Sifting the Wreckage for the Real Eliot Spitzer

By Danny Hakim and Michael Powell
The New York Times
March 23, 2008

The e-mail message was time-stamped Dec. 18, 2007. It was sent at 5 a.m. It did not mince words.

"I’ve been up all night, I haven’t been able to sleep thinking how we’ve gotten to this position," it began, according to one recipient’s recollection.

The author of the e-mail message was Eliot Spitzer, the 54th governor of New York. His administration was just days from the end of its first year, and his poll numbers were abysmal. And now the morning newspapers had another report of another set of subpoenas issued as part of an investigation into the administration’s effort to tarnish a Republican rival.

The heat of Mr. Spitzer’s frustration and anger, according to two senior aides who read the early morning message, all but radiated off their computers and BlackBerrys.

Mr. Spitzer ordered a 7:30 a.m. conference call. He canceled plans to attend a forum in the Bronx on predatory lending in poor neighborhoods, suggesting it was a waste of time when "everything was falling apart."

One aide recalled the thrust of Mr. Spitzer’s fury: We’re disasters; I am surrounded by idiots. Another remembered it this way: Rome is burning, and I’m supposed to be up in the Bronx talking about predatory lending.

"He was clearly very upset," one of the aides said. "It was somewhere between the typical thing and the far end of the typical thing."

Mr. Spitzer announced his resignation 11 days ago, after reports of something that was substantially beyond "the far end of the typical thing" — his involvement as a client of a high-priced prostitution ring.

Interviews in recent days with a handful of people close to Mr. Spitzer, almost all of them still shocked and confused, suggested that no one had figured out, for certain, what had happened. Was Mr. Spitzer’s conduct an aberrant episode, as short-lived as it was out of character? Or had the man they had served with passion and devotion been living a secret second life for years?

"Nothing from my experience meshes with this, so it’s hard not to feel badly for him," an aide said. "As torn as we are and confused by it all, he was great to work for and it’s a loss."

It is hard to say what role, if any, Mr. Spitzer’s escalating disappointment in Albany played in his extraordinarily risky, self-destructive behavior, and it remains unclear when his once seemingly idyllic life went so awry. But the interviews with his aides and others who encountered him over the last several months made it clear that he had come to feel deeply ambivalent about his job as governor, the latest, grandest political prize in what many calculated would be a rise that could take him to the White House.

In fact, several aides said that 14 months into his term, he felt profoundly exasperated with the experience of trying to bend a powerful and divided State Legislature to his will.

He just could not accept the way things worked, or did not work, in Albany, the aides said. He was offended to the point of distraction by the fact that his chief rival, Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, was seen by many to have outmaneuvered and outwitted him. Mr. Bruno had taken to calling him "a spoiled rich-kid brat."

And the aides, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity out of deference to the wounded Mr. Spitzer, said the former governor, for all of his estimable brilliance, was often a poor chief executive: combative, micromanaging, and unable to take a long view when things went wrong.

Despite Albany’s often dysfunctional ways, there were allies to be had, coalitions to be assembled. But he most often saw them as enemies, all part of a system that had thwarted reform.

"He was much too angry at too many people and too many institutions to be effective," recalled Dan Cantor, executive director of the labor-backed Working Families Party. "His enemies were against him and his friends were deserting him."

Fury and moments of surrender characterized his last nine months, but in truth Mr. Spitzer was always a politician of the most intense, high-strung order, whose outbursts were the stuff of legend. But his eruptions seemed particularly ill suited for the role of executive.

Mr. Spitzer’s unhappiness generated its own collateral damage. Several aides said Mr. Spitzer had begun drinking more than his usual nightly glass of scotch. And his wife, a loyal and reliable support during Mr. Spitzer’s years of unchecked success, appeared to find the role harder to play when each month seemed to bring some fresh setback.

But if much of Mr. Spitzer’s undoing remains hard to fathom, there are, for those who worked with him or encountered him of late, indelible images of a man who had seemed so suited to his last job, struggling to find his way in his new one.

Albany, July 9
The Capitol

Eliot Spitzer sat in his office on the second floor, on a chair in front of his desk.

He began the interview, talking with his usual bravura and staccato pace about the ugly breakdown in budget negotiations — hitting all his talking points, staying, as only he could, relentlessly on message.

Republicans had been spreading word that the governor had called Mr. Bruno "senile." They said he had sent his men to spy on Mr. Bruno, too.

Mr. Spitzer seemed customarily confident, even defiant.

However, the life in his voice, like the sunlight late that afternoon, soon began to drain.

It was Day 190 of his administration — a term that had begun with his promise that everything that was dysfunctional and hopelessly partisan about Albany would change with his swearing-in.

But as the conversation wore on, that promise — that he would bring a kind of constructive passion back to Albany — began to feel distant, naVve, even lost.

And then he was asked a question about his wife. He was, in that moment, no longer a prosecutor trying a case, and the veneer of toughness that he and his handlers had taken years to build up fell away almost completely.

There was quiet for several seconds.

"This, this is harder," he said, speaking with care about his wife, Silda, "because she looks at me and she says, ‘Do you really want this stuff? And do you want this for your kids and do you want them to see this stuff?’ "

He paused again.

The reporter started to continue. "Just all the ——"

"Yeah," Mr. Spitzer said. "It’s ugly."

For a second, he flashed again with enthusiasm, speaking of a run he had taken with one of his daughters the day before.

"We had a great time," he said. "I ran with Sarabeth in Utica, and it was spectacular. She beat me, which was great. But then you pick up the papers and you see this stuff."

He paused again, looking nothing short of fragile.

"Well, you know," he said. "There it is."

His eyes were moist.

Manhattan, Sept. 21
The Grand Hyatt Hotel

The governor’s old allies had in mind tough love, not an arm-breaking session. Mr. Cantor and Bob Master, another leader of the Working Families Party, walked into the lobby of the Grand Hyatt New York.

Governor Spitzer was holding a morning of political meetings upstairs. The Working Families Party had endorsed Mr. Spitzer and worked hard for his election. But in the last eight months he had fought with the party over his effort to push through a campaign finance bill that would limit union spending on elections and he had repeatedly insulted the powerful health care workers’ union and the Democratic-controlled State Assembly.

Richard Baum, the secretary to the governor, greeted them in the lobby, three people who were at the meeting recalled. Mr. Cantor previewed his talk in the elevator: The governor had to massage his allies; he had to move on issues like family leave, which played to his political base. And he should not view the political world as divided between the virtuous and the venal.

Mr. Baum smiled, warily. "This should be interesting," one person recalled him saying. The governor was not used to hearing that sort of criticism.

They took their seats in the governor’s suite, seven or eight men in a tight cluster. Mr. Cantor, glancing at his notes, cataloged their discontents. At the end the governor leaned in, his face less than 12 inches from Mr. Cantor’s.

And Mr. Spitzer began screaming.

"You have no standing to lecture me," he said, expletives punctuating virtually every third syllable. "You’re part of the system that is the whole problem in this state."

A year’s worth of perceived slights poured out, as he recalled old political races gone bad and proposals that had died in the Legislature. Curse piled upon curse, spittle flying.

"In the world of politics, calculated rage is really common," recalled a man who was in the room. "But this was not calculated; this was pure rage and kind of scary to watch."

Mr. Spitzer bolted upright and walked toward the door. He turned, and said: "I’m going to announce that I’m giving licenses to the undocumented." Mr. Cantor did a double take. This was worst possible time for a wounded governor to embark on that initiative, no matter how progressive. "You’re going to get killed on this," he warned, and in fact it would become another in the governor’s first-year collection of failures.

Mr. Spitzer waved him off. He suffered no deficit of confidence.

"No, no, no!" the governor said. "It’s all good. All good."

Mr. Spitzer pivoted and walked out.

Manhattan, March 12
Office of the Governor

Eliot Spitzer had taken roughly 100 seconds to announce his resignation before a mob of TV cameras.

He exited the media room into an office hallway. The corridor was lined with young people — staff members, secretaries, idealists and overachievers. He could have easily averted them and walked directly to his office.

But if Mr. Spitzer was disgraced, he did not shrink from the challenge.

"He was at the far end, and he made the point of walking down the length of the hallway," said one aide who was there. "There was a gantlet of people, and he said what he said.

"I don’t know how you find the words to talk to a young staff at a moment like that," the aide noted, "but he did it."

Mr. Spitzer reassured the young people that their futures were still ahead of them. He warned against making the same mistakes he had, from the modest to the catastrophic.

"People think it was hubris and that he must have been a fraud, but that’s not right," another aide said of the former governor. "He was a very good man who lost himself due to a combination of factors.

"He wanted so much to change things in Albany, but it didn’t work out the way he planned. He couldn’t meet the expectations of the public or the expectations he set for himself. They said he was pushing too hard and not pushing hard enough, that he was Mr. Softee and a steamroller. He felt damned if he did and damned if he didn’t at every turn."

In such circumstances, without the ability to adjust or relax, "it’s only a matter of time before you self-destruct," the aide said. "Ironically, he knew full well that he was being watched. He even talked about it. He said: ‘If we ever stumble, they’ll be merciless.’ Those were his words."

The walk down the hallway over, Mr. Spitzer cried, one of the aides said.

"I couldn’t look," the aide said.

Deciding Whether to Prosecute Spitzer Poses Sensitive Issues

By Mark Hamblett and Noeleen G. Walder
New York Law Journal
New York Lawyer
March 14, 2008

Ethical constraints on prosecutorial discretion are rarely scrutinized more than in cases of political corruption by elected officials of either major party.

Defense attorneys and former prosecutors said yesterday that U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia has to tread carefully in deciding whether or not to prosecute Eliot Spitzer, who has already been driven from the governor's mansion by revelations that he hired a prostitute through a high-priced escort service.

Responding to what he said was "press speculation," Mr. Garcia released a statement shortly after the governor's announcement that he would resign effective Monday, saying, "There is no agreement between this Office and Governor Eliot Spitzer, relating to his resignation or any other matter."

The "any other matter" is a reference to negotiations between attorneys for Mr. Spitzer and prosecutors with Mr. Garcia's Public Corruption Unit, headed by Boyd Johnson.

The government reportedly is considering bringing charges against Mr. Spitzer in connection with his alleged hiring of a prostitute who crossed state lines to journey from New York to Washington, D.C., for a rendezvous at the Mayflower Hotel.

One former prosecutor who preferred anonymity said, "If you are a prosecutor thinking about this situation you have to ask yourself if it's fair to bring charges when we don't normally prosecute johns. You always have to wrestle with the question, 'Am I prosecuting this person because he or she is a public figure?'"

And that question has another side, he said.

"What's tough in a situation like this is to find the appropriate balance. On the one hand, you don't want to be unfair by prosecuting someone for conduct the average person wouldn't be prosecuted for, but you also don't want to create the false impression that someone is getting away with something because they are a public figure or a celebrity."

George S. Canellos of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy is the former head of the major crimes unit in the Southern District U.S. Attorney's Office who has been involved in investigations of high-profile public figures.

He said it is "very important to be equitable and principled in applying your discretion to ensure that a public figure is not treated any differently from a similarly situated person in a case that does not uniquely involve that person's public position."

Mr. Canellos added, "In my view, you have to make a prosecutorial decision that is going to have a general application to a number of potentially similarly situated targets and subjects."

Charles Stillman of Stillman & Friedman, said the resignation of Mr. Spitzer changes the equation for Mr. Garcia significantly, but not entirely.

