigious prep school.
Brener, a widower and former financial consultant from Israel, had a license to represent taxpayers before the IRS. He lived in Cliffside Park, N.J. with Suwal — a former University of Miami student who graduated from a prestigious prep school.
SEE---we are all the same.....folks can say what they want about 'trailer park trash' or what ever the popular adjective is being used......but, get this, these folks are in the Paris Hilton class.....ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.......
I guess we all look the same with our pants down, after all.............
WOW!!!!!!......and we complain about politicians......scumbags.....dorks......and the rest of us stand before whom?----the judges of our conscience.....I say screw our conscience......why bother?????......is it all made of glass or cards??????
signed dissident
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
But we want to hear about Spitzer. Other than his book and movie deal, what's he been up to? And obviously no charges filed against him...yet!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Another guilty plea in Spitzer scandal The Associated Press
NEW YORK — The last of four defendants charged in the prostitution scandal that brought down former Gov. Eliot Spitzer pleaded guilty Monday to arranging trysts between high-priced escorts and clients. Tanya Robin Hollander, of Rhinebeck, admitted she conspired to violate the travel act, which prohibits crossing state lines to further an illegal business. Hollander, who worked as a booker for the Emperors Club VIP, told the court she began looking for work early last year to supplement her job as a holistic health counselor. She said she began working for the service in June 2007, arranging dates between hookers and customers at various locations in the United States and Europe. U.S. District Court Judge Deborah A. Batts asked Hollander if she knew what she was doing was against the law. “It became apparent,” Hollander said. With the plea, Hollander became the last of four club employees arrested in March to admit a role in the illicit business. Prosecutors haven’t revealed whether Spitzer will be charged in the probe, which began last summer after a series of suspicious banking transactions. Spitzer resigned March 12 after he was identified as Client-9, whose meeting with a prostitute known as Kristen in a Washington, D.C., hotel the night before Valentine’s Day was outlined in an affidavit filed in connection with the case. In June, Emperors Club VIP operator Mark Brener, 62, of Cliffside Park, N.J., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a prostitution offense and conspiracy to commit money laundering. That month Brener’s former girlfriend, Cecil Suwal, 23, pleaded guilty to money laundering, conspiracy and conspiring to promote prostitution, admitting her role as a manager of the company. In May, Temeka Lewis, a booking agent for the escort service, pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution and money laundering. All three await sentencing. Hollander does not have a cooperating agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office. Her lawyer, Michael Farkas, said she tried to cooperate but the government wasn’t interested. Farkas said Hollander, 36, could receive a maximum of five years in prison. However, sentencing guidelines call for six to 12 months. The guidelines also allow the option of probation, he said. “We’re seeking the absolute minimum possible — anything to avoid jail time,” Farkas said. “We think we have a very strong argument ... she’s been honest and upfront since the beginning.” Hollander is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 25.
Spitzer confronts a life without political power Six months after quitting in disgrace as governor, ex-star weighs past, future
By DANNY HAKIM, New York Times First published: Sunday, September 28, 2008
ALBANY -- Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer was reading his newspaper on a recent Thursday morning when he was jolted by a comment made by his successor, David Paterson. In the 22nd paragraph of a New York Times article on Aug. 21, Paterson said that aides to Spitzer had lacked experience in Albany, and added that the Spitzer administration's management approach sometimes "just didn't work."
Spitzer grew upset, according to a senior aide to Paterson and another official. He picked up the phone, reached a Paterson aide, demanded a public apology from the governor and "issued threats, veiled and unveiled" against Paterson, said aide, who insisted on anonymity because he did not want to anger either man.
No public apology was offered; Spitzer and Paterson have not spoken since June.
Six months have passed since Spitzer's breathtakingly quick exodus from office after being implicated as a patron of a prostitution ring. One day, Eliot Laurence Spitzer was a national figure some saw destined for the White House; the next he was a target of ridicule.
