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Spitzer's Scandal: Some Things Don't Pass the Smell Test

Posted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake at 5:03 AM on March 11, 2008.


How did Spitzer's name get leaked to the media, and who did it? Didn't happen to Dave Vitter.
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ABC is reporting that Eliot Spitzer came under the attention of the Feds because his bank reported "suspicious money transfers" to the IRS. The Justice Department brought it to the FBI's Public Corruption Squad, who looked into it and found that payments were made to a company called QET, which did business as The Emperor's Club.

All kinds of questions arise here:

1. Why would the bank tell the IRS and not Spitzer himself if there was a suspicious transfer? Spitzer is a longtime client, a rich guy and the governor. We're talking thousands of dollars here, not millions. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense that they spotted a "suspicious transfer" made by the governor, and that this is how things began. It's possible it was just ordinary paperwork the bank had to file with the government whenever some particular flag was raised, but if that's the case, why did the DoJ go to DefCon 3?

2. What is a USA doing prosecuting a prostitution case? This isn't normally what the feds spend their time with.

3. Mike Garcia is a Chertoff crony. Sources familiar with the investigation say that he sent a prosecution memo to DC two months ago asking for authority to indict a public figure (Spitzer). Which means they had their case made long before the wire tap of February 13. Why did they then include this line from that conversation in the complaint?

LEWIS continued that from what she had been told "he" (believed to be a reference to Client-9) "would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe -- you know -- I mean that...very basic things...."Kristen" responded: "I have a way of dealing with that...I'd be like listen dude, you really want the sex?...You know what I mean."

This salacious detail does not seem like it's necessary to make their case, and appears to be added for no other purpose than to destroy Spitzer's career.

4. How did Spitzer's name get leaked to the media, and who did it? Didn't happen to Dave Vitter.

5. Why did Mike Bloomberg suddenly start talking about running for governor recently? And why did he give $500,000 to Joe Bruno? He's good buddies with Mike Mukasey. What did he know and how did he know it?

6. The Mann Act? Are you kidding?

7. Spitzer's been in the line of fire of the GOP hit squad for a while. Roger Stone, Roger Stone, Roger Stone.

There are all kinds of things about this that just don't pass the smell test.

Digg!

Tagged as: spitzer, new york, bruno, bloomberg, stone, vitter, prostitution

Jane Hamsher is the founder of FireDogLake. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect.


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Who cares who snitched?
Posted by: reidhaus on Mar 11, 2008 7:38 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
He's guilty - and is getting what he deserves!

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» RE: Who cares who snitched? Posted by: jiclemens
» RE: Who cares who snitched? Posted by: chicano2nd
» RE: Who cares who snitched? Posted by: mnascimento
GLAD SOMEONE NOTICED
Posted by: VZEQICVA on Mar 11, 2008 7:43 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What Spitzer did was wrong. I feel badly for his wife. High priced prostitution is all around the world and it's a huge money maker. But the nature of the investigation seems to go beyond renting a room at the Mayflower. If they can do this to Spitzer, what about the rest of us. This was bothering me from the beginning. It's not about Spitzer's marriage vows, there's alot more to it. Thanks, ANNA

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» RE: GLAD SOMEONE NOTICED Posted by: Intellect
» RE: GLAD SOMEONE NOTICED Posted by: jimidee
Answers to some of your questions
Posted by: EncinoM on Mar 11, 2008 7:51 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
1) Transaction over $10,000 get reported automaticly.

2) High profile case, makes a career. Feds have jurisdiction, yes the Mann Act applies.

The rest of your argument is speculationand innuendo. BY the way were is the comment about Spitzer being in trouble for using the State investigators to attack political enemies.

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» RE: Except that... Posted by: jimidee
Hey, That's what you get...
Posted by: ruscle on Mar 11, 2008 7:51 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
... for living in a police state. I do wander what sort of trash the government is collecting for future use on us and our children.

Thanks for pointing out these Red Flags regarding the Spitzer case. It seemed odd to me right from the start. He has many enemies and many of them are the kinds of guys involved in this sort of thing.