"So here is the U.S. attorney's office and the Justice Department distancing itself from the resignation and kind of announcing, 'We didn't force him out, he resigned,' and saying, 'We are going to look at this and examine whether there is a viable criminal justice step to be taken here,'" Mr. Stillman said. "With Spitzer no longer in office, they are free to look at him as a private citizen and determine whether private citizen Spitzer violated the criminal law while in public office."

The sensitivity of the decision whether to prosecute Mr. Spitzer may be increased by what some have said is the Bush administration's politicization of the U.S. Justice Department. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, a former New York federal judge, has pledged that politics would play no part in prosecutorial decisions.

Mr. Spitzer is represented by Michele Hirshman of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison who has been joined by her fellow partners and white-collar defense veterans Theodore V. Wells Jr. and Mark F. Pomerantz.

Attorneys for the governor attended yesterday's news conference at which he read a brief statement admitting to only "private failings."

Their task, other attorneys say, is to convince prosecutors that charging Mr. Spitzer would not just be unlikely to succeed, but would also be unfair. Inevitably, public perception comes into play, particularly because prosecutors must be mindful of the deterrent effect of seeking and obtaining a conviction.

High-Profile Targets?

When media mogul Martha Stewart was on trial for lying to federal agents probing possible insider trading violations, her lawyer, Robert G. Morvillo of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, suggested to the jury that Ms. Stewart was targeted for her high profile. But prosecutors in the Southern District insisted it was common for the office to indict non-celebrities for the same offenses.

As to the speculation Mr. Garcia was referring to in his press release, it was not clear whether he was referring simply to any connection between the resignation and a potential prosecution or referring to speculation in the broader sense - such as in whether Mr. Spitzer may have exposed himself to criminal liability under the Mann Act, laws that prohibit structuring of financial transactions to avoid bank reporting requirements, money laundering or other statutes.

Mark C. Zauderer of Flemming Zulack Williamson Zauderer, who has represented clients in cases against then-Attorney General Spitzer - including the fight over Richard Grasso's pay package at the New York Stock Exchange - said that based on what has been reported publicly so far, Mr. Spitzer's "legal situation might not be as drastic" as has been suggested.

If charges are brought under the Mann Act or the structuring laws, Mr. Zauderer said, Mr. Spitzer could assert "very credible defenses," including that he lacked the intent to evade the reporting requirements needed to support a conviction for structuring.

Mr. Zauderer said that prosecutors should refrain from being "overzealous" given the "significant personal penalty" Mr. Spitzer has paid for his indiscretions.

Mr. Spitzer's decision to resign removed one problem for Mr. Garcia, attorneys said, in that the U.S. attorney can avoid the difficulties inherent in bringing charges that could result in an elected official being removed from office.

Former Southern District U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White was confronted with those problems when she was assigned the task of investigating whether Democratic New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli broke the law in accepting cash and gifts from David Chang, a wealthy contributor who pleaded guilty in 2000 to charges that included making illegal contributions to a Torricelli campaign.

But Mr. Chang proved to be less than an ideal witness and Ms. White announced in 2002 that she was ending what she called an "exhaustive investigation" without bringing charges.

The lawyers for Mr. Torricelli were Mr. Pomerantz and Mr. Wells and they targeted Mr. Chang as a "pathological liar and admitted perjurer."

Edward J.M. Little is a Hughes Hubbard & Reed partner who worked in the public corruption unit in the Southern District for eight years.

"My bottom line is I would think they would exercise discretion in not bringing" charges against Mr. Spitzer, Mr. Little said.

Unless new evidence emerges that government funds were involved, it appears Mr. Spitzer's conduct did not go toward his governmental duties and it could be viewed as "overkill" if prosecutors bring charges, Mr. Little added.

Former Southern District prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy, now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said, "This kind of stuff always depends on what the evidence is."

He added, "If you're talking about money laundering" and tens of thousands of dollars, "that's going to cut in the direction of pulling the trigger" and charging Mr. Spitzer.

"The Southern District prosecutes a lot of high-profile people and has a lot of high-profile cases," said Mr. McCarthy, and Mr. Spitzer's prominence should not "have any impact on the office."

And while prosecutors usually do not prosecute customers who patronize prostitutes, he said it "would be highly unusual to walk away" from serious evidence of money laundering.

Mr. McCarthy also said there was a question on what kind of weight, if any, to give to the governor's resignation yesterday.

"If I had been the U.S. attorney, I would not have used Governor Spitzer's" resignation as a "private chit," Mr. McCarthy said, nonetheless adding that he would take a resignation into account as a "mitigating factor" when deciding whether to bring charges.

"To the extent there's points to be awarded [for resigning], he gets them," Mr. McCarthy said.

Omg! I Just Did the Governor!
Spitz Hooker's Dc Discovery

By Murray Weiss and Lukas I. Alpert
New York Post
March 14, 2008

March 14, 2008 -- The high-priced hooker at the center of Gov. Spitzer's sex scandal trysted with him several times before he was caught on a wiretap - but it was only during their last encounter that she realized the real identity of her john, sources said yesterday.

CLICK FOR EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS OF 'KRISTEN'

* PHOTOS: Ashley And Her Family

* PHOTOS: Ashley Dupre

"Oh, my God! Do you know who this guy is?" a shocked Ashley Alexandra Dupre asked her bosses at the Emperors Club VIP escort service, a source said.

The comment came after her $4,300 meeting with Spitzer at a Washington hotel on Feb. 13.

'KRISTEN'S VIDEOS'

WATCH Behind the Scenes Shots From Dupre's Video

WATCH the music video in its entirety.

The 22-year-old call girl had several dates with the governor over the past year, the sources said, but always knew him as "George Fox" - the name of one of Spitzer's close friends that he used to hide his identity.

But just before Dupre - whom Spitzer knew as "Kristen" - had her startling revelation, federal authorities caught the governor on tape giving them enough evidence to take down the sex ring, paving the way for his embarrassing resignation.

Meanwhile, as the Democratic governor prepared to slink out of office on Monday with his tail between his legs, sordid details of Dupre's decline into prostitution emerged.

* Gov's Hooker Can Bare All

* She's Just A 'Babe'

* PEYSER: Boo-ho! Don't Shed Any Tears For This Busty Brat

Sources say Dupre got involved with the Emperors Club as early as 2006 after responding to an ad from the agency seeking girls to "party" with deep-pocketed men.

After meeting with her, the escort service's operators liked what they saw. She took to the job quickly.

"Like all of them, she wanted to hang out with guys with money," a source said.

After moving to New York to pursue a music career in 2004, Dupre worked as a cocktail waitress, hostess and bartender at New York hot spots like Viscaya, Pink Elephant and Retox. She partied with club promoters and bragged about hobnobbing with hip-hoppers like Sean "Diddy" Combs.

"She's been hanging around the night-life scene for a few years," said one well-connected club source. "She's definitely a party girl. She was out four, five nights a week and was a staple. She danced on tables and had fun."

MORE: Paterson: Easy On Eliot

MORE: Troopers Probed In Spitz Tryst

MORE: How's Dirty Tricks? Not Over Yet: Panel

Few knew she was financing her high-octane lifestyle through the oldest profession on earth.

"Nobody knew she was a prostitute," the club source said. "Everyone assumes it goes on, but you never know which girls are involved. Now it makes sense where her Cartier watch, her Louis Vuitton bathing suit and her trips to St.-Tropez came from."

Dupre continued her pursuit of a music career and in early 2007 had a photographer friend shoot glamour photos of her to use in her portfolio.

Shot in a Manhattan studio, the pictures show a smoky-eyed Dupre, sporting tattoos in both Latin and Arabic. Some of them read: "What does not destroy me makes me stronger," "Protect your own," and "Never give up."

On her MySpace page - where she admitted, "Yeah, I did it," after word of her involvement with Spitzer emerged - Dupre described struggling with drugs. Sources said the tattoos were mantras to help keep her clean.

Born Ashley Youmans, Dupre grew up in Seaside Heights and Wall Township by the Jersey Shore. She also mentioned being abused while growing up, saying it forced her to run away - a claim one family friend called ridiculous.

"She crashed up [her stepdad's] Porsche and wanted another one, and he wouldn't give it to her, so she left," said the friend, who asked her name not be printed.

Additional reporting by Corynne Steindler, Erin Calabrese, Bill Hoffmann, Austin Fenner and Carolyn Salazar

On Trips, Eliot Spitzer Mixed Business
with High-Priced Prostitute Pleasure

By James Gordon Meek, Brian Kates and Greg B. Smith
New York Daily News
March 13, 2008

When disgraced Gov. Spitzer arranged hookups with high-priced prostitutes at out-of-state hotels, he would always have another reason to make the trip.

Sometimes it was a campaign fund-raiser, sometimes a speech to a political group, sometimes official business like testifying before Congress, according to sources close to the probe, court papers and state records.

The trips raise questions about whether Spitzer used tax money to fund illegal activity or violated laws that prohibit politicians from using campaign funds for personal expenses.

One city where investigators say Spitzer enjoyed a rendezvous with a hooker was Dallas, law enforcement sources said Wednesday.

The source would not say exactly when, but a review of Spitzer's campaign finance records reveal he held a fund-raiser at Dallas' elegant Hotel Crescent Court last October.

About 60 people attended, according to Jess Hay, the retired CEO of Lomas Financial Corp., who contributed $1,000 to Spitzer. Hay was surprised to learn about Spitzer's alleged trysts in Dallas.

"I am saddened," he said, calling the scandal "a betrayal of the principles he articulated during his career."

Sources also said Spitzer had multiple liaisons with prostitutes in Washington.

FBI agents in Washington put him under surveillance in late January at the Mayflower Hotel but didn't catch him in action.

Spitzer's state credit card records show he's made four visits to the Mayflower: in October, again in November, a third on Feb. 6, and then the now infamous stay on Feb. 13 when he met up with a prostitute. He billed taxpayers for a total of $1,546.

Spitzer's lawyers are trying to work out a deal that minimizes his exposure to charges and punishment. He could be charged in federal court with concealing his identity in suspicious money transfers and in Washington with soliciting a prostitute.

A source said the Justice Department is not close to charging Spitzer.

Spitzer Resigns in Sex Scandal and
Turns His Attention to Healing His Family

By David Kocieniewski and Danny Hakim
The New York Times
March 13, 2008

Gov. Eliot Spitzer, whose rise to political power as a fierce enforcer of ethics in public life was undone by revelations of his own involvement with prostitutes, resigned on Wednesday, becoming the first New York governor to leave office amid scandal in nearly a century.

The resignation will be effective on Monday at noon. Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson, a state
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times legislator for 22 years and the heir to a Harlem
Eliot Spitzer, with his wife, Silda political dynasty, will be sworn in as New announcing his resignation at his York’s 55th governor, making him the state’s Manhattan office on Wednesday first black chief executive.

Mr. Spitzer announced he was stepping down at a grim appearance at his Midtown Manhattan office, less than 48 hours after it emerged that he had been intercepted on a federal wiretap confirming plans to meet a call girl from a high-priced prostitution service in Washington, leaving the public stunned and angered and bringing business in the State Capitol to a halt.

With his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, at his side, Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, said he would leave political life to concentrate on healing himself and his family.

“Over the course of my public life, I have insisted — I believe correctly — that people regardless of their position or power take responsibility for their conduct,” he said. “I can and will ask no less of myself. For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor.”

Mr. Spitzer, 48, spoke in a somber but steady voice, softening his usual barking tone. He took no questions. His wife, in a dark suit and a brightly colored scarf, looked off to the side, occasionally glancing up to reveal deep circles beneath her eyes.

Though he came into office last January with a sweeping electoral mandate for change, Mr. Spitzer’s time as governor was marked by fierce combat and costly stumbles. He faced a scandal last year after members of his staff used the State Police to disseminate damaging information about his chief Republican rival, Joseph L. Bruno, the leader of the State Senate.

