Eliot Spitzer linked to prostitution ring, will resign

[UPDATE: Fox News reports he will resign. In his press conference he didn't say anything about that, but another event is set for 7pm NY time.

UPDATE 2: Mob links? This says it's in the court papers (PDF link), but a quick scan didn't bring anything up. That would indeed take this to the whole other level. Also, feel free to speculate on what "unsafe" activities Spitz apparently wanted to engage in. Perhaps he wanted her to play a "grateful" recipient of one of his driver's licenses/Motor Voter forms, or something.

UPDATE 3: This page shows that Spritzler had patronized their organization at least once before and had a $400 credit.

UPDATE 4: See the Hillary Clinton info below.

UPDATE 5: The feds weren't originally investigating the prostitution ring, but suspicious money transfers involving Spitzer, thinking he was on the take.

UPDATE 6: Ready for some mental dumpster diving? Jane Hamsher has questions. And, they're slightly coherent.

UPDATE 7: I don't want to link to "Spitzer Resigns From Emperors VIP Club", but I guess I just did. Also, "Aides Say They Expect Spitzer to Resign" (link), and Scott Horton has "A Few More Questions". It's all a VRWC conspiracy, at least in his mind.

UPDATE 8: It gets even better, believe it or don't: "Aide: Spitzer May Defy Calls To Step Down" (link). Could Unsafe Eliott be a GOP mole?]

Normally, I avoid things like this, but:
[New York governor] Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.

Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides inside his Fifth Avenue apartment early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He scheduled an announcement for 2:15 after inquiries from the Times...

The governor's travel records show that he was in Washington in mid-February. One of the clients described in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, the Emperors Club VIP on the night of Feb. 13.

Mr. Spitzer appeared on a CNBC television show at 7 a.m. the next morning. Later in the morning, he testified before a Congressional committee...
He's referred to as "Client 9" in court papers.

The "corruption fighter" was a client of Emperor's Clup VIP (emperorsclubvip.com), which now says the site has been disabled. Whether that was due to court action or the site owner's decision isn't known. An older copy can be found here: http://web.archive.org/web/20070820093133/http://www.emperorsclubvip.com/

UPDATE: Part of the court papers - not mentioning Spitzer - are here. A story on that is here:
"Raquel," who worked in New York and LA, was described as "an avid writer, actress and journalist."
Regarding the last, how could anyone tell?

HILLARIOUS UPDATE: Via this we learn that Spitser has been removed from Hillary's list of endorsers (hillaryclinton.com/news/endorsements). However, their web minions haven't been as thorough as they might hope, since there's still a blog post about the endorsement (hillaryclinton.com/blog/print/?id=5768), even including the following photo. And, it's also listed as an event (hillaryclinton.com/actioncenter/event/view/?id=1070&sc=8).

eliot spitzer hillary clinton

When that picture goes away, you'll know they've completely erased the record. Thankfully, I saved a copy.

Earlier:
Felipe Calderon greets Eliot Spitzer on his recent visit
Eliot Spitzer drops driver's licenses for illegal aliens (Hillary updates position)
Rasmussen poll: 77% oppose driver's licenses for illegal aliens
Spitzer supporter: "You made me make a fool out of myself" (details on his switch)
New York Times to Eliot Spitzer: die on the driver's licenses for illegal aliens hill
Feds strike deal on Eliot Spitzer driver's licenses for illegal aliens (victory or defeat?)
Spitzer driver's licenses and illegal aliens voting (Motor Voter)
Richard Clarke endorses Spitzer license scheme; opposed DLs for illegal aliens in June
Smoking gun emails: Spitzer retaliated against opponent of his driver's license scheme
72% oppose Spitzer driver's licenses for illegal aliens; lowest rating ever
9/11 Commish: al Qaeda "will be able to come to New York" with Spitzer driver's licenses
New York Immigration Coalition supports Spitzer driver's licenses for illegal aliens plan
Michael Bloomberg, DHS against Spitzer illegal aliens driver's licenses plan
New York county clerks oppose Spitzer on driver's licenses for illegal aliens

Comments

Boy, if this doesn't prove that those who claim to be the purest are anything but!!!

I have not heard anything about a resignation yet. The bad jokes are sure to follow. However, if this prostitution ring involved highly valued Eastern European girls in this country illegally or under false pretenses I can not see how Elliot Spitzer who had been such an Open Borders demagogue not avoid getting crucified. At $3000+ an hour the women better be drop dead gorgeous or offering some very hush hush brand of kink. Perhaps in a way we may have to be more forgiving of Spitzer's tolerance of if not outright advocacy on behalf of illegal immigration. Especially if Spitzer's only personal contact with illegal aliens was requiring them to do jobs no American would do. And for good reason.

Emperors Club VIP, has a nice populist ring to it. That Spitzer what a man of the people.

Eliot....you so frickin homely you need to pay illegal alien hookers! Funny, wasn't this whore (Spitzer) advocating relaxing immigration enforcement and giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens? Ha, ha....you bald, ugly LIBERAL hypocrite!

"We no can has drvers lisns now? Fooey." Bye, bye, Spitzer. Good Riddance. Oh, wait. Forgot he's a democrat. MSM coverup begins in 3...2...1... I feel sorry for the pain of his family. For Spitzer, not. He will (hopefully) receive every ounce of justice the public is entitled to.