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» RE: Hey, That's what you get... Posted by: appleton14
Ridiculous
Posted by: JSquercia on Mar 11, 2008 7:58 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Certainly makes you wonder JUST how politicized the DOJ IS ? We certainly will be well protected from those High Paid Hookers . Guess those wiretaps on Everyone are well worth the Price .
The papers are full of nothing else but this .Afterall who wants to read about Bush exemptng the CIA from the same anti torture rules that the Army has to follow OR the fact the President's flunkies Myers and Bolton are still refusing to comply with Congressional Supeonas and that DOJ ( there they are AGAIN ) refuses to do its duty in this case . Hell these stories would require some actual thinking . You know about things like the Constitution , Seperation of Powers and Executive Priveledge .
Once again Europe must be laughing their ass off at US with our bipolar attitude toward Sex . Oh and by the way the Euro is continuing to beat the hell out of the dollar . I believe it stands at $1.53 . Five years ago just after the Iraq Invasion it stood at $1.05 . The dollar will continue to plunge as long as we continue to borrow to pay for the war and continue our huge trade deficits .

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» RE: idiculous Posted by: Lauren
» RE: idiculous Posted by: Lauren
» RE: idiculous Posted by: appleton14
republicans and the mob
Posted by: jiclemens on Mar 11, 2008 8:01 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It comes as no surprise really, when he's number one on the retaliatory hit list. Aside from assassination a sex scandal is about all they can come up with, but then it is no different from all the republican homosexual scandals, the hypocracy, the entrapment. His crime is fighting hard to rid the world of corruption on wall street while the disgusting republicans only work hard to "clean up" our bedrooms. And it works. Sexuality is the only reason people can think of to hate BOTH Clintons as much as they do and it almost brought him down. Even if aids killed the sexual revolution it appears no lessons were learned. Decriminalize sex and countless other victemless crimes and let his wife decide how to deal with him (short of castration).

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» RE: republicans and the mob Posted by: Lauren
Why admit to it?
Posted by: lefty010 on Mar 11, 2008 8:10 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If these accusations are not true to some degree, why would Spitzer own any of it? Why would he publicly apologize and need to regain the trust of his family?

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» RE: Why admit to it? Posted by: progdem
» RE: Why admit to it? Posted by: lefty010
Between the lines
Posted by: Gaubladt on Mar 11, 2008 8:23 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The story here is that data mining by Homeland Security may have bsen used here to nab a pol.

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» RE: Between the lines Posted by: lefty010
» RE: Between the lines Posted by: Lauren
Awe Spitzer got caught with his zipper down
Posted by: SackofWoe0 on Mar 11, 2008 8:23 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Who really cares? I say ship all those Republican politicans to Florida and let that other Bush protect them just like the rest of the Republican Bush Klan. They all need retirement don't they?

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Not passing the "smell test"
Posted by: CJC on Mar 11, 2008 8:23 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As an outsider to the whole legal and poltical background to this it's hard to judge whether Spitzer is being exposed by political enemies.

But his behavior doesn't pass a smell test either. He built a reputation as a straight arrow and then was shifting money around to hide $4000 payments for an hour of sex?

Politicians don't have a really "private" life. There's nothing new about that.

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» RE: Not passing the "smell test" Posted by: garyinthailand
» RE: Not passing the "smell test" Posted by: bwv3.14159
Spitzer handed the Feds the knife
Posted by: Bobb9999 on Mar 11, 2008 8:41 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
... and they're twisting it into him with relish,
to paraphrase Nixon commenting on
how his own Watergate activities gave his enemies the weapon they needed to destroy him.
-Maybe the Feds were over-zealous on this one,
but this isn't like former Gov. Don Siegelman case where an innocent man was railroaded into jail by Karl Rove & Co.
-Spitzer's responsible for his own actions in
cavorting with prostitutes, not the Feds.
Who knows what else in the form of related dubious activity (financial)might emerge?
-Spitzer's to blame for handing the Feds the knife they will now destroy him with.
-Stupid Spitzer, or what?