Since Monday, Mr. Spitzer has been consumed with crisis, trying to salvage his marriage and his career and avoid federal charges stemming from the case.

A man defined by ambition and relentlessness, Mr. Spitzer appeared to struggle with the decision to relinquish power. On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Spitzer instructed his staff to contact the office of Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the Assembly and a fellow Democrat, to see if an impeachment vote could be avoided.

But it was clear during the discussions that it was hopeless, with many Democrats prepared to abandon him.

During his remarks, which lasted less than three minutes, Mr. Spitzer did not address the pending criminal investigation, and it remained unclear what legal issues, if any, Mr. Spitzer will face.

The United States attorney investigating the case issued a statement shortly after the resignation saying that his office does not have any arrangement with the governor.

In Albany, some of Mr. Spitzer’s staff members were clearing out their desks as Mr. Paterson and his top aides prepared to move into the executive offices. Charles O’Byrne, a longtime assistant to Mr. Paterson, is replacing Richard Baum as the governor’s top aide. Most other top Spitzer loyalists were expected to depart.

Mr. Spitzer’s resignation was accompanied by relief, shock and a sense of the surreal. Legislative leaders from both parties voiced condolences to Mr. Spitzer’s wife and three daughters and welcomed Mr. Paterson.

Mr. Bruno, who had once called Mr. Spitzer “a spoiled brat,” shunned fiery language on Wednesday.

He said he hoped Mr. Spitzer’s ignominious fall would force lawmakers to focus more intently on addressing the state’s financial crisis, and he declined to say how Mr. Spitzer’s departure might affect the fight for control of the State Senate this year.

“I’m going to leave it to the governor and his family to sort out how they deal with present circumstances and the future,” Mr. Bruno said at a morning news conference. “And frankly, I have them in my prayers.”

Many Democrats on the floor of the Assembly seemed almost jovial in the hours after Mr. Spitzer resigned. Some admitted privately that they were happy that the contentious and sometimes scolding governor was being replaced by Mr. Paterson, a likable lawmaker comfortable with the customs of Albany. Mr. Paterson will have to adjust quickly: The deadline for passing next year’s budget is March 31.

Mr. Spitzer had never seemed completely at ease in the hallways of the Capitol, and as this week’s crisis engulfed him, few in the state’s political establishment came forward to offer support. And since Monday, the governor had disappeared from public view, retreating to his Fifth Avenue apartment for what associates described as agonizing deliberations with his wife, lawyers and a handful of close friends.

The son of a wealthy real estate investor, Mr. Spitzer was educated at Princeton University and Harvard Law School and worked as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office before being elected New York’s attorney general in 1998.

It was there that Mr. Spitzer built a reputation as a prosecutorial avenger, bringing some of Wall Street’s biggest names to heel and pressuring banks, insurance companies and brokerage houses to pay defrauded investors huge settlements and to adopt tighter regulations.

The audacity of Mr. Spitzer’s vision and his combative style made him a reviled figure on Wall Street. But to millions of Americans who felt swindled in an age when executive salaries and the income gap between rich and middle class were rapidly growing, Mr. Spitzer was viewed as a guardian against corporate excess.

He was so successful at using the relatively limited office of the state attorney general to redress the regulatory failures of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission that he was swept into the governor’s office in a landslide. Some of Mr. Spitzer’s admirers mused that he might one day be the first Jewish president.

And as he stepped to the podium shortly after 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, some Wall Street traders watched gleefully as his career came to an abrupt end.

Elsewhere, Mr. Spitzer’s departure stirred other emotions. Susan B. A. Samuel of South Ozone Park, Queens, said she was proud that New York would have its first black governor.

“I’m very proud to say that he’s a brother,” said Ms. Samuel, who is black. “I’m very excited. It is kind of a sweet sorrow.”

Mr. Paterson, who asked Mr. Spitzer to delay his departure until Monday so he could be sworn in before a joint session of the Legislature, issued a brief statement offering condolences to the Spitzers and promising to quickly turn his attention to governing.

“It is now time for Albany to get back to work as the people of this state expect from us,” Mr. Paterson said.

Mr. Spitzer becomes the first New York governor to resign since 1973, when Nelson A. Rockefeller stepped down to devote himself to a policy group, and the first to be forced out since William Sulzer was impeached in 1913 over a campaign contribution fraud.

On Wednesday, Mr. Spitzer ended his remarks by pledging to return to public service outside the political realm, after a period of atonement with his family.

He invoked a common aphorism to make a final nod toward the enduring American belief in the possibility of redemption. “As human beings,” he said, “our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

Foes of Sex Trade Are Stung by the Fall of an Ally

By Nina Bernstein
New York Times
March 12, 2008

As New York’s attorney general, Eliot Spitzer had broken up prostitution rings before, but this 2004 case took on a special urgency for him. Prosecuting an international sex tourism business based in Queens, he listened to the entreaties of women’s advocates long frustrated by state laws that fell short of dealing with a sex trade expanding rapidly across borders.

And with his typical zeal, he embraced their push for new legislation, including a novel idea at its heart: Go after the men who seek out prostitutes.

It was a question of supply and demand, they all agreed. And one effective way to suppress the demand was to raise the penalties for patronizing a prostitute. In his first months as governor last year, Mr. Spitzer signed the bill into law.

Now the human rights groups, which credit him with what they call the toughest and most comprehensive anti-sex-trade law in the nation, are in shock. Mr. Spitzer stands accused of being one of the very men his law was designed to catch and punish.

“It leaves those of us who worked with his office absolutely feeling betrayed,” said Dorchen Leidholdt, director of Sanctuary for Families Legal Services, one of the leaders of the coalition that drafted the legislation.

The law, which went into effect Nov. 1, mainly deals with redefining and prosecuting forms of human trafficking, which Governor Spitzer called “modern-day slavery.” It offers help to the women who are victims of the practice, rather than treating them as participants in crime.

But it also lays the groundwork for a more aggressive crackdown on demand, by increasing the penalty for patronizing a prostitute, a misdemeanor, to up to a year in jail, from a maximum of three months.

That was a key shift in approach for New York State, and one the governor and his top aides seemed to support wholeheartedly, said Ken Franzblau, now director of the law’s implementation at the State Division of Criminal Justice Services. Generally, the law and its enforcers focus on pimps and prostitutes, and treat customers as an afterthought.

“If you eliminate the demand, you eliminate the problem,” said Mr. Franzblau, who worked for years with Equality Now, a women’s advocacy and human rights group that had long urged prosecution of the Queens sex tourism business operating as Big Apple Oriental Tours.

“In fact, the demand is really the lower-hanging fruit,” he added. “The johns are really afraid of being caught. The idea is that if we get some real penalties, and get D.A.’s to insist on them, we really could create a deterrent to this.”

For Equality Now, and a core of high-profile supporters that included Gloria Steinem and Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, the Big Apple Oriental Tours case was a frustrated seven-year campaign for prosecution that became a turning point. Even after Mr. Franzblau posed as a would-be customer, gathering what was described as “smoking-gun evidence,” the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, declined to prosecute.

Mr. Brown maintained that under state law he had no legal jurisdiction over acts of prostitution that took place in Thailand and in the Philippines, even if those acts were being promoted by a travel business operated in New York.

Mr. Spitzer disagreed. Newly re-elected as attorney general, he began an investigation, slapped the business with a civil action that shut down its Web site, and in February 2004, won a grand jury indictment of the two operators in Dutchess County, where they lived. He proclaimed it the first criminal charge against a sex tourism business based in the United States.

But the case stalled, and despite another indictment in 2005, it has yet to reach trial.

Efforts to clarify and overhaul New York’s penal code on prostitution and human trafficking seemed stuck in legislative gridlock.

“We had tremendous difficulty trying to get this law passed, year after year,” said Taina Bien-Aimé, executive director of Equality Now. “Our only hope was for Eliot Spitzer to be elected governor.”

“He understood,” she added. “He got it, unlike hundreds of other politicians and law enforcement officials that we talked to.”

She and Ms. Leidholdt said the governor put his muscle behind the legislation, detailing top aides to work with sponsors of piecemeal bills that had languished, to consult with a coalition of human rights and women’s groups, and to lobby labor unions whose support was won through provisions addressing the trafficking and exploitation of workers.

Peter Pope, one of Mr. Spitzer’s point people on the bill, declined to comment through the governor’s press secretary, Errol Cockfield.

The law explicitly made sex tourism and its promotion a crime, resolving the jurisdictional debate that had mired the Big Apple prosecution for so long. But more important, Ms. Bien-Aimé said, it demonstrated a comprehensive approach to the larger issues.

“One of the goals of the human trafficking law was the acknowledgment that demand is a critical factor in sex trafficking,” she said. “And as a result of that, it increased the penalties for patronizing a prostitute across the board, whether or not the person is trafficked.”

Too often, Ms. Bien-Aimé maintained, the public imagines a huge divide between the kind of glamorous call girl depicted in a movie like “Pretty Woman,” and the lurid, violent world of trafficked women in a film like “Eastern Promises.” But they are all part of a commercial sex industry that buys women’s bodies, she said, citing studies that put the average age of entry into prostitution in the United States at 14.

“There’s no sliding scale in the exploitation of women,” she said. “Either you exploit a woman in the commercial sex trade or you don’t.”

Because Mr. Spitzer seemed to agree, she said, “he was our hero.”

Spitzer a Repeat Customer, Investigators Say
N.Y. Governor May Have Spent $80,000
Faces GOP Impeachment Threat

Associated Press
March 11, 2008

ALBANY, N.Y. - With pressure mounting on Gov. Eliot Spitzer to resign over a call-girl scandal, investigators said Tuesday he was clearly a repeat customer who spent tens of thousands of dollars — perhaps as much as $80,000 — with the high-priced prostitution service over an extended period of time.

Spitzer and his family, meanwhile, remained secluded in their Fifth Avenue apartment, while Republicans began talking impeachment, and few if any fellow Democrats came forward to defend him. A death watch of sorts began at the state Capitol, where whispers of "What have you heard?" echoed through nearly every hallway of the ornate, 109-year-old building.

On Monday, when the scandal broke, prosecutors said in court papers that Spitzer had been caught on a wiretap spending $4,300 with the Emperors Club VIP call-girl service, with some of the money going toward a night with a prostitute named Kristen, and the rest to be used as credit toward future trysts. The papers also suggested that Spitzer had done this before.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a law enforcement official said Tuesday that Spitzer, in fact, had spent tens of thousands of dollars with the Emperors Club. Another official said the amount could be as high as $80,000. But it was not clear over what period of time that was spent.

Still another law enforcement official said investigators found that during the tryst with Kristen on the night before Valentine's Day, Spitzer used two rooms at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington — one for himself, the other for the prostitute. Sometime around 10 p.m., Spitzer sneaked away from his security detail and made his way to the room where she was waiting, the official said. The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Details in court papers

In the court papers, an Emperors Club employee was quoted as telling Kristen that Client 9 — Spitzer, according to investigators — "would ask you to do things that ... you might not think were safe," and Kristen responded by saying: "I have a way of dealing with that. ... I'd be, like, listen, dude, you really want the sex?"

A law enforcement official said Tuesday the discussion had to do with Spitzer's preference not to wear a condom and the call-girl's insistence that he use one.

Spitzer's vast personal wealth would have made it easy for him to spend thousands of dollars on prostitutes. The scion of a wealthy Manhattan real estate developer, Spitzer reported $1.9 million in income to the IRS in 2006.

