Thread: NY Republicans threaten to impeach Gov. Spitzer

NY Republicans threaten to impeach Gov. Spitzer
Tue Mar 11, 2008 3:16pm
Claudia Parsons

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York State Republicans threatened on Tuesday to impeach Gov. Eliot Spitzer if he does not quit over a sex scandal that has raised questions over whether he could face criminal charges.

The threat added to pressure on Spitzer, a Democrat and former state chief prosecutor who made his name fighting white-collar crime on Wall Street, to step down after a report that he hired a high-priced prostitute.

The Wall Street Journal quoted a person close to Spitzer, who is 48 and married, as saying he could resign as early as Tuesday but he wanted to deal with his family crisis first.

"If he does not resign within the next 24 to 48 hours, we will prepare articles of impeachment to remove him," said James Tedisco, leader of the Republicans in the state Assembly.

"We need a leader in place that has the support of people on both sides of the aisle," Tedisco told Reuters.

Democrats hold a majority in the Assembly and such a move toward ousting the governor would not succeed unless some Democrats voted with Republicans to produce the required majority vote.

The New York Times said on Monday that Spitzer hired a $1,000-an-hour prostitute and was caught on a federal wiretap at least six times on February 12 and 13 arranging to meet with her at a Washington hotel.

Spitzer, who investigated prostitution as New York state's chief prosecutor but was best known for his high-profile probes of Wall Street, apologized on Monday for what he described as a "private matter" but said nothing about resigning.

He neither confirmed nor denied the report.

"Eliot Spitzer, the onetime nemesis of Wall Street now engulfed in a sex scandal, is likely to resign, perhaps as early as today, according to a person close to him," the Wall Street Journal said on its Web site on Tuesday.

Tedisco said on Monday night that he had received a phone call from Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson to discuss a possible transition of power if Spitzer resigns.

Paterson was quoted by The New York Times as saying in the state capital Albany that he had not spoken to Spitzer since a phone call on Monday.

"The governor called me yesterday, he said he didn't resign for a number of reasons, and he didn't go into the reasons, and that's the last I've heard from him," he was quoted as saying.

Spitzer, viewed as a rising star in the Democratic Party, spent the night at his Manhattan home with the media camped outside.

FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

The New York Times, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, reported on Tuesday that the investigation began last year during an Internal Revenue Service review of suspicious financial transactions as reported to it by banks.

"The payments were made over a period of several months in a way that investigators believe was intended to conceal their purpose and source, which could amount to a crime called structuring," punishable by up to five years in prison, the Times said.

Spitzer was elected with nearly 70 percent of the vote in late 2006 following his stint as state attorney general -- when he conducted a series of investigations into financial cases, attracting much publicity but also resentment on Wall Street.

The Wall Street Journal said Spitzer had shown his lack of restraint in overly aggressive tactics as attorney general, making "extraordinary threats" to entire firms and to those who criticized his pursuit of high-profile Wall Street figures.

"The stupendously deluded belief that the sitting Governor of New York could purchase the services of prostitutes was merely the last act of a man unable to admit either the existence of, or need for, limits," it said in an editorial.

At the heart of the scandal is a criminal complaint unveiled last week charging four people with running a prostitution ring dubbed The Emperors Club. Two of the four suspects are in custody while the other two are out on bail.

Prostitution is illegal in most U.S. states but prosecutors rarely bring charges against clients of prostitutes in such cases. The "Emperors Club" case is in the hands of federal investigators, rather than state prosecutors.

The New York Times said Spitzer was an individual identified as Client 9 in federal court papers filed last week. Client 9 arranged to meet with "Kristen," a prostitute who charged $1,000 an hour, on February 13 in a Washington hotel and paid her $4,300, according to the court documents.

Among the federal charges against the four defendants last week was transporting women across state lines for prostitution purposes. Legal experts say it would be unusual for a similar charge to be brought against a client.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kearney, Daniel Trotta, Emily Chasan, Michelle Nichols and Joan Gralla in Albany; editing by Frances Kerry)

(For more on the Eliot Spitzer case, see Reuters online at:

http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/eliotspitzer)

http://www.reuters.com/article/politics ... 7520080311

Spitzer Faces Impeachment Threat as Reports Indicate Sex Arrangements Since 2002Tuesday, March 11, 2008

NEW YORK — New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer faced a crescendo of calls for him to step down Tuesday even as new reports surfaced that he has been soliciting prostitutes dating back as far as 2002.

The New York Post cited sources who say Spitzer has been arranging for sex at least for six years, a day after reports first surfaced that Spitzer allegedly is the person known only as "Client 9" in a federal affidavit about a high-priced prostitution ring that became public last week.

According to the affidavit, Client 9 arranged to meet a prostitute from the Emperors Club VIP sex organization in Washington, D.C., last month. Spitzer's public schedule shows he visited Washington at the same time.

Spitzer is considering resigning, but there are no plans for such an announcement Tuesday, a spokesman in the governor's office told FOX News. The spokesman also said Spitzer had not yet come to a decision on whether or not to resign.

Amid increasing demands for Spitzer to step down, The Wall Street Journal cited a person close to the governor saying he could resign as soon as Tuesday evening.

New York Republicans will seek to impeach Spitzer if he does not resign within 48 hours, New York Assembly Republican leader James Tedisco told FOX News exclusively.

