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Off The Hook: No Criminal Charges For Spitzer (Republicans get prosecuted Dems don't)
WCBSTV ^ | November 6, 2008 | not the eagle has landed

Posted on 11/06/2008 8:47:05 PM PST by TheEaglehasLanded

U.S. Attorney Says Former N.Y. Governor Did Not Misuse Campaign Funds As A Client Of 'Emperors Club VIP'

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer will not face criminal charges following his role as a client in a high-profile prostution ring that led to his resignation in March.

U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia announced his decision Thursday afternoon.

"Eliot Spitzer has acknowledged to this Office that he was a client of, and made payments to, the Emperors Club VIP. Our investigation has shown that on multiple occasions, Mr. Spitzer arranged for women to travel from one state to another state to engage in prostitution. After a thorough investigation, this Office has uncovered no evidence of misuse of public or campaign funds," Garcia said in a statement.

Garcia also said there was no evidence pointing to criminal means of payment to the Club, despite court documents and published reports indicating that perhaps as much as $80,000 was transferred from Spitzer's account to a trio of dummy companies that were fronts for the escort service.

"In light of the policy of the Department of Justice with respect to prostitution offenses and the longstanding practice of this Office, as well as Mr. Spitzer's acceptance of responsibility for his conduct, we have concluded that the public interest would not be further advanced by filing criminal charges in this matter," Garcia said.

Spitzer issued a statement expressing relief in the decision and again apologizing for his misconduct, though once again not specifically stating what that misconduct was.

"I appreciate the impartiality and thoroughness of the investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office, and I acknowledge and accept responsibility for the conduct it disclosed. I resigned my position as Governor because I recognized that conduct was unworthy of an elected official. I once again apologize for my actions," Spitzer said.

Spitzer, the 54th governor of New York, officially resigned on March 17 after he was found to be a client of the Emperors Club VIP that was busted days before. He has remained out of the public eye since, though CBS 2 caught him in line to vote with his wife, Silda, on Tuesday morning in Manhattan.

Once known as "Mr. Clean" for his tenure as an attorney and attorney general, and his promise to sweep corruption up and out of Albany, he'll forever be known as "Client 9," which he was referred to in wiretaps of the call girl agency.

Financial transactions showed Spitzer spent thousands on prostitutes through the agency. In a transcript of the wiretap, it appeared that "Client 9" was willing to pay nearly $3,000 for just a few hours last month with call girl "Kristen," and even pay up to $2,000 in advance for future flings.

Kristen was later identified as 22-year-old aspiring musician Ashley Alexandra Dupree,

"I am deeply sorry I did not live up to what was expected from me. To every New Yorker, and all those who believed in what I tried to stand up for, I sincerely apologize," Spitzer said at the time of his resignation.

Four people pleaded guilty in recent months to running the prostitution operation that led to Spitzer's demise.

Stay with wcbstv.com and CBS 2 for the latest in this developing story


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: charges; corruptdems; cultureofcorruption; doublestandard; no; prostitution; spitzer
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To: TheEaglehasLanded

The one thing Bush could do before he leaves office is to pardon the border agents.


21 posted on 11/06/2008 10:24:41 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: Enchante

**don’t exactly read any tabloids ... **

Maybe we should ... they are continually found to be more credible than the NYTimes!


22 posted on 11/06/2008 10:25:49 PM PST by gwilhelm56 (HITLER offered Hope and Change!!)
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To: Joe 6-pack

“Well....this frees him up to be Obama’s Attorney General”

Nope, Nifong is up for that job.


23 posted on 11/06/2008 10:27:09 PM PST by Jacob Morgan
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To: Joe 6-pack
you mean Obama’s community organizer.
24 posted on 11/06/2008 10:35:46 PM PST by antiunion person (We can only hope Obama and his liberal friends don't destroy our country.)
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To: river rat

Isn’t that the Smithsonian behind that guillotine.


25 posted on 11/06/2008 10:35:52 PM PST by Chuck N
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To: FoxInSocks
The court is awaiting a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling on an appeal by Jefferson's lawyers to throw out most of the 16 charges against him.

How can this crap go on while Jefferson's aide admitted to complicity in what Jefferson did, pled guilty, was convicted, and is serving time for everything that this scumbag denies doing while having stashed $90K in cold-cash bribe money in his freezer. Who are the scumbag's low-life lawyers and who is paying them?

26 posted on 11/06/2008 11:11:27 PM PST by SFConservative
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To: realdifferent1
Aren't you being a tad anal here? The original headline was:

"Off The Hook: No Criminal Charges For Spitzer"

All of which was contained in his post's headline. His only mistake was to not include parenthesis, around the added verbage. A reasonable person would CUT HIM A LITTLE SLACK.