Meanwhile, Albany insiders on Tuesday said the governor was still trying to decide how to proceed. Options included quitting immediately, or waiting to use resignation as a bargaining chip with federal prosecutors to avoid indictment.

Democrats privately floated another option, telling The Associated Press that Spitzer was considering what was almost unthinkable immediately after Monday's bombshell apology: hanging on.

"If the public is fine, he'll stay," said a Democrat who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Still, Spitzer's many enemies from Albany and Wall Street were emboldened, and some of his friends went from shock to outrage.

"Particularly because of the reform platform on which he was elected governor, his ability to govern the state of New York and execute his duties as governor have been irreparably damaged," said Citizens Union, a good-government group that supported the crusading attorney general for governor in 2006 and provided critical support in his effort to reform Albany. "It is our strong belief that it is now impossible for him to fulfill his responsibilities as governor. Accordingly, Citizens Union urges him to resign as governor."

Revelations Began in Routine Tax Inquiry

By William K. Rashbaum
New York Times
March 11, 2008

The rendezvous that established Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s involvement with high-priced prostitutes occurred last month in one of Washington’s grandest hotels, but the criminal investigation that discovered the tryst began last year in a nondescript office building opposite a Dunkin’ Donuts on Long Island, according to law enforcement officials.

There, in the Hauppauge offices of the Internal Revenue Service, investigators conducting a routine examination of suspicious financial transactions reported to them by banks found several unusual movements of cash involving the governor of New York, several officials said.

The investigators working out of the three-story office building, which faces Veterans Highway, typically review such reports, the officials said. But this was not typical: transactions by a governor who appeared to be trying to conceal the source, destination or purpose of the movement of thousands of dollars in cash, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The money ended up in the bank accounts of what appeared to be shell companies, corporations that essentially had no real business.

The transactions, officials said, suggested possible financial crimes — maybe bribery, political corruption, or something inappropriate involving campaign finance. Prostitution, they said, was the furthest thing from the minds of the investigators.

Soon, the I.R.S. agents, from the agency’s Criminal Investigation Division, were working with F.B.I. agents and federal prosecutors from Manhattan who specialize in political corruption.

The inquiry, like many such investigations, was a delicate one. Because the focus was a high-ranking government official, prosecutors were required to seek the approval of the United States attorney general to proceed. Once they secured that permission, the investigation moved forward.

At the outset, one official said, it seemed like a bread-and-butter inquiry into political corruption, the kind of case the F.B.I. squad, known internally by the designation C14, frequently pursues.

But before long, the investigators learned that the money was being moved to pay for sex and that the transactions were being manipulated to conceal Mr. Spitzer’s connection to payments for meetings with prostitutes, the official said.

Then, with the assistance of a confidential informant, a young woman who had worked previously as a prostitute for the Emperor’s Club V.I.P., the escort service that Mr. Spitzer was believed to be using, the investigators were able to get a judge to approve wiretaps on the cellphones of some of those suspected of involvement in the escort service.

The wiretaps, along with the records of bank accounts held in the names of the shell companies, revealed a world of prostitutes catering to wealthy men. At the center was the Emperor’s Club, which arranged "dates" with more than 50 beautiful young women in New York, Paris, London, Miami and Washington.

But its finances moved through the shell companies — the QAT Consulting Group, QAT International and Protech Consulting — which held bank accounts into which clients wired their payments, according to court papers in the case.

One of the booking agents, a woman named Temeka Rachelle Lewis, 32, told a client that wiring his payments to QAT Consulting was safe because it would show up "like as a business transaction," according to an affidavit filed in federal court the case.

But the transactions proved to be anything but safe for Mr. Spitzer, who, aides said on Monday, was weighing possible resignation.

Last week, Ms. Lewis was one of four people charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with operating the prostitution ring. Also arrested were Mark Brener, 62, who is accused of heading the operation; Cecil Suwal, 23, who is said to have managed it day to day; and Tanya Hollander, 36, who worked part time as a booker.

The affidavit, which was unsealed on Thursday when the four were arrested, details the secretly recorded conversations that officials said captured Mr. Spitzer’s efforts to arrange a Washington meeting with a prostitute on Feb. 13. It also describes the young woman’s report to the booking agent on her encounter with the governor, shortly after it was concluded.

The affidavit does not name the governor, nor does it name any of the other 10 men described as having purchased sex through the operation. Instead, it refers to them by number, with Mr. Spitzer, according to two law enforcement officials, listed as Client 9.

Mr. Spitzer’s cited rendezvous with the prostitute on Feb. 13 occupies five pages of the 47-page affidavit. The document recounts parts of a half-dozen conversations Client 9 had with Ms. Lewis, the booking agent, in the roughly 24 hours leading up to his meeting with the prostitute at the Mayflower Hotel.

They discussed whether his deposit would cover the young woman’s travel expenses, whether his payment had arrived — apparently by mail or overnight courier — and how she would be admitted to the hotel room he had reserved in Washington. At one point, when the booker tells him it will be a woman who went by the name Kristen, Client 9 said, "Great, O.K., wonderful," according to the affidavit.

During the last conversation, he asked Ms. Lewis to remind him what Kristen looked like.

The conversations, according to the affidavit, were among more than 5,000 telephone calls and text messages that the federal authorities intercepted during the course of the investigation into the prostitution ring, which began last October. Investigators also seized more than 6,000 e-mail messages, bank records, and travel and hotel records, and conducted physical surveillance.

Almost lost in the tumult of the governor’s statement and the possibility of his resignation were the original allegations against the defendants said to have operated the ring.

Two of them, Mr. Brener and Ms. Suwal, are still held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan, and on Monday their lawyers were still focused on their clients’ problems, not Mr. Spitzer’s.

Mr. Brener’s lawyer, Jennifer L. Brown, said her client "is anxious to have his day in court for a full airing of these charges and he’s looking forward to defending himself."

Daniel S. Parker, a lawyer for Ms. Suwal, recalled that his client had, as all the defendants, entered a plea of not guilty at her arraignment on Thursday. He said Monday that she was entitled to the presumption of innocence.

"What the governor chooses to state or admit to is the governor’s business," he said.

GOP Lawmakers Threaten to Impeach Spitzer
N.Y. Governor Faces Resignation Calls;
Cops Say Cash Payments Led to Probe

MSNBC staff and news service reports
March 11, 2008

NEW YORK - As Gov. Eliot Spitzer faced mounting calls to resign, Republican legislators indicated they will seek to impeach him if he doesn't quit within 48 hours, a spokesman for a leading New York assemblyman said Tuesday.

"The governor has 48 hours to resign or articles of impeachment would be introduced," Josh Fitzpatrick, spokesman for Assembly Republican Minority Leader James Tedisco, told Reuters.

Online editions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported that Spitzer's top aides expected the governor to resign, although the timing remained uncertain.

Aides close to Spitzer, 48, expect Lt. Gov. David Paterson, 53, a Harlem Democrat, will succeed him as governor before the week's end to fill out the remaining 33 months of his term.

The governor first came under suspicion because of cash payments from several bank accounts to an account operated by a call-girl ring, according to a law enforcement official.

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, while the Post called him "NY's naked emperor."

Spitzer retreated from public view Monday afternoon, when he appeared glassy-eyed with his shellshocked wife, Silda, at his side and apologized to his family and the public. He 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."

Crossing state lines

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 Monday. A spokesman for Spitzer said the governor has retained a large Manhattan law firm.

There was no word on Spitzer's plans, but Assembly Republican leader James Tedisco said he received a call Monday from Paterson, who would assume the governor's office if Spitzer resigned.

Tedisco said Paterson raised the possibility of such a scenario by asking if Tedisco, who has been at odds with Spitzer, 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."

Spitzer was to be in New York City on Tuesday, but had no public events scheduled.

At a Manhattan news conference Spitzer apologized to his family and the people of New York.

"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."

He did not say what he was apologizing for and ignored reporters' shouted questions about whether he would resign — 14 months after he boldly proclaimed at the start of his term, "Day One, Everything Changes."

Republicans immediately called for him to quit.

"He has to step down. No one will stand with him," said Rep. Peter King, a Republican from Long Island. "I never try to take advantage or gloat over a personal tragedy. However, this is different. This is a guy who is so self-righteous, and so unforgiving."

Spitzer 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.

In his previous position, Spitzer 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 candidate for president.

But he apparently became embroiled last year in a financial probe by the Internal Revenue Service into a high-end prostitution ring. The investigation into the Emperors Club VIP gathered more than 5,000 telephone calls and text messages and more than 6,000 e-mails, along with bank records, travel and hotel records and surveillance.

It was unclear whether Spitzer was a target from the start or whether agents came across his name by accident while amassing evidence.

In an affidavit filed in Manhattan federal court last week, Spitzer appeared as "Client 9," according to the law enforcement official. Client 9 personally made several cell phone calls to Emperors Club VIP to arrange a Feb. 13 tryst at a Washington hotel, the official said.

Client 9 wanted a high-priced prostitute named Kristen to come to Washington on a 5:39 p.m. train from Manhattan. 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 court papers.

Criminal charges unlikely

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, noted that prostitution customers are often not charged with a crime.

Other analysts said Spitzer's lawyers might be negotiating with prosecutors to drop any charges in exchange for a resignation.

"Especially if he resigns, he may just be left alone," Tobias said. "It may be that the public is satisfied by his resignation as governor."

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.

Spitzer's cases as attorney general included a few criminal prosecutions of prostitution rings and tourism involving prostitutes. In 2004, he took part in an investigation of an escort service in New York City that resulted in the arrest of 18 people on charges of promoting prostitution and related charges.

Spitzer Shares Arrogance of Other Powerful Men
In Fall Worthy of Shakespeare, Gang-Busting Governor Entrapped in Sex Scandal

By Susan Donaldson James
ABC News
March 11, 2008

Spitzer Family

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, right, arrives for a church service in Albany, N.Y., with his family in this Jan. 1, 2007 file photo. The New York Times is reporting Monday, March 10, 2008 that Gov. Eliot Spitzer has told senior advisers that he had been involved in a prostitution ring. From left are, Spitzer's daughter, Jenna; wife, Silda Wall Spitzer; and daughters, Elyssa; and Sarabeth. (Tim Roske/AP Photo)

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer built his career on the moral high ground, but faces a fall suffered by Greek gods and Shakespearean characters through his own hubris or exaggerated sense of self-pride.

That scenario, say psychologists, is as old as time: Men who seemingly have it all but tempt fate to risk everything -- family, reputation and even power.

Spitzer -- who during eight years as an aggressive attorney general was compared to Eliot Ness, the legendary FBI man who brought down Al Capone -- is now allegedly Client 9 in a federal investigation of an upscale prostitution ring.

Powerful men who fall from the pinnacle of their careers have much in common, according to experts consulted by ABC News.

"It's a blind spot more than risk," said Mark L. Held, a Denver-area psychologist who specializes in overachievers. "They have a certain arrogance who think they can get away with it."

"They have a tragic Shakespearean character flaw," he said. "The person with everything, who should be the last person to risk it, does. Their power of success has gone to their head."

How the Mighty Fall

The fallen power brokers often leave a trail of angry, disappointed loved ones and supporters in their wake.

For Dina Matos McGreevey, whose husband left the New Jersey governorship in shame and a marriage in shambles after admitting an affair with a gay aide, the Spitzer news has unearthed old feelings of "crushing pain."

"They both had such promising careers," McGreevey told ABCNEWS.com. "They worked all their lives to achieve that goal, and then he made a decision that not only effects them, but their family. The wife and children are the victims."

Powerful men who risk their marriages with dalliances are "arrogant enough they believe they are beyond reproach," acccording to McGreevey, who said the emotional blow is like "death without a corpse."

