EPILOGUE: All things considered I think this diary raises a more important point.
Is it me or could it be more than a coincidence these stories broke the same day?
WSJ: NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data
According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records.
ABC: It Wasn't the Sex; Suspicious $$ Transfers Led to Spitzer
The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's suspicious money transfers, initially leading agents to believe Spitzer was hiding bribes, according to federal officials.
I guess it depend when a suspicious transfer constitutes probable cause, and who reported it to the FBI or IRS. Anyone know the legal issues here?
IMPORTANT: I did not see this the first time I read the ABC story.
The suspicious financial activity was initially reported by a bank to the IRS which, under direction from the Justice Department, brought in the FBI's Public Corruption Squad.
"We had no interest at all in the prostitution ring until the thing with Spitzer led us to learn about it," said one Justice Department official.
Still doesn't make much sense though. Reporting withdrawals to the IRS? Then bringing in the Justice Department? Makes it sound more like a politically motivated witch hunt than domestic spying. But we know the DOJ would never try to bring down a respected Democratic governor right?
UPDATE: MichiganGirl adds the following.
All cash transactions that meet or exceed $10,000 within a 24 hour period get reported.
If you're at a casino and pump a $50 in a slot machine every other minute and hit the $10,000 threshold, the government will find out about it.
If you make five $2000 withdrawals from an ATM in 24 hours, the government will find out.
The reporting is only for cash transactions though. You can write as many checks as you want or use a credit or debit card and no report is supposed to be made.
So if Spitzer withdrew $10,000 in cash with a 24 hour period, the government knew about it because the bank was required to report it.
However, why the government then decided to investigate a known multi-millionaire from an old money family that everyone in the world knows gets his money from legitimate means is a whole other story.
This means the issue is whether Spitzer made qualifying transactions.