Posted on 03/13/2008 10:50:30 AM PDT by george76
The political future of Eliot Spitzer is decided. But the legal fate of the man who made his reputation as a crime fighter is not.
Shortly after Mr. Spitzer's late-morning resignation announcement, Michael Garcia, U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, issued a statement saying "there is no agreement between this Office and Governor Eliot Spitzer, relating to his resignation or any other matter."
"He is a far less likely target out of office," ...
Mr. Spitzer may be vulnerable to charges that he sought to evade federal banking laws in extracting cash from his bank accounts to pay the Emperors Club... Mr. Spitzer may have made some effort to avoid federal scrutiny of three wire transfers totaling about $15,000 by dividing his withdrawals into pieces...
A charge of dividing transactions to avoid reporting requirements, called "structuring," could carry a prison term of up to five years, under federal sentencing guidelines...
Lawyers for Mr. Spitzer are seeking to keep him from being charged with a felony, a conviction for which could cost him his law license. They are also seeking to avoid any charges that would force the father of three teenage girls to serve time in prison.
Money-laundering experts say Mr. Spitzer may have run afoul of a rule, part of the Bank Secrecy Act...
Mr. Grice said Mr. Spitzer could also be vulnerable to a law that bars financial transactions "with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity."
This is a fairly easy case to make..
Regardless of legal implications, the Spitzer resignation shakes up New York politics.
Besides elevating Mr. Paterson... it presents a political opening for the Democratic state attorney general, Andrew Cuomo...opens the door for Mr. Cuomo to run for governor.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Good point. The court should send his daughters the message that what he did to them and their mother was totally cool and no one should be punished for it.
I hope he gets tried for something and more dirty laundry comes out for a long time. NY Demorats had hopes that they could take the NY Senate this year. I think more this douchebag’s name is dragged through mud, it may help NY Pubs to hold on to the NY Senate.
NOW he's worried about his daughters?
He's already done them more harm than any stint in the big house can do to them. Taught them a life lesson about trusting men.
NO question, that's exactly what he did and his efforts to cover it up were even clumsier.
However, since I disagreed with his conduct as A.G., I would say in light of his resignation he should be ticketed with a misdemeanor - unless the cash he used came from illicit sources or a campaign donor.
I like your new tag...
Number nine, number nine, number nine . .
Thanks. Yes, I’m old enough to have bought the White Album on its release. :-))
“...avoid any charges that would force the father of three teenage girls to serve time in prison.”
If prosecutors stop bringing charges against men who happen to have sired children...we’re in big trouble.
And let us recall how the little pencil-necked, fascist whoremonger violated every canon of prosecutorial ethics when he and his little buttboy Andrew [The Cuckold] Cuomo threatened all of the gun manufacturers and distributors with totally bogus antitrust suits when they refused to sign on with the odious and notorious Smith & Wesson ‘agreement’. And to think that the mainslime media wanted the little fascist pervert to be installed as our Maximum Leader
Slap on the wrist time.
Spitzer would threaten a corporation with a lawsuit.....the lawsuits would cost them millions in legal fees and damage control....so they paid up to “appease the Spitzer beast” figuring a "settlement" would make him go away. But Spitzer's appetite got bigger. He then threatens their neighbors - until the entire Wall Street block is paying ransom.
Spitzer learned the protection racket from Unions who learned it from the Sicilian Mafia.
Giuliani used the same scam when he was USAG.......and earned enough under the table to get himself into the Mayor's office.
You can always tell when the lawmen aren't getting a big enough share of the take——they start making sounds like they’re “going after” the bad guys. They then prosecute UNTIL they get paid (quoted from the "Rich and Super-Rich" by Ferdinand Lundberg).
Looking at their multiple prosecutions-—Giuliani and Spitzer are THE greeediest lawman on the take.
L/E should find out whether Spitzer was soliciting prostitutes at the same time he was prosecuting them (perhaps as an excuse to meet them---and extort their handlers for money and sex).
PLUS Julie Annie and Spitzer both had very mixed records as prosecutors.
A lot of Spitler's cases were negotiated before trial---a red flag that payoffs were part of the game.
Most of Julie's targets went nowhere---guy collected a boodle which got him into the Mayor's office.
I agree. In most of the cases a few courageous people made him present to a jury, he lost.
Didn't someone tell him his withdrawal method ususally doesn't work.
Seeing Spitzer’s wife and then seeing the photo of the call girl he was hung up on, it appears that he was going out for a hamburger when he head steak at home. I suppose the thing that was the most exciting about it was the risk that ordinary schmucks like us would find out about it and maybe even be a bit jealous of him.
We are not impressed.
I hope the daughters, instead, learn to be more discerning than their mother was about men in general and especially about prospective husbands. (I am *not* blaming Silda for her slimeball husband's despicable private and public behavior, however.) If what the daughters bring away from this is a generalized distrust of all men, they are setting themselves up for failed relationships in adulthood.
I have to disagree.
His m.o. as AG was to make televised accusations of criminal conduct against people he disliked - even though he hadn't a shred of evidence, let alone proof.
He would threaten to file criminal charges against their businesses - which, due to regulatory issues, they had to avoid in order not to go into receivership - and thus force them to pay cash settlements without any trial or any findings.
He almost never brought any of his high-proile targets to a grand jury, let alone a trial.
Putting him in the criminal dock on charges that are extremely serious and well-documented would not be aping his tactics - it would be doing things the right way.
Remember his Harvard law roommate : Cramer
Why were Hedge Funds with main offices in NYC, off limits for his investigations?
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