U.S. political history is strewn with the wreckage of sexual scandals. For many years, mainstream journalists had a gentleman's agreement not to write or air stories about the private lives of politicians. That all changed with Vietnam and the Watergate scandal.

By 1976, Rep. Wilbur Mills, R-Ark., couldn't run for re-election after he cavorted nude in Tidal Basin with stripper Fanny Fox. Last year, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., admitted using the services of the D.C. Madam, a high-priced call girl ring operated in the district.

Presidents -- from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton -- have earned reputations as serial cheaters. Psychologists say the very nature of their power invites self-destruction.

Spitzer's image as a corruption fighter was polished fighting white-collar crime and prostitution rings. He hunted down Wall Street wrongdoers with a chastising tone of moral rectitude. "Listen, I'm a steamroller," he said in his first days as governor.

But his suit of armor is now tarnished, and many say his personal behavior has been reckless.

The day before Valentine's Day, Spitzer allegedly made a series of calls to arrange for a prostitute to come to his Washington hotel room, telling her that the door to his room would be left open, according to federal court papers.

The documents suggest, but by no means verify, that he -- or someone who was known as client No. 9 -- may have asked prostitutes to engage in unprotected sex.

"The very drive that works for them to achieve and accomplish and be successful involves taking a certain risk or living in the fast lane in order to get ahead," said New Jersey psychologist Stanley Teitelbaum, who has written a book about fallen idols.

"That same quality leaves them driving in the wrong lane."

Spitzer, 48, was raised in the affluent Riverdale section of New York City and attended Horace Mann School, one of the most competitive private schools in the country and where his three daughters now go.

He went on to Princeton University, where he graduated in 1981. After receiving a perfect score on the law school entrance exam, he attended Harvard Law School.

The brainy, but coddled Spitzer met his wife, Silda Wall, in law school, and according to a profile in the Harvard University alumni magazine, 02138, they had a model marriage.

Their Set of Rules

After graduation, the couple fast-tracked their careers. Wall worked in corporate mergers and acquisitions before deciding to stay at home with their three daughters, now 17, 15 and 13, as Spitzer rose in political life.

Wall has repeatedly said her husband is a family man, grilling on weekends. "I was never expecting to be a political spouse," she told 02138.

His wife is reportedly uncomfortable in front of the camera, and no where was that more evident than when she appeared with Spitzer, Monday, when he spoke briefly about his situation.

"I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong," Spitzer said at a news conference. "I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public, whom I promised better."

Teitelbaum said powerful men like Spitzer often feel they can break the rules.

According to The New York Times, in 1994, Spitzer denied, then later admitted, borrowing millions of dollars from his wealthy father to finance an unsuccessful run in the Democratic primary for attorney general.

"It's narcissism," he said. "They have a self-centered and distorted view of themselves in relation to the world. They feel the world revolves around them and they take liberties crossing the boundaries."

"The rules don't apply to them," he added. "They feel that if they get caught it will be covered or hushed up or there won't be any consequences."

Sometimes that is the case. More than a decade after President Clinton had an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky, the charismatic politician is bringing star power to his wife's presidential campaign.

But in 1988 when U.S. Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo., challenged the press to catch him with another woman, they did. His highly publicized affair with Donna Rice ended his presidential aspirations.

Teitelbaum, author of "Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols," said celebrity leads people to believe they can "break the rules."

"These celebrities are living in a bubble," he said. "They have an entourage of people around them who feed into the perceptions and reinforce them."

Psychologists say powerful men turn to prostitutes for several reasons: It is easy for a man with financial resources; it requires no reciprocity; or a man can't view his mate as sexually exciting.

California psychotherapist Diane Ross Glazer, who has worked with prostitutes, said perfect marriages often look "better from the outside."

"Men generally go outside the relationship when they think they are not getting what they need," she said. "Powerful men see other people as there to keep them up or to inflate them."

'Tragic Situation'

Charles Konia, a Pennsylvania psychiatrist and author of "The Emotional Plague," said Spitzer is just one in a long list of powerful politicians who launch moral crusades and then are caught in a web of deceit.

"Once people get into power they lose touch with their role as public servant," said Konia. "They become grandiose and can do nothing wrong. That affects their judgment."

Konia said if Spitzer has, indeed, done what he's accused of, he has betrayed the public's trust. "He is not just an ordinary individual, he's a public servant and his reputation is on the line."

"It's a tragic situation," he said. "The family must be in terrible shock. But the damage is already done."

In his remarks Monday, Spitzer said he did not believe "politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas, the public good and doing what is best for the state of New York."

Some, including Shakespeare, would say Spitzer has been hoisted with his own petard.

Still, Denver psychologist Held says mighty politicians with feet of clay are nothing new. "It's part of the human condition," he said. "Human beings are flawed."

Mrs. Spitzer Stands By Her Man

By David Knowles
March 11, 2008

--"Stand by your Man" by Tammy Wynette

At this point, it has become something of a cliché in our cultural imagery: A disgraced male public official at a news conference taking his lumps for a newly unearthed sexual indiscretion while his baffled yet supportive wife stands at his elbow, struggling to put a public face on the many emotions roiling beneath a calm exterior. Many viewers to our latest reality-television episode, starring Eliot Spitzer, no doubt shouted back at the T.V. in sympathetic support to Spitzer's wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, "Leave the bum!"

So why do so many wives of public figures stick it out after infidelity comes to light? Why not skip the news conference and file for D-I-V-O-R-C-E?

In the recent past we've witnessed , The Vitters, The Haggards. Each time, a wife has stoically endured the glare of the cameras and held fast to the vows her husband has seen fit to ignore. Often, the sexual compulsion proves so strong for the male that he puts his wife through the ordeal on multiple occasions, as in the case of Bill and Hillary Clinton. No, the symbolic show of support doesn't always work out. Sometimes the hurdles ahead are just too insurmountable, as in the case of The McGreeveys, but it's fascinating to see just how many sullied unions live to see another day.

Is there anything unique about politicians cheating on their spouses? Does the power of elected office make you that much more likely to commit infidelity? Given that many of the men most recently snared in the media nets seem to have sought out what they hoped to be discrete professional services, or anonymous sex with strangers, I'd say that these were not husbands showing off, as much as libidos run amok.

Is there a higher rate of indiscretion among the powerful than the general population? True, when everyone's busy telling you how great you are, it tends to make the possibility of a "Behind the Music" downfall that much more likely. Yet, men everywhere--from every race, class, country, and religion--cheat. If anything, reliable statistics on the number of men (and women) who cheat are pretty much impossible to gather, but I'd argue that the public scrutiny of elected officials makes them more careful than their civilian counterparts. Their fall is just a whole lot louder than what's happening all the time.

Maybe that's the answer to the question of why so many high-profile spouses stick it out. They know it's not any better outside the spotlight of public life. Sing it, Tammy...

Why Do Smart People Do Dumb Things? Behavior
Experts Dissect Prostitution Mess Surrounding Spitzer

Associated Press
March 10, 2008

NEW YORK - It's the simplest question in the world, but it was the one repeated over and over Monday after the staggering news broke about Gov. Eliot Spitzer: What in heaven's name was the man thinking?

Yet if the New York governor is proved to have been involved in a prostitution ring, it would hardly be the first time a powerful, brilliant person in public life has done something dizzyingly self-destructive.

Why do otherwise smart, successful people do such risky things? For psychologists and political analysts who found themselves dissecting the Spitzer story, it was a question of the chicken or Louis Lanzano / AP the egg: In such situations, does the risky New York Governor Eliot Spitzer arrives at his Fifthbehavior precede the powerful job? Or Avenue apartment, Monday, March 10, 2008, in does something about being in power New York. Spitzer, the crusading politician who cause the behavior?
built his career on rooting out corruption, apolo-
gized Monday after he was accused of involve-
ment in a prostitution ring.

‘We’re all human’
Many speculated that it was a combination of the two. "We're all human," said Leon Hoffman, a psychoanalyst in New York. "These urges are so, so common. Whether it's a prostitute or a mistress that one chooses, that's another question."

And yet, Hoffman said, there may be something about the aura of power surrounding a prominent politician that makes him feel potentially immune from consequences.

"There's the psychology of the exception," said Hoffman, former chairman of the American Psychoanalytic Association's public information committee. "People in power sometimes feel they can do things that us, mere mortals, are forbidden to do. There's a sense, as with adolescents, that 'I won't get caught.'"

Political analyst Steven Cohen was wary of trying to draw any conclusions about the corrupting influence of power.

"The problem is we don't know when this behavior started for this person," said Cohen, a professor of public administration at Columbia University. "Politicians are like the rest of us. The fact that they're flawed and do stupid things shouldn't surprise us."

Held to a higher standard?
The real question, Cohen said, is whether Spitzer should be held to a different ethical standard. And his answer is yes.

"This isn't Britney Spears we're talking about. This is the governor," Cohen said. "The bottom line is, he controls the National Guard and the state police. He could have people come to arrest you and me tomorrow. So his private behavior does become a public issue."

One psychologist who has studied and worked with politicians and their families thinks there is indeed something different about people who reach positions of such prominence.

"In order to be in such a high-profile position, you have to believe that what you are doing is innately right," said Renana Brooks, of Washington, D.C. "Anything that isn't right, you may blot out. You can't be tortured by guilt or indifference. It's just virtually impossible to function at this high a level without limiting the amount of introspection you can do."

Spitzer, who has not been charged and has not resigned, was caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a prostitute, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still going on.

The governor, identified in court papers only as "Client 9," met with the woman the day before Valentine's Day, the official said. According to the complaint he paid $4,300 in cash for that and future trysts, and when discussing payments told an agent: "Yup, same as in the past, no question about it."

Echoes of earlier scandals

One longtime analyst of New York politics finds it hard to look at Spitzer's predicament without thinking of politicians such as President Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal and New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey, who resigned after announcing he had an affair with a male staffer.

"These are really smart guys doing really stupid things — and doing really stupid things repeatedly," said Doug Muzzio, professor of public affairs at Baruch College. But the allegations about Spitzer, he said, were the most shocking, if only because there was no public hint of such behavior from the governor, who campaigned as a model of moral rectitude.

"Nobody I've spoken to ... had any inkling of this," Muzzio said. He said he was torn between believing Spitzer's situation could be a case of a deep-seated compulsion or one of simple hubris.

"It could be both — they're not mutually exclusive," Muzzio said. "Now that would be a really fatal cocktail. In any case, there's an element of recklessness and risk-taking that is just breathtaking."

Compartmentalizing risk
Would Spitzer, who knows better than most anyone how law enforcement works, consider the consequences of getting caught? Analysts say people often don't consciously think about such risks, even highly intelligent people.

Chicago psychoanalyst Mark Smaller believes one can find useful parallels in the case of certain patients, from all walks of life, who exhibit a striking capacity to compartmentalize risky, unethical or even illegal behavior, a process known as the "splitting" of part of the personality.

"They can be otherwise completely law-abiding, sensible, reliable people," Smaller says. "Often the behavior in question is caused by intense anxiety, stress in the workplace or home, or feeling overwhelmed." And often, he says, the behavior can involve sex, drugs, or something like shoplifting.

"They compartmentalize to the extent that they don't feel any sense of shame or guilt," Smaller said. "Until," he adds, "they get caught."

Suspended Spitzer Aide Is Expected Back at Work

By Danny Hakim
New York Times
August 27, 2007

Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s communications director, who was a central figure in an attempt to use the State Police to embarrass the governor’s main rival, is expected to return to state government as early as this week, people briefed on the matter said yesterday.