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» RE: Spitzer handed the Feds the knife Posted by: garyinthailand
Bobby Decker
Posted by: Bobby Decker on Mar 11, 2008 8:43 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
WHAT THE HELL IS IT WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY....A YEAR AGO SPITZER LOOKED LIKE SOMEONE WORTHY AT A SHOT AT THE TOP....PRESDENT....VICE PRESIDENT...US ATHORNEY GENERAL....INSTEAD IT LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER LIBERAL BITES THE DUST

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» RE: Bobby Decker Posted by: Intellect
» RE: To YOU maybe... Posted by: jimidee
a little perspective
Posted by: fbc21ca on Mar 11, 2008 8:44 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
- It's a shame.
- It's his own damn fault.
- As my girlfriend says, every man pays for sex, one way or another. It shouldn't be a crime in the first place. It's nobody's business outside of him and his wife.
- It's not like he killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, drained the treasury for his war profiteering crony friends, incinerated the constitution, ruined our reputation overseas for decades, spawned a new generation of terrorists, gave Al-Queda reason to move into Iraq where they were previously hated, ignored the impending environmental crisis that threatens all of life on Earth or gave aid and comfort to legions of religious fanatics who want to replace our government with a Christian version of the Taliban.... and yet still has managed to even the mildest form of rebuke, let alone the war crimes tribunal he truly deserves...

(ahem)

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» RE: a little perspective Posted by: fbc21ca
» RE: a little perspective Posted by: peacefullaim
The "fucking war on terror" and totalitarianism
Posted by: citizenjoe on Mar 11, 2008 8:45 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So this is what the "war on terror" spying and database collecting does. It catches liberals misbehaving with prostitutes. I wonder how much it cost us to do this, $5000 an hour? Another Rove, Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney project.

So now the fucking war on terror has become a terroristic war on fucking. This would be a joke about human folly, if it were not an artifact of a political regime building a totalitarian state.

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let`s blame it .....on......
Posted by: pacto on Mar 11, 2008 9:00 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Oh lets see...Lou Dobb's..maybe..`yuk yuk yuk. It is a fact we are all human and no matter how hard we wish we could have perrrrfect politicians to elect that will be a GUIDING LIGHT, yuk yuk yuk...what a bunch of ----.This is just another thing to waste your brain instead of paying attention to the real problems in our society. blah blah blah.

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The Order of the Day
Posted by: pb120669 on Mar 11, 2008 9:06 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Two points: the Powerful love prostitutes. Among that ilk, the percentage of this particular form of abuse of women (regular, healthy minded folk don't want or need to pay for sex) is astronomical, if we're to learn even a morsel from American history.

Second: Spitzer was a "well heeled investor" [Salon] who used his knowledge to go after a veritable ocean of corruption in the financial sector in the wake of The Most Corrupt Administration Ever [Rolling Stone: The Worst President Ever]. In other words, he turned on his "own people." And he likely did it not just for reasons of principle, um, but because he knows that people like you and I like it when the robber-barons get what they deserve.

I'm not surprised they got him, since he was in their sights -- nothing is worse to that Neandrathal Clan of Powerful Elites than when they're betrayed by "one of their own."

I'm just surprised that he made it so damn easy for them.

Reminds me of old Billy Clinton in a lot of ways.

The Oil Wars are coming. Are you ready?

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Wings of Wax
Posted by: Wacre on Mar 11, 2008 9:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We have to leery of this particular line of inquiry before we too drift too close to the sun because, while the circumstances behind Governor Spitzer's actions are indeed suspicious, the allegations themselves are not denied by him.

Are we saying that, as long as a particular figure is 'on our side' his slip-ups should not be brought into the light of day?

That we should overlook his not-so-youthful indiscretions?

I don't think that that's the message some are trying to get across, but it appears that way from certain angles.

Now, if we weren't quite so prudish about sex in this country it would matter less (imagine something like this making such a big stink in, let's say, France. Unlikely because the last Prime Minister was known to have a mistress, yet life went on).

Unfortunately, we are very prudish about such things. I guess it gives everyone a chance to mount their high-horses, everyone holier than the person that proceeded them.

We, as well as the government, should indeed look further into the circumstances of the DOJ's actions, but considering the political climate that exists today Governor Spitzer should have known that there were people looking for whatever smoking gun they could use against him.

Unfortunately, he gave them an automatic weapon, with a full clip.

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» RE: Wings of Wax Posted by: Lauren
sex and the politicians
Posted by: bitsfick on Mar 11, 2008 9:32 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is a mass of floating plastic in the central pacific, that is twice the size of the continental united states, no one knows the long term effects of the plastic, but they do know it is breaking down, and that it is killing marine life. They are finding more and more prescription medicines in our drinking water, again no one knows the long-term effects of these medicines, but what we do know is we are literally drinking our own piss. But what is the big news item of the day? A democrat got laid

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» RE: sex and the politicians Posted by: Lauren
Did anyone else
Posted by: hurricane hugo on Mar 11, 2008 9:36 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
laugh at the headline?

jdfu!