27 posted on 11/06/2008 11:12:11 PM PST by Michael.SF. ("They're not Americans. They're liberals! "-- Ann Coulter, May 15, 2008)
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To: TheEaglehasLanded

Where’s Henry Bowman?


28 posted on 11/06/2008 11:14:06 PM PST by wastedyears (Every FReeper is on Obama's Black List. He will try to have us all "taken care of." Mark my words)
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To: Jeff Chandler

“Off the hook”, or “Off the Hooker”?


29 posted on 11/06/2008 11:26:39 PM PST by Wil H (No Accomplishments, No Experience, No Resume, No Records, No References, Nobama..)
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To: TheEaglehasLanded

...and justice for all


30 posted on 11/07/2008 12:34:42 AM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: Michael.SF.; realdifferent1

No kidding!

He says on his profile page “Somehow, I always post something that gets my butt tossed.”

While this doesn’t rise to *that* level, I can see how that might come about.


31 posted on 11/07/2008 2:59:28 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Obama: Carter's only chance to avoid going down in history as the worst U.S. president ever.)
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To: TheEaglehasLanded
And the GOP should be shining a light on this trend so the sheeple can begin to see - one sheep at a time - the many injustices that are going on.
32 posted on 11/07/2008 3:52:33 AM PST by Heartland Mom ("Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." - Ronald Reagan)
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To: TheEaglehasLanded

Nobody ever got to the bottom of NYS’s Troopergate scandal, either. So what if ‘Rat state pols are using members of the NYS Troopers as their own personal goon squad.


33 posted on 11/07/2008 4:08:20 AM PST by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
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To: TheEaglehasLanded

Get used to it.


34 posted on 11/07/2008 4:26:22 AM PST by arichtaxpayer (52% of our country is stupid.)
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To: FoxInSocks

Obama will fire the U.S. attorneys, put his people in, and the charges against Jefferson will go away.

On Spitzer, I agree with Garcia’s decision if there were no public funds used.

I’d like to see John Edward’s misappropriation of campaign funds be investigated.


35 posted on 11/07/2008 4:43:24 AM PST by Jezebelle (Our tax dollars are paying the ACLU to sue the Christ out of us.)
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To: Joe 6-pack

He’ll be fired in January. He was appointed by Bush.


36 posted on 11/07/2008 4:43:43 AM PST by Roccus (Someday it'll all make sense.............maybe.)
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To: WoofDog123
Possibly Bingo there. You may be onto something. Here is a possible reason. Spitzer was a superdelegate and the superdelegates had been considering going with Hillary over Obama at the time the Spitzer scandal broke. The timing of the Spitzer scandal's emergence looked non-conincidental.

Now as you point out the timing of the non-prosecution announcement also looks non-coincidental.

Originally had wondered whether it was showing that Hillary would blackmail superdelegates with FBI files.

Could this scandal's emergence and the tossing of prosecution however have been actually arranged somehow by backers of Obama? Wouldn't have thought it. The timing of the emergence and the announcement of no prosecution however certainly both appear to be non-coincidental. I don't know enough to know the reason behind these apparent non-coincidences though. Looks suspicious and probably is.

37 posted on 11/07/2008 4:52:40 AM PST by Freedom of Speech Wins
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To: TheEaglehasLanded
Also we must remember that Spitzer had been prosecuting AIG. Now AIG has been given a government bailout.

AIG goes from a firm being prosecuted to a firm borrowing millions from the government and getting a special deal.

Spitzer went up against the international bankers.

One thing for sure is that there was a special investigation of Spitzer going on.

If one could find out how that was arranged for and directed that might lead one closer to answering the question of what was the motive for the person or people who wanted to bring down Spitzer.

38 posted on 11/07/2008 5:02:22 AM PST by Freedom of Speech Wins
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To: TheEaglehasLanded
Hey Spitz. You didn't disappoint me, Glad your gone. But your replacement is just like you. Stealing public money, running with whores. You must wonder where is the justice for some people.
39 posted on 11/07/2008 5:05:58 AM PST by reefdiver (How do you keep the Conservative a Conservative, in Washington DC ?)
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To: WoofDog123
Don't believe in coincidence. See my prior two posts here on this thread. You have made a great observation here pointing out a possible and probable non-coincidence.

Despite my earlier suspicion regarding the timing of the emergence of the scandal, I had completely missed out on drawing a conclusion regarding the timing of the no prosecution announcement here.

40 posted on 11/07/2008 5:08:30 AM PST by Freedom of Speech Wins
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