The aide, Darren Dopp, was suspended Mike Mike Groli/Associated Press without pay for at least 30 days on July 23, the Darren Dopp, the governor’s same day the state attorney general, Andrew communication director M. Cuomo, issued a report saying Mr. Dopp and others in the Spitzer administration had misused the State Police to discredit Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader and the state’s top Republican. Those 30 days expired last week.

Bringing back Mr. Dopp may anger Republicans, though it is unlikely he will resume active work as the governor’s top communications official. It is not clear what job he will have, but he may temporarily resume his old post and use vacation time so he can begin drawing a paycheck until his permanent position is chosen, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Mr. Dopp’s lawyer, Terence L. Kindlon, and the governor’s press secretary, Christine Anderson, declined to comment yesterday.

Suspending Mr. Dopp was an agonizing choice for the governor. Mr. Dopp has been one of Mr. Spitzer’s closest aides, working for him since he took office as attorney general in 1999.

The Cuomo report said that at the urging of Mr. Dopp and other officials, the State Police deviated from their traditional procedures and went to unusual lengths to make public the details of travel services they had provided to Mr. Bruno. Mr. Dopp has said that the information was gathered in response to news media requests, though the report indicated that Mr. Dopp and other officials were gathering information long before such requests materialized.

The information was used to show that Mr. Bruno had used state helicopters to attend political fund-raisers. But Mr. Bruno also conducted some official business during the trips, which made the state-financed travel acceptable in accordance with existing state policies, and the Cuomo report cleared him of any wrongdoing.

The State Ethics Commission tightened its travel policy after the Cuomo report, setting strict new guidelines on using state transportation when both official and nonofficial business are involved.

This month, Mr. Kindlon said his client “hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“He hasn’t done anything criminally wrong, he hasn’t done anything unethical and he hasn’t done anything politically wrong,” he added.

Though Mr. Dopp’s conduct, as described in the Cuomo report, has enraged Republicans, the report also found no evidence that laws were broken. Mr. Dopp, however, declined to be interviewed by Mr. Cuomo’s investigators at the direction of the governor’s counsel, leaving lingering questions about the entire matter.

Those will most likely be further addressed in continuing investigations by the Albany County district attorney, P. David Soares, and the State Ethics Commission. Both have something Mr. Cuomo did not, subpoena power to compel testimony from the governor’s staff.

The governor apologized for his office’s actions, but said he had had no knowledge that anything improper was being done.

On Friday, during a fund-raiser in Saratoga Springs, top Republicans expressed concern that Mr. Dopp would return in any capacity.

“I think that after what he’s done, he should not be allowed back in government,” said Joseph N. Mondello, the chairman of the state Republican Party. “You can’t do things like that and expect to have the public trust, and I’m hoping the governor realizes that.”

James N. Tedisco, the Assembly minority leader, said it would be a problem “until he answers those questions about how this whole thing developed, who knew about it besides himself and Mr. Baum, and the extensiveness of what he was trying to do.” He was referring to Richard Baum, the governor’s top adviser, who also declined to be interviewed for the Cuomo report.

“All those questions have to be answered, and then even after they’re answered, I’m not sure he really should be working in state government after attempting to do something like that against the Legislature,” Mr. Tedisco said.

Mr. Bruno said, “I don’t care what happens, frankly, with individuals,” adding that he was far more concerned with seeing further investigations of the matter play out.

The political calculus in Albany was muddied last week when lawyers representing the governor’s father, Bernard Spitzer, accused a top Republican consultant of leaving a threatening message on his office voice mail. Mr. Bruno fired the consultant, Roger J. Stone Jr., who has adamantly denied the allegation.

Mr. Bruno has vowed that the allegation about Mr. Stone will not distract Senate Republicans from pressing for further inquiry into the State Police affair, including their own hearings on the matter.

“We’re going to make sure nothing diverts the attention of the majority of the people in New York from getting the facts,” he said.

Mr. Kindlon said this month that Mr. Dopp, who has not spoken publicly since the Cuomo report was released, and his family were suffering financially because of the suspension.

Nicholas Confessore contributed reporting.

Stormy Gov. Spitzer's All the Rage

By Cathy Burk
New York Post
July 15, 2007

Aides to Gov. Spitzer are so familiar with his hair-trigger temper they have a nickname for his wrath: "The full Spitzer."

Amidst one of the most remarkable recent political rumbles in Albany, Spitzer told New York magazine he delights in such fractious confrontations.

"Outrage helps both create a conversation to frame the issues and generate an understanding of the issues," Spitzer said. "It fits into a larger rationale, which is that we believe in accountability."

And he is unabashed in communicating his hatred for the system in the Capitol. "The cliché is, 'You went to Albany as one of us, you came back as one of them.'

"I'm not coming back as one of them," he told New York.

His lack of anger management appeared early in his term, when Spitzer singled out some lawmakers who defied him, including the Republican minority leader James Tedisco, whom he reportedly told: "I'm a f - - - ing steamroller, and I'll roll over you."

Spitzer's explanation? He honed his pugnacity at the dinner table of his multimillionaire real-estate father, Bernard.

"When you're on the playing field, you fight as hard as you possibly can," he told the magazine. "You don't give an inch, because you're both playing by those hard rules. Afterwards, you shake hands and you say, 'That was great. Onto the next.' "

He clearly relishes the game. Asked about his threat to kill the shrinking GOP majority, Spitzer told the magazine: "There is some virtue in my saying to them, 'Fellows, your hold is tenuous.' "

The gov's love of the sport of acrimony turned bloody when it came to GOP Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. "Spitzer has an attitude about him, he really does, like he's kind of above it all," Bruno told the magazine. "He thinks I'm a street kid that doesn't know night from day."

Spitzer responds: "This fight has nothing to do with culture or class. Bruno's answers are simplistic pablum."

Their animosity flared when it came to the budget. To carry out Spitzer's goals - lowering taxes, redistributing school aid, insurance for the uninsured, and health-care reform - the gov took aim at a Bruno ally: the health-workers union Local 1199 SEIU, headed by Dennis Rivera. The union fired back with withering ads.

The magazine reported Spitzer once said he'd learned at the DA's Office there were some fights in which "you can never concede errors because you just can't do it."

Post-combat, Spitzer is taking the long view.

"The legislative piece, you need the budget, but the rest of it . . . eh?" he said.

"There is an unbelievable opportunity now to govern through the agencies, and that's frankly what I'm really looking forward to. . . .

"I can be patient. I'll build coalitions, I'll get it done. I've got four years, I'm in no hurry."

Bruno Hits Spitz as Elex-$$ 'Hypocrite'

By Kenneth Lovett, Post Correspondent
New York Post
April 28, 2007

ALBANY - State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno yesterday ripped Gov. Spitzer as a hypocrite for bashing Senate Republicans on the issue of campaign finance while at the same time offering special access to those who pledge money for his 2010 campaign.

"It's hypocritical," Bruno said. "It's not the way to go. It's paying for access."

The Post reported Thursday that Spitzer is asking prospective donors to join his re-election finance committee to raise up to $1 million each by Election Day 2010.

He is offering varying degrees of special access - depending on how much a person commits to raising - that range from quarterly finance meetings with Spitzer to lunches, private barbecues and holiday parties with the governor and his wife.

"I'd like to have a public debate with the governor on this issue, on how he justifies creating access for $1 million, a little less access for half a million dollars, a little bit less for a quarter million dollars, a little bit less for $100,000, a little less for 50," Bruno said.

"I don't know what you get for 25 or the poor peons who can only come up with 10. What do they do? Get to wave. I just think it's ludicrous."

Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson, noting that the governor has already voluntarily set lower donation limits for his campaign, called Bruno's comments "off the mark and misleading."

"The fund-raising events that are in question are not at the Governor's Mansion, the state Capitol or state offices," she said. "They don't provide access to state resources.

"The governor believes that campaign finance is important to cleaning up the culture of Albany and urges Mr. Bruno to sign on to that effort."

Supporters Buying Time with Spitzer

By Kenneth Lovett Post Correspondent
New York Post
April 26, 2007

ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer is granting special access to supporters - called "Trustees" - who raise a $1 million for his 2010 campaign, The Post has learned.

Spitzer, who is traveling the state bashing the Republican-controlled Senate for rejecting a campaign-finance reform measure, is at the same time asking prospective donors to join his 2010 re-election finance committee and providing different fund-raising targets.

Someone who pledges to raise $25,000 by Election Day, 2010, is designated a "Friend" and will be invited to quarterly finance-committee meetings with the governor while also receiving periodic conference-call updates with Spitzer and the campaign staff, according to a mailing obtained by The Post.

The levels, and rewards, increase until someone can become a Trustee by pledging to collect $1 million for the Democratic governor.

Trustees are promised a complete package that includes a semiannual lunch with the governor and an annual barbecue with Spitzer and First Lady Silda Wall Spitzer at their upstate farmhouse.

Anyone committing to raise at least $250,000 can attend an annual holiday party with the first couple, while raising at least $100,000 gets a person listed in the honorary program and complimentary admission for all major fund-raising events.

The letter notes the voluntary fund-raising limits that Spitzer has adopted for himself that must be adhered to, including a $10,000 limit on personal contributions and a $5,000 corporate limit that restricts additional donations from subsidiaries and limited-liability corporations.

Republicans called Spitzer a hypocrite for traveling the state attacking them for not backing campaign-finance reform while at the same time asking people to raise millions of dollars for him with the promise of access. "The Lincoln Bedroom? This is the Lincoln Hotel," Sen. Vincent Leibell (R-Dutchess) fumed in reference to the Clinton administration's offering of stays in the White House to campaign donors.

"This is pay to play, big time," Leibell said. "New York state deserves better than this."

Having individuals raise large amounts for a candidate - known as bundling - is not uncommon, particularly since federal campaign-finance reform was enacted several years ago.

President Bush in the last cycle deemed anyone who raised at least $200,000 as "Bush Rangers" and at least $100,000 as "Bush Pioneers."

But in Spitzer's case, the fact his target levels dwarf anything seen to date and that he has made campaign-finance reform a top priority has raised the ire of some.

"In my time here, no one has come close to these numbers," Leibell said.

"To go around the state talking about campaign-finance reform and then asking people to raise this type of money for you is the ultimate height of hypocrisy."

Spitzer has already raised eyebrows regarding his June 7 fund-raiser for his 48th birthday in which those who pledged to raise at least $25,000 for the event would attend a VIP reception and a private dinner with the governor.

Those who raise at least $100,000 would receive four seats at the private dinner.

In addition, Spitzer agreed to participate in a fund-raiser for the state Democratic Party that promises those who donate $25,000 entrance to a "VIP" reception with the governor. Spitzer has said that while he voluntarily will adhere to stricter limits he doesn't expect others to necessarily follow without a new law in place.

"Unfortunately, Governor Spitzer's actions make it clear that he thinks there are two sets of rules: one for him and another for everyone else," state GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello said yesterday.

Spitzer's Numbers Take Dive

By Fredric U. Dicker
New York Post
March 27, 2007

Gov. Spitzer's approval ratings have taken a serious hit in the wake of a multimillion-dollar television blitz against his efforts to slash the huge Medicaid program, according to a poll released yesterday.

The Siena College survey of registered voters found Spitzer's personal approval rating dropped from an impressive 74 percent last month to 62 percent - while his disapproval rating was up to 20 percent from 12 percent.

The governor's overall job approval rating was also down - to 47 percent from 58 percent last ELIOT SPITZER - Down 12 points month. And the number of those giving him a poor job rating also jumped to 39 percent from 24 percent last month.