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On Sat. BUSH VETOES TORTURE on Mon SEX Scandal
Posted by: Bastet62 on Mar 11, 2008 10:34 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Call me cynical, but it seems really, really convenient for the Bush regime that Bush vetoes the No Torture Bill on Saturday to nationwide and worldwide horror, then on Monday, suddenly, there's this huge sex scandal which has obliterated the more important story of the veto and the world's reaction to it. No one in the rest of the world cares about Spitzer's weaknesses, but they DO care about why Bush advocates, practices, and codifies torture.
Ask yourself why does Bush want torture do be legal?

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Power Corrupts
Posted by: ronheri on Mar 11, 2008 11:16 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Power corruupts and absolute power corrupts absolutley. What happens to these politicans when they achieve their goal of power? What drives them to even want these positions? A desire to do good work for mankind? It appears that there is more at play here, when men and women will sell their souls to achieve seats of power. It must be like some drug high to command power over others. They will promise you and lie and scam anyway they can to get these positions; and most are already rich. There is something going on in the recesses of their brains, that most average folks just don't understand. I know I don't.

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» RE: Power Corrupts Posted by: peacefullaim
Don't care. Spitzer for pres 2012
Posted by: racy_rick on Mar 11, 2008 11:57 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I don't care what you say about Eliot Spitzer. He just got his sex scandal out of the way before his presidential run.

There is no one that has taken it upon themselves this much to protect the people from big business since FDR.

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Assumptions of Reality
Posted by: magistre on Mar 11, 2008 1:18 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When I first heard this story it didn't sit right. Spitzer is far too smart to get caught doing what he is 'ALLEGED" to have been doing. Personally, I think he was given a choice: Go along with this character assassination or you and your whole family will be "Paul Wellstoned"!

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wrong is wrong: so suck it up (no pun)
Posted by: jwpa13 on Mar 11, 2008 1:35 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In New York city they have a problem with street walkers. They cause many problems and spreading disease is just one of them. To combat this they use undercover cops as "hookers" to troll for those who are looking for "short time lovers". They arrest these "Johns" and fine them and publish there names to discourage others from looking for sex on the streets. OK, so the GUV wasn't in Times Square he was on Park ave. (or some other classy place) but NOBODY is above the law. To grant the GUV a pass on this would be no less an outrage than giving BUSH a pass on his crimes. Get over it. If the guy needs "strange" that bad, let him go to Nevada. Its legal there and controlled. I have no problem with prostitution, only breaking the law thinking you can get away with it because you THINK you have the "political juice" to be ABOVE the LAW.

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Spitzer's Incredibly Stupid Blunder
Posted by: playitsam on Mar 11, 2008 1:56 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Of COURSE, it was a coup for the Justice Dept but let's fact it: Spitzer brought this on himself.
By ordering his tasty little treat from NY to his Washington DC hotel, he also violated interstate commerce rules. He knew it. I'm wondering if the writer of this story wondered aloud who leaked high profile Republican names to the press. Spitzer deserves what he gets. He decided he could do what he wanted. High handed politicians deserve what they get no matter what their party.

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Even powerful lawyers don't make the law
Posted by: CJC on Mar 11, 2008 2:35 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I imagine that members of the bar have to take some kind of oath to uphold the law. So would an state attorney general and a governor.

The Mann act may be silly law, I don't know. What grown-ups do on their own time with other consenting adults should just be their own business. But Spitzer can't be ignorant of the law. Who says the wiretap was illegal?

Maybe his political enemies were out to get him. So why was he taking chances?

On a human level it's a sad story. But if Spitzer got himself in political hot water he has only himself to blame.

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Sex and Priorities
Posted by: blondesprite on Mar 12, 2008 7:13 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I made a quick tabulation of the number of comments for each article that was offered by Alternet today. The telling results are:
Spitzer's sex scandal got the highest marks with 64 comments. The article by Moyers got the second lowest number of comments.
The article about the safety of our drinking water, garnered the lowest number of comments.
Sex trumps safety, waste, fraud and child abuse.

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