Women of the Emperor's Club New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer Tedisco, speaking on FOX News' "Hannity & Colmes," said: "We believe it is an illegal activity he has been involved with.

"We're going to give him 24 to 48 hours to do the right thing, and the right thing is to resign because he has been compromised. If that's not the case ... we're going to ask the speaker to start impeachment proceedings," Tedisco said Monday night.

• Video: Click here to watch the clip of Tedisco speaking on 'Hannity & Colmes.'

• Click here to read the transcript of Tedisco's appearance on 'Hannity & Colmes.'

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press Tuesday that the governor first came under suspicion because of cash payments from several bank accounts to an account operated by a call-girl ring.

Spitzer was the initial target of the investigation and was tracked using court-ordered wiretaps that appear to have recorded him arranging for a prostitute to meet him at a Washington hotel in mid-February, the official said.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

The scandal surrounding the man who built his political reputation on rooting out corruption stunned the state. Calls for Spitzer's resignation began immediately and intensified Tuesday, with the New York Daily News, New York Post and Newsday all demanding that he step down.

"Hit the road, John ... and make it quick!" read the headline of the Daily News editorial; The Post called him "NY's naked emperor."

Spitzer retreated from public view Monday afternoon, after he appeared glassy-eyed with his shellshocked wife, Silda, at his side and apologized to his family and the public, but did not directly acknowledge any involvement with the prostitute.

"I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my -- or any -- sense of right and wrong," he said. "I apologize to the public, whom I promised better."

• Video: Click here to watch Spitzer's statement.

• Click here for photos.

Spitzer allegedly paid for the call girl to take a train from New York to Washington -- a move that opened the transaction up to federal prosecution because she crossed state lines. The governor has not been charged, and prosecutors would not comment on the case. A Spitzer spokesman said the governor has retained a large Manhattan law firm.

The case started when banks noticed the frequent transfers from several accounts and filed suspicious activity reports with the Internal Revenue Service, the law enforcement official told the AP. The accounts were traced back to Spitzer, prompting public corruption investigators to open an inquiry.

Although there were reports that Attorney General Michael Mukasey was made aware of the investigation because it involved a high-ranking public official, or that Mukasey signed off on the investigation, Justice Department sources tell FOX News that is not the case.

The inquiry found that Spitzer was a repeat customer with the Emperors Club VIP, a high-end prostitution service, the official said. In an affidavit filed in Manhattan federal court last week, Spitzer appeared as "Client 9," according to another law enforcement official who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

• Click here to see photos of the women of Emperors Club

• Click here to read the complaint.

Client 9 wanted a high-priced prostitute named Kristen to come to Washington on a 5:39 p.m. train from Manhattan Feb. 13. The door to the hotel room would be left ajar. Train tickets, cab fare, room service, and the minibar were all on him.

"Yup, same as in the past. No question about it," the caller told Kristen's boss, when asked if he would make his payment to the same business as usual, a federal affidavit said. The client paid $4,300 to Kristen, touted by the escort service as a "petite, pretty brunette," according to the court papers.

The Feb. 13 tryst took place in the Mayflower hotel, where Spitzer rented a second room for the woman under another name, the law enforcement official who spoke to The AP on Tuesday said. Spitzer had to sneak past his State Police detail to get to her room, the official said.

According to the court papers, an Emperors Club agent was told by the prostitute that her evening with Client 9 went well. The agent said she had been told that the client "would ask you to do things that ... you might not think were safe ... very basic things," according to the papers, but Kristen responded by saying: "I have a way of dealing with that ... I'd be, like, listen dude, you really want the sex?"

Spitzer, a 48-year-old father of three teenage girls, was elected with a historic margin of victory, and took office Jan. 1, 2007, vowing to stamp out corruption in New York government in the same way that he took on Wall Street executives while state attorney general.

Spitzer's cases as attorney general included a few criminal prosecutions of prostitution rings and tourism involving prostitutes. He also uncovered crooked practices and self-dealing in the stock brokerage and insurance industries and in corporate board rooms; he went after former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso over his $187.5 million compensation package.

Spitzer become known as the "Sheriff of Wall Street." Time magazine named him "Crusader of the Year," and the tabloids proclaimed him "Eliot Ness." The square-jawed graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law was sometimes mentioned as a potential presidential candidate.

Spitzer's term as governor has been fraught with problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear his main Republican nemesis.

It would not be the first time that a high-profile politician became ensnared in a prostitution scandal. Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana acknowledged in July that his Washington phone number was among those called several years ago by an escort service.

Scandals also recently derailed neighboring Connecticut Gov. John Rowland and New Jersey's Jim McGreevey. And Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested last June in a Minneapolis airport restroom.

Attention turned to the New York's lieutenant governor, David Paterson, who automatically will become governor if Spitzer quits. There was no immediate comment from Paterson, who would become the state's first black governor.

There was no word on Spitzer's plans, but Tedisco said Tuesday he had received a call from Paterson.

Tedisco said Paterson raised the possibility of Spitzer's resignation by asking if Tedisco, who has been at odds with the governor, would be willing to start fresh with him.

"He called me to ask if we would give him the benefit of the doubt, and go forward," Tedisco said. "I told him we would.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336688,00.html