Spitzer claimed he wasn't troubled by the poll results, saying, "I will gladly trade away an awful lot of that transitory popularity to make the tough decisions that are necessary to move us in the right direction."

Additional reporting by Kenneth Lovett

Judge Scandal Could Tarnish Spitzer Shine
Anti-corrupt Gov Hiring Pol Tied to Norman?

By Lisa L. Colangelo, Nancie L. Katz and Adam Lisberg
New York Daily News
January 15, 2007

Gov. Spitzer took office two weeks ago with a corruption-busting promise - but yesterday he welcomed into his inner circle a man who has been named in connection with an exploding Brooklyn bribery scandal.

Former state Sen. Carl Andrews was one of several insiders who were invited into Spitzer's midtown offices following a news conference where the governor ducked a question about the corruption probe.

"With respect for the alleged improprieties that have been the subject of investigation in Brooklyn, obviously those cases continue and they proceed," Spitzer said.

Andrews is reportedly being considered for a high-ranking post in the Spitzer administration - and while the governor said little, his exit with the well-connected Andrews seemed to show Spitzer was not publicly distancing himself from him.

The Village Voice claimed in a story published Saturday that Andrews picked up a bribe in 2001 - either $25,000 in cash or $3,000 in postage stamps that could be used in a campaign - from a sex therapist named Norman Chesler, who was hoping to get his cousin, Civil Court Judge Howard Ruditzky, a seat on the state Supreme Court.

Andrews allegedly delivered it to his longtime confidant Clarence Norman, a corrupt Democratic Party boss who could be indicted for allegedly taking as much as $70,000 in bribes to put Ruditzky on the bench, The Voice reported.

Andrews told the Daily News yesterday he has never met Chesler - and when asked point-blank about collecting a bribe, said it was beneath his dignity to answer.

"I'm insulted by the question and the implications behind that question," he said. "I guess my only crime is being Clarence Norman's friend. Guilt by association."

Law enforcement sources told The News yesterday that Andrews is not a target in the long-running probe of whether Brooklyn judges have bought their way onto the bench.

Andrews held a community relations job under Spitzer when he was state attorney general. Andrews later served as a Brooklyn state senator and ran unsuccessfully for Congress last fall.

Ruditzky, Chesler and Norman declined to comment. Norman's lawyer Edward Wilford said he has not been contacted by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes about the allegations.

Prosecutors would not file any new charges against Norman until after his Jan. 23 trial on extortion charges, a law enforcement source said.

Spitzer's office did not respond to a request for comment.

With Nicole Bode and Tamer El-Ghobashy

Spitzer Pays Big Bonuses to Campaign Staff

New York Lawyer
By The Associated Press
December 6, 2006

ALBANY, N.Y. -- It's payback time for the campaign staff of Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer, with select staffers sharing in $1.3 million in bonuses.

Spitzer's longtime senior adviser, Rich Baum, received $200,000 and campaign spokeswoman Christine Anderson received $100,000, according to state campaign finance filings.

Each will have prominent roles in the Spitzer administration.

"The bonuses reflect the hard work and determination of a remarkable campaign staff," Spitzer said in a statement.

Bonuses paid through a candidate's campaign fund aren't unusual, but Spitzer's were notably generous. Spitzer still has $5.5 million left in the fund after raising $40 million for the winning the race against Republican John Faso.

Nearly 50 campaign aides received bonuses.

Empire of the Son-
Spitzer Reaps Fortune from Dad’s Real Estate Smarts

By Douglas Feiden
New York Daily News
October 29, 2006

EXCLUSIVE - Over half a century, the father of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer built an empire of glass and steel - and a fortune worth some $500 million - in the priciest precincts of Manhattan.

Bernard Spitzer, an 82-year-old engineer who changed the New York skyline without the flash of a Donald Trump, owns or holds a stake in at least 10 properties on or near the East Side, most of which he developed.

"They are all magnificent buildings," he told the Daily News. "Five of them are on Central Park."

Three of them have made or saved millions of dollars for his 47-year-old son, the attorney general - through gifts, asset sales and rental income - during his eight years in public office, a News examination found.

In one of those buildings, the politician doubles as a landlord: He's a partner in a family firm that controls six Madison Ave. shops - and he gets rent from the likes of Georg Jensen, the Danish jeweler, and Anne Fontaine, the Parisian designer.

While his state salary paid him $151,150 last year, sky-high retail rents earned him $949,581.

Spitzer has lived rent-free with his family at 985 Fifth Ave. for 13 years. The 25-story tower off 79th St. has just two apartments per floor and terraces that look down at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The history: His father bought two townhouses on the site in 1967, razed them and put up the luxury building in 1968. It has been a dependable moneymaker ever since - generating $5.5 million in rent last year alone.

Thanks to his dad's generosity, Spitzer, his wife and three daughters have lived in a home graced with at least three bedrooms, four baths, a balcony, library and sweeping vistas of Central Park.

In a phone interview, Bernard Spitzer confirmed certain facts about his property holdings, but declined to discuss his gifts: "I would ask, respectfully, that any information about Eliot's finances be provided by Eliot's office."

Referring to his son the attorney general and two other children - Daniel, a neurosurgeon, and Emily, a lawyer - he said, "These are not children who sit around availing themselves of the benefits of a comfortable upbringing and lifestyle.

"They all work, and they work very hard. ...And it gives me great pleasure to see them fulfilling themselves and their responsibilities."

Vetted by lawyers and accountants, the living arrangement is both lawful and proper, said Darren Dopp, Spitzer's communications director: The father pays an annual gift tax on the present he gives his son.

"These and other financial matters are handled by professionals who ensure that everything is done in strict accordance with city, state and federal law," Dopp said.

The market value of the gift is reported annually on real estate tax filings and on Bernard Spitzer's tax returns. But citing privacy, Dopp declined to disclose the apartment's rent, the gift's value or the amount of the gift tax paid.

Three real estate brokers familiar with the building say that a spread of comparable size could lease for $16,000 to $20,000 a month. That puts the gift's current value at an estimated $192,000 to $240,000 a year.

"Landlords on Fifth Ave. can ask for almost anything they want, and chances are, they'll get it," said Onik Ovanes, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman.

The home at 985 Fifth Ave. is one cornerstone of the family fortune. Others are spelled out in a 2003 letter in which Eliot Spitzer recused himself from dealings his office may have with firms that could pose a potential conflict of interest.

Under the Freedom of Information law, The News sought the document June 8 and received a version June 15 with the names of 18 family real estate companies blacked out.

The newspaper's appeal, on July 14, was denied on Sept. 1 by Spitzer's lawyers, who cited security and privacy concerns. After requesting an opinion from the state's Committee on Open Government, The News was given the names on Oct. 12 by Spitzer's counsel. The 18 firms represent the elder Spitzer's interest in 10 Manhattan residential and commercial buildings, two East Side parking garages and a Washington office building on K St.

Among his properties:

The Retail Strip. The family holds a master lease on six Madison Ave. storefronts below 62nd St. - on a block where first-floor rents can top $1,000 a square foot.

Since 1999, the attorney general's share of the partnership generated $5.1 million in rental income from such retail tenants as Ghurka, the luxury leather goods shop.

The Curving Tower. Bernard Spitzer built 200 Central Park South, famous for its dramatically curved corner, in 1963 and transferred partial ownership to his three children.

In 1984, the 35-story building went co-op, and Eliot Spitzer's stake became eight apartments, which he rented out. After running up millions in bank debt in his winning campaign in 1998, he sold them back to his father for $6.1 million in 1999 to pay off the loans.

The Gargantuan Tower. Bernard Spitzer built the Corinthian at 330 E. 38th St. in 1988. The 57-story Murray Hill condo, with 865 units, is one of the single largest apartment buildings in America. His son lived on the 49th floor from 1989 to 1993.

The Tower Above the School. Bernard Spitzer built the 28-story rental at 220 E. 72nd St. - with a home for Marymount Manhattan College on the lower six floors. His son lived on the 24th floor from 1984 to 1989.

Bernard Spitzer also built 210 Central Park South, 1050 Fifth Ave. and 800 Fifth Ave., all on Central Park. In addition, he built 150 E. 57th St., a luxury rental, and a Washington building on K St. for lawyers and lobbyists.

He also holds a stake in the landmark Crown Building, at 730 Fifth Ave. on 57th St., which was once owned by notorious Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Owners of Tony Shops Stunned
to Learn That AG Is Their Landlord

By Douglas Feiden
Daily News Staff Writer
October 29, 2006

The sheriff of Wall Street is also a landlord on Madison Ave.

For the past eight years, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has been a partner in a family-owned real estate company that holds the 25-year master lease on six ground-floor shops on the east side of Madison Ave. below 62nd St., property records show.

Spitzer plays no management role in the company, aides say. He's a passive investor, which may explain why shopkeepers were flabbergasted to learn of his involvement.

"I'm stunned. This is the guy who's going to save New York! When does he find the time to be a landlord?" said Costas Liagouris, general manager of Church's, the British shoe emporium.

Developer Bernard Spitzer, Eliot's father, confirmed that Spitzer-Madison holds the lease for the boutique shops in the Cumberland House, the co-op apartment building around the corner at 30 E. 62nd St. It runs until 2015 and dates to 1990.

He referred questions about his son's finances to the attorney general's office, which said the elder Spitzer paid a gift tax when he made his three children partners in Spitzer-Madison.

Spokesman Darren Dopp wouldn't disclose the gift's value or the amount of tax Bernard paid, saying that details of his finances are private.

Among the Spitzers' tenants:

Lockes Diamantaires, where a 21-carat cut diamond ring sold recently for $1.8 million.

Ghurka, where a men's leather briefcase retails for $1,895.

Georg Jensen of Denmark, where a woman's necklace adorned with silver moonstones goes for $3,800.

The attorney general's ownership stake in Madison Ave. retail property provides a footnote to a controversy that rocked his successful 1998 campaign over undisclosed loans he received from his father.

In that race, he incurred millions of dollars in bank debt. To pay it off, he sold eight co-ops at 200 Central Park South to his father - who had earlier given them to his son as a gift - for $6.1 million.

The sale took place in the first week of February 1999. Days later, on Feb. 10, Spitzer-Madison was incorporated in Delaware, and on May 1, the lease for the retail stores was transferred from another Spitzer company to the new firm.

The back-to-back transactions allowed Spitzer to legally substitute one income stream for another, each provided by his father.

"These transactions were handled in strict accordance with the law," Dopp said. They were also fully disclosed in city real estate filings, tax returns and financial disclosure forms, he added.

Still, it was news to the merchants on the block: "We've been here four years and I never knew he was the landlord," Liagouris said.

But Liagouris was delighted: "Hey, I'm an avid Democrat - I'm not complaining."

Spitzer Leads Faso by $36m

Associated Press
October 7, 2006

ALBANY - Eliot Spitzer has raised $39.1 million in his campaign for governor compared to Republican John Faso's $3.4 million, according to campaign finance records submitted yesterday.

Spitzer still has $8.6 million left for the final month of the race compared to Faso's $972,256.

Spitzer and his running mate, state Sen. David Paterson, who wants to be lieutenant governor, raised about $693,000 from Sept. 19 to Oct. 3, according to state Board of Elections records. They spent $701,000 in the period for which financial-disclosure reports are required for candidates in September's primary.

Faso had no primary, so his records reflect contributions and spending since July. He raised $952,519 during that time and spent $1.4 million.

Spitzer had a 73-21 percent lead over Faso among likely voters in this week's Quinnipiac University poll.

2 Sides of Spitzer
Love-hate Relationship with Civil Libertarians

Editorial
New York Daily News
August 7, 2006

Politicians are known by their enemies, and when Eliot Spitzer ran for state attorney general in 1998, the Democrat's best-known enemy may have been the American Civil Liberties Union.