Now, in interviews with friends and former aides, and through e-mail messages obtained through a Freedom of Information request by The New York Times, a picture emerges of Spitzer trying to focus on the future and his family, with the threat of criminal charges still hanging over him. He is working at the real estate firm owned by his ailing, 84-year-old father, and has discussed with friends whether to undertake charity, environmental or free legal work to try to rehabilitate his image.
But despite his efforts to move forward, Spitzer can be moved by flashes of anger, especially when it comes to what he views as his achievements and legacy, and he has faced an adjustment as he confronts life without the power he once wielded.
On Sept. 18, approached by a reporter outside his father's Fifth Avenue office, he lamented the federal rescue of American International Group, the giant insurer, and defended the aggressive steps he had taken to force the ouster of its chairman, Maurice R. Greenberg, in 2005 amid an accounting scandal.
He said his political demise shouldn't diminish his achievements. "I committed my sins, and I've paid for them," he said. Then he added, referring to AIG: "But I was right."
Asked how he was doing, he shrugged and responded, with resignation and a degree of joylessness: "Making money is making money," before heading inside the building. He declined to speak further.
Spitzer's daily routine, once scrutinized by a roving pack of reporters, aides and cameras, has taken on a more quotidian feel. He sometimes jogs in Central Park before work, buys his own cup of coffee, drops his daughters at the school bus and hails his own cab to the Fifth Avenue office building that houses his family's real estate business.
The glare of the cameras has been replaced with fleeting moments of recognition in an Upper East Side neighborhood. Sometimes people offer him supportive words or smiles. Construction workers snicker at him, and cabdrivers take pictures of him on their cell phones.
It wasn't like this when the news first broke in March. Then there were gestures of comfort from the powerful inhabitants of Spitzer's world. Former Vice President Al Gore reached out to him, as did Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, according to e-mail records. Ethel Kennedy, widow of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, relayed to the governor a quotation to lift his spirits. "Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall," Kennedy wrote, adding: "See you back on top."
Spitzer was so moved by the words that when he resigned a few days later, he used them in his short resignation speech.
The same week, Spitzer sent an e-mail message to a top aide describing the personal turmoil he had brought to his family. "We are surviving," he wrote. "Silda has tough moments. My job now is to take care of her. I have done more than my share of damage."
Assemblyman Mark Weprin, a Queens Democrat who has been close to the Spitzers, recalls the former governor telling him at the time: "It's been horrible living a Greek tragedy." He added: "But what am I'm going to do?"
At 49, Spitzer is plotting a second act, though his life will be in limbo until his legal troubles are resolved. Over the last two months, four of those charged in the prostitution ring have pleaded guilty, including a booking agent who, as part of her plea deal, has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Prosecutors have not signaled whether they will charge the former governor.
He is expected to appear before the state's Commission on Public Integrity, which is hearing an appeal from a former aide who the commission has said improperly used the state police to gather damaging information about the Senate Republican leader at the time, Joseph L. Bruno. The aide, Darren Dopp, has suggested that Spitzer was more involved in the effort to undermine Bruno than he has acknowledged.
Most of the former governor's friends were reluctant to speak about the state of the Spitzers' marriage -- a grim-looking Silda Wall Spitzer remains one of the most searing images of Spitzer's brief appearances after the story broke.
Herbert E. Nass, a Manhattan lawyer and friend of Spitzer's, said the former governor was contrite.
"He's remorseful, and I think he's focused on his wife and his kids," Nass said. "He walks home from work and tells me he's gotten positive -- he hasn't gotten a lot of negative stuff out in public -- and he's focused on his family." He and his wife have three daughters.
His friends say they do not have a deep understanding of the couple's bond, but say that it appears intact. Wall Spitzer has emerged more publicly in recent weeks, writing an appeal that was highlighted on a Fortune magazine Web site for the charity she founded, "Children for Children."
"I think the marriage is going to stick together, but whether it does long term, who knows?" said Weprin. "Who knows about any marriage? But it survived the bumpiest ride it could."
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