From what I read over at thesmokinggun it seems that this prostitution ring was somewhat of a scam itself. So much for the hot international models or Eastern European beauty queens angle. Looks like Elliot might have been paying for over priced goods. Oh too bad.

No and more no's he had nothing to do with that BS He is The ring of prostitution in fact we all know that most of our so called leaders are all prostitute can any of you guy's remember back two years ago when some other so called governor who was having sex with some male from Isreal gay guy..now that was funny. This is just BS and totally normal AND HELL PEOPLE most of the Wives are also having sex with the famale prostitute so don't get mad go out and buy a wife of one of our leaders, what fun that would be. have Big Time Sex Today go to congress.

Well, I hope they just happened to overhear this information while investigating his legitimate ties to terrorists (why were they wiretapping him, exactly?), otherwise people might get the idea that this was a Seigelman-style partisan witch hunt and not a legitimate extension of the War on Terror. (Talk about a peace dividend...)

BTW, when will the identities of clients 1-8 and 10-n be publicly revealed? I mean, we've already established that there was no bribery here; if consensual, out-of-pocket whoring is good enough for Spitzer, why isn't it good enough for the other wealthy patrons? Wait... you don't think there were Republicans involved, do you? Naw... as was sagely noted higher up in the thread, "Oh, wait. Forgot he's a democrat. MSM coverup begins in 3...2...1..." Indeed. If there were a Republican, it would be on the front pages. The fact that the Bush DoJ didn't release the names of the other clients proves that they were all Democrats! See, makes perfect sense, in Wingnut Bizarro World.

I've said it before and will say it again...There is one thing missing in this country today that would fix ALL the problems we have , from government to corporate responsibility...the word is INTEGRITY.... It is missing in action.

scarshapedstar, Spitzer himself as attorney general has been involved in the prosecution of several NY area high end call girl rings. Spitzer currently is being accused of using his own office's power to lead highly partisan attacks against leading Republicans in NY. One of his first acts while Governor was to contemplate a possible unconstitutional granting of driver's licenses to illegal aliens that overnight destroyed much of his political popularity. If there is a gross Siegelman style angle to this affair, it will come out in time. But it is dam hard to look at the ads for the "Emperors VIP Club" and its advertizing of international "model" and its outrageous price list and not think they were going to be a magnet for criminal investigation. It screams WTF was Spitzer thinking. Beside Spitzer has great wealth and excellent legal connections. If prosecuted for anything his case would be heard in New York or Washington DC courts. The odds of him being railroaded by highly partisan and corrupt legal system like Siegelman was in Alabama is remote. The last major bust of a major Washington call girl ring took down several prominent Republicans like the ex-CEO of Eli Lilly and high level Bush appointee. Look I am a life long Democrat. Trying to suggest that Spitzer got caught up in a partisan witch hunt itself reeks of tinfoil hats and bong smoke.

"If there is a gross Siegelman style angle to this affair, it will come out in time." Ironically enough, Siegelman hasn't even "come out" yet (in the sense that the media has almost entirely ignored the glaring injustice, and Siegelman is still in prison) and it's been over a year and a half. What makes you think this case would be different?

Also, you mention "The odds of him being railroaded by highly partisan and corrupt legal system like Siegelman was in Alabama is remote." A highly partisan, corrupt legal system. Hmmm. You mean like a legal system that would fire 8 US attorneys who refused to bring spurious charges against Democrats, at Karl Rove's behest? Is that partisan and corrupt enough? Because one of the USA's who apparently passed Karl's loyalty test (maybe he took the "Bush Pledge" [1]?) is handling this case; what constitutes "federal prostitution" is unclear but somehow they're investigating anyway. One would almost get the impression that they started with the wiretaps and worked backwards to find something to charge him under. Apparently they had to crack open the history books, because the last prosecution under the Mann act was 53 years ago, even though this case has f*ck-all to do with human trafficking. Does that not raise your lifelong Democrat eyebrow even the tiniest bit? Wow. I tip my bong to you, sir. Your Civility is unmatched.

Links:
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[1] www.slate.com/id/2108852/

Here's the perfect spin for spitz: "I get offered "free" women everyday from lobbyists, I paid my own way to protect the people's integrity and myself from undue lobbyist influence, also I didn't want to bother my wife"

mary I love you but that is a joke when people talk about Inegrity inside any part of government . come on mary this is what this non nation is the old one was killed 60 years ago and people got the what the people having coming and will become. ||amajockey is right read him this is all a real insider fight for power over us all, and can we say third world political ideals that want us to disappear for mexico city and third world ideals. Spitzer is total BS just like all the pigs in so called power, buy guns.

Hi Fred...I'm talking about integrity in everything!!!Just seems we are going the way of the Romans.... By the way, I can't believe this pig had his wife stand by his side during his apology...These women need a BOP in the head and need to BOP these jerks in the head and then VAMOOSE!!!

Yes Mary sad to say you are right I am old and will be dead soon but I do cry for the kids who will live in hell inside a Nation that was once Great.

I agree FRED....I struggle only for my son and nieces and nephews who will bear the brunt of the corruption and mass greed which has enveloped this country. Sometimes the rage is overwhelming at the sheer stupidity of these men who care not for this country and are throwing it away. God help us all!