In private practice, Spitzer founded the New York branch of the Center for the Community Interest, a public interest law firm that tangled with civil libertarians on issues like anti-gang laws and AIDS testing for infants. He ran a commercial that mocked the liberal lawyers who opposed searching schoolchildren for guns.

After he was elected, he backed state financing for parochial schools and "roving" wiretaps for police. He calls the New York Civil Liberties Union's resistance to the wiretap law "somewhat ludicrous."

Spitzer is now known as a crusading populist, the scourge of Wall Street and the darling of New York's liberal interest groups.

But as his lesser-known civil liberties fights show, the front-runner to become the next governor resists easy ideological classification.

"The principles I have been pursuing have been remarkably consistent since I got into electoral politics," he said Friday.

Civil libertarians agree. The NYCLU's Christopher Dunn says Spitzer "has been conspicuously silent when it comes to civil rights and civil liberties," and that he is "astonished at what a completely free ride he has gotten."

Spitzer has flirted with national political movements, writing for the centrist New Republic and, for a time in the 1990s, participating in an attempt to start a New York chapter of the Clintonite Democratic Leadership Council. But he's not plugged into any national Democratic trend, and has no Washington mentor.

Asked about the DLC, to whom Sen. Hillary Clinton delivered a recent policy address, he says, "I don't know what they're doing these days."

Spitzer also declined to take a side in the Connecticut race that's at the center of the widening rift between the Democratic Party establishment and anti-war activists. While Sens. Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer support Sen. Joe Lieberman, Spitzer said he's staying on the sidelines.

Spitzer, despite his tangles with Wall Street casts his core value as enthusiastic capitalism: "What you can see as a common refrain is a belief in the marketplace," he says. "That is something that is a strain in everything I've done, with a parallel belief that the market has to be tamed when there are abuses."

This doesn't fit naturally into the left-right frame of U.S. politics, and you can almost put Spitzer's views into two columns. On the right, there's support for the death penalty, state funding for parochial schools and expanding nonunion charter schools. On the left there's same-sex marriage and a delight in clashing with corporations.

If there's a thread running through his views - critics say there isn't - it's a balancing of choice, from marriage to education, with a sense of responsibility.

Among his most detailed policy proposals is for health-care reform, a plan that involves closing hospitals, making state-financed nursing home care less common, and expanding the number of people with public health care.

Spitzer's main policy aide, Paul Francis, said the candidate rejects both the liberal focus on who pays and the conservative instinct to treat patients as consumers.

"Eliot would say that the left is asking the wrong question and the right is coming up with the wrong answer," he said of health care. ***

One problem that he doesn't remember facing in eight years as attorney general, Spitzer said, is the Ku Klux Klan. One of the candidates to replace him, Andrew Cuomo, surprised observers by using a flaming cross as the dominant image of his first political advertisement, with the narrator saying Cuomo "took on the Ku Klux Klan" as federal housing secretary.

But Brian Levin, a lawyer who represented a white woman who, with her mixed-race daughter, was harassed by Reading, Pa., racists, said Cuomo had earned the bragging rights.

"He took a personal interest in the case and used creative methods to stop the harassment," he said.

The alleged Klansman in the case was unrepentant and said at the time that Cuomo could kiss his "derriPre."

Spitzer Took 25g from Wrist-slap Firm's Man

By Kenneth Lovett
New York Post
July 21, 2005

ALBANY- A giant insurer investigated by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer got what was widely viewed as a slap on the wrist just days after Spitzer pocketed a $25,000 campaign donation from a high-ranking former employee, The Post has learned.

An ex-senior vice president of Aon Corp. - who sources say still consults for the company and spends time at its offices - made the contribution to Spitzer's gubernatorial war chest three days Former Aon Exec Richard Ferrucci before a settlement with the international insurance broker was announced, records show.

Richard F. Ferrucci, a Long Island resident who worked for Aon from 1993 through late 2003, made the donation on March 1, according to Spitzer's latest campaign fund-raising report. Spitzer's settlement with Aon was announced March 4.

Under the deal, no Aon execs were forced to resign and the company admitted no wrongdoing after being probed for steering business to companies that in turn paid fees back to Aon. The firm paid a $190 million fine.

At the time, critics charged that Spitzer went easy on Aon and noted that the deal differed from a similar case of alleged wrongdoing at insurer Marsh & McLennan, in which the attorney general forced the chairman out and three employees were criminally charged.

Though Ferrucci is no longer with Aon, two Aon employees on Long Island said yesterday he still spends time at the company and serves as a consultant.

Spitzer also received $50,000 from attorneys with Constantine Cannon, one of two firms which represented Aon in the settlement talks with the attorney general's office, records show.

Spitzer is a longtime friend of the firm's chairman, Lloyd Constantine, and the two were partners in private practice.

Constantine, who headed up Spitzer's transition team in 1998, has donated $36,000 to Spitzer's campaigns in recent years - including $15,000 since last October when the Aon investigation was in full swing, records show.

Other attorneys from Constantine Cannon have donated an additional $35,600 to Spitzer since October, according to the records. Constantine, who helps Spitzer raise campaign money, said he believes the attorney general's office actually treated him more harshly to avoid allegations of favoritism during the settlement talks.

"I represented Aon with diligence," he said. "I don't believe I got any favoritism from the AG's office," he said.

It's the second instance in which Spitzer has taken large donations from lawyers representing companies he's investigating.

The Post reported in April that Spitzer had received $18,500 from members of another of his old law firms that had been hired by AIG - even as the insurance giant was under investigation.

Spitzer's campaign has a policy of not taking donations from employees of companies under investigation, but that does not apply to lawyers representing the firms.

Editor's Note: Lloyd Constantine has done legal work for News Corp., the parent company of The Post

Complaint Filed Over Spitzer's Role in Trust

By The Associated Press
New York Lawyer
July 14, 2006

A complaint filed yesterday with the state Ethics Commission questions whether Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's role in a family financial trust conflicts with his job policing charitable organizations.

The complaint was filed by rival Democratic candidate for governor Tom Suozzi. If a conflict is found, Mr. Suozzi wants Mr. Spitzer to resign as a trustee of the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust. The commission is prevented by law from publicly disclosing whether it is launching an investigation until it finds there is reasonable cause for charges.

New York Daily News

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat who polices the Empire State’s 60,000 charities and nonprofits, is helping his family administer a charity that his office oversees, the New York Daily News reported July 9. According to the newspaper, the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust invests almost all of its nearly $26 million in assets in hedge funds and equity funds whose executives have made generous donations in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to Spitzer’s gubernatorial campaign. Spitzer, a trustee for the nonprofit organization, denied any wrongdoing, but ethics expert Marcy Murninghan, a consultant to foundations and a former ethics professor at Harvard Divinity School, said the actions raised red flags. “It raises ethical questions -- and suggests a level of self-dealing -- when financial investments are placed with investors who happen to be his biggest contributors.”

Eliot on Charity Role: Couldn't Be Prouder

By Douglas Feiden
New York Daily News
July 12, 2006

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer personally defended his role as trustee of his family's charity - marking the first time he has responded to the findings of a Daily News investigation.

Responding to a News story on Sunday that probed the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust's finances, Spitzer said yesterday, "The millions we have given have gone to great purposes - and we couldn't be prouder of what we've done, where it's gone and how we've done it."

He said the charity gives away tens of millions of dollars - and never issues a press release, puts the family name on a building or trumpets its good works.

The charity is regulated by his office and had to pay a $51,000 federal tax penalty.

"Look, we're giving away money, guys!" he told the Daily News Editorial Board. "We're taking our own money and we're writing checks to hospitals, to schools, to museums."

But Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, who is seeking the Democratic primary nod, said Spitzer had flouted the law, and a state Ethics Commission opinion, by serving for five years on a board monitored by his office.

"He's a Harvard Law School graduate. He should know a textbook conflict of interest when he sees one - a conflict between his official duties and his position on the family trust."

But Spitzer said he's advised by lawyers and ethics experts who say he's done everything properly and does not need to seek an advisory opinion from the Ethics Commission.

The Spitzer Trust in 2004 had to pay a $51,768 penalty to the IRS for failing to make charitable gifts at the level required by U.S. tax law in previous years.

But charitable experts pointed out that every tax-exempt dollar sent to the IRS is a dollar diverted from charity.

"Instead of giving to soup kitchens or groups inspired by Mother Teresa, they're giving to the Bush administration," said Marcus Owens, the ex-chief of the exempt organizations division at the IRS from 1990 to 2000.

http://www.nydailynews.com/07-12-2006/news/politics/story/434383p-365982c.html

Spitzer’s Role in a Trust Is Questioned by Suozzi

By Jennifer Medina
New York Times
July 11, 2006

Thomas R. Suozzi sharply criticized his rival for the Democratic nomination for governor, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, saying yesterday that Mr. Spitzer was violating state conflict-of-interest regulations by sitting on the board of his family’s charitable trust.

The attorney general oversees more than 60,000 nonprofit and charitable institutions in New York, including trusts.

The criticism of Mr. Spitzer came the same day the Suozzi campaign filed signatures with the state’s Board of Elections to place Mr. Suozzi’s name on the September primary ballot. Mr. Suozzi needed to collect 15,000 signatures to make it on the ballot, and campaign aides said they filed 40,000. The campaign did nothing to publicize the filings, which came after weeks of work by volunteers and paid staff members.

Mr. Suozzi’s attacks came after news reports of the activities of the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, on whose board Mr. Spitzer sits. The trust has invested $25.9 million in hedge and equity funds, and several of those later donated millions of dollars to Mr. Spitzer’s campaigns. "This raised clear questions about who is going to look and see if they used the money properly," Mr. Suozzi said. "It certainly raises the appearance of a conflict, and there are laws that make it clear."

Mr. Suozzi pointed to a 1990 advisory opinion issued by the State Ethics Commission. In the opinion, the commission concluded that state officers in "policymaking positions" should not "serve as director or members of the board of organizations regulated, overseen or licensed by the employing state agency."

The opinion was issued in response to an inquiry by the State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, which asked whether a member of the agency could serve on the board of a nonprofit agency licensed by the office.

Darren Dopp, a spokesman for Mr. Spitzer, said that the advisory opinion would not apply in this case, and that the attorney general’s office did not have direct oversight of family trusts, which disburse private money, as it does of nonprofits, which solicit from the public.

Managers of several of the hedge funds each donated $50,100, the maximum allowed by state law, to Mr. Spitzer’s campaign, state records showed. The donors, including Jeffrey L. Berkowitz of Cramer Berkowitz and Douglas Hirsch of Seneca Capital, gave almost exclusively to Mr. Spitzer, according to an analysis by Common Cause New York.

"The individuals that have contributed to him are friends; to construe that as somehow inappropriate or nefarious is something of a stretch," Mr. Dopp said.

Still, the confluence of private and public business is enough to raise questions about Mr. Spitzer’s dual role, said Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "The commission’s opinion should act as a spur for the attorney general to request a formal advisory opinion," Mr. Horner said.

Patrick Healy contributed reporting for this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/nyregion/11gov.html?ex=1162270800&en=cb3457da29682dd3&ei=5070

[Index to Articles]

On Trips, Eliot Spitzer Mixed Business with High-Priced Prostitute Pleasure

By Susan Donaldson James ABC News March 11, 2008

How the Mighty Fall

Their Set of Rules

'Tragic Situation'

On Trips, Eliot Spitzer Mixed Business
with High-Priced Prostitute Pleasure

By Susan Donaldson James
ABC News
March 11, 2008