Cross-posted at Democrashield: Protecting America From The Right
First, a disclaimer: Eliot Spitzer deserved what he got. He broke the law by soliciting high-priced prostitutes. He hurt his wife and his family with his infidelity. Most of all, he was a hypocrite--cultivating a clean image by going after the corruption of others and hiding his own. It bothers me that Eliot Spitzer had to resign while another prostitute-loving hypocrite--David Vitter--gets to stay in office, but I prefer the double standard remain intact and Spitzer resign.
With that said, there's something fishy about how Governor Spitzer was caught. The problem wasn't that he got caught--he deserved that, and more--but that the way in which he got caught was extremely unusual; in involved numerous exceptions to the rule.
More below the jump...
This started as an IRS investigation of Spitzer's finances. Legally, financial transactions of $10,000 or more will automatically trigger federal scrutiny. In order to avoid that scrutiny, Spitzer paid the prostitution ring with a series of smaller transactions. The problem here was that paying someone a series of small transactions to avoid triggering a federal investigation is illegal; it's called 'structuring.' Spitzer's shady transactions tipped off at least one bank--Capitol One--who in turn tipped off the IRS. So this began with Capitol One flagging Spitzer's finances to the IRS; that's sensible enough in and of itself.
But why did the IRS to for the DOJ? How did this turn into an FBI sting operation? We've been told that the feds looked at Spitzer's finances and suspected there was bribery going on, which lead them to start a wiretap on the Governor. But that charge doesn't make sense--Spitzer is the heir to a large family fortune, so there's no reason for him to take bribes, particularly bribes of such small amounts. Why would a millionaire take bribes of a few thousand dollars? Plus, what raised suspicion was money moving out of Spitzer's accounts, not into them--that means they couldn't have suspected him of taking bribes. Did they suspect him of making bribes? To who? He's the Governor of New York; who would he need to bribe?
So, we don't know why the inquiry went from the IRS to the DOJ. What we do know is that once the investigation began, the feds found out that Spitzer was involved in a prostitution ring. Now, in most jurisdictions the solicitation of a prostitute is a misdemeanor; these cases are almost always prosecuted on the state level, since they're seen as relatively minor crimes. Yet, the FBI and DOJ set up a sting to catch Spitzer in the act; only after he was caught did this story leak to the press.
This just doesn't make sense.
Paul Campos does some digging, and he comes to the same conclusions:
Be that as it may, it's far more probable that what happened was something like this: An IRS office is tipped off by officials at various banks that Spitzer is depositing a few thousand dollars in different accounts within a day or two. Realizing it has a potential political tiger by the tail, the IRS then contacts the Department of Justice and the FBI.
At the DOJ, the Public Integrity Section launches an investigation. This unit itself has come under intense criticism during the Bush administration for investigating nearly six times more Democratic politicians than Republicans. Furthermore, many of the section's investigations have seemed timed to coincide with elections and the like.
With a little digging, the feds soon establish that Spitzer is seeing high-priced call girls. This is a petty misdemeanor in most jurisdictions, but the DOJ goes ahead and constructs an elaborate and costly sting operation, for the express purpose of catching one of the country's most powerful Democratic politicians committing a petty crime.
In the course of the sting, Spitzer makes a really big mistake: He pays a call girl to travel from New York to Washington. This puts him in technical violation of an 85-year-old federal law, the Mann Act, which has a long history of being used for politically motivated prosecutions of the worst sort, such as those of the boxer Jack Johnson and movie legend Charlie Chaplin.
Only then is the existence of the investigation leaked to the media.
[Emphasis Added]
The Wall Street Journal also picked up on the idiosyncracies in this case:
It isn't clear why the FBI sought the wiretap warrant. Federal prostitution probes are exceedingly rare, lawyers say, except in cases involving organized-crime leaders or child abuse. Federal wiretaps are seldom used to make these cases; search warrants usually suffice. Wiretap applications generally are reserved for serious crimes, such as drug, weapons and terrorism-related cases. There typically are no more than 1,400 wiretaps in use nationwide at any given time.
[Emphasis Added]
Remember, the DOJ is controlled by Republicans. And Spitzer was a thorn in the side of a lot of conservatives--not just corrupt politicians, but wealthy interests like CEOs, corporate executives and Wall Street financiers. In short, a lot of wealthy, well-connected conservatives had a high stake in taking Spitzer down.
And politically-motivated prosecutions are nothing new to the Bush DOJ; remember Don Siegelman, who was knocked out of the Governorship of Alabama because of a politically-motivated ethics investigation triggered by Karl Rove. And remember that a key part of the U.S. Attorneys Scandal was that many of the attorneys were fired for not aggresively prosecuting Democrats enough.
Simply put, this case leaves a lot of questions unanswered--why did the IRS turn the case over to the DOJ? Why did the federal government devote so much time, effort and money to investigating Spitzer? Why did they use a wiretap instead of a search warrant? And once they figured out he was involved with prostitution, why did they set up a sting instead of allowing the state to prosecute this, as they normally do? Why were there so many exceptions made in this one case?
Someone needs to answer for this. Because if any part of the investigation into Spitzer was politically motivated, then someone at the DOJ deserves to be punished just as much as Spitzer does.
UPDATE: The New York Times has more on this:
Bradley D. Simon, a veteran Justice Department trial lawyer who was federal prosecutor in Brooklyn throughout the 1990s, said that although it was rare for the department to use so many resources on the workings of a prostitution ring, the involvement of such a high-level politician must change the equation.
"If they’ve got some evidence of a high-ranking public official involved in violations of federal criminal code, it may not be unreasonable for them to pursue it," he said. Still, he said, "I don’t think prostitution has been a high priority at the Justice Department."
[...]
In defending their handling of the case, officials said that in the end, investigators chose to monitor his conduct but made no effort to set up a sting, or an arranged situation in which Mr. Spitzer might implicate himself. They did not surreptitiously record his activities inside the hotel or seek to obtain DNA evidence. It was not necessary, as Mr. Spitzer proved to be easy prey, according to the affidavit, which was signed by an F.B.I. agent.
It indicated that on Feb. 13 federal agents staked out his hotel in Washington, and it contained recorded conversations that amply demonstrated that he willingly had a sexual encounter with a prostitute. Afterward she was recorded on a wiretap telling an Emperor’s Club employee: "I don’t think he’s difficult. I mean it’s kind of like, whatever."
On March 10, when Mr. Spitzer was first identified by name by The New York Times on its Web site, the affidavit was widely used by news organizations to describe graphic details about his conduct.
Several current and former federal prosecutors and prominent defense lawyers who reviewed the document said the inclusion of such salacious details about Mr. Spitzer’s encounter with the prostitute went far beyond what was necessary to provide probable cause for the arrests and for searches, the purpose of the affidavit.
The government has not accused Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat, of any wrongdoing
[...]
Mr. Simon said it was unusual for the department to bring criminal charges in a prostitution case in which there was no allegation of the exploitation of children, human trafficking or some far more serious crime.
He said that in his eight years in the Brooklyn office in the 1990s, he could not recall a single major criminal case that centered on prostitution charges. "There were a lot of serious crimes — organized crime, narcotics cases, major financial crime investigations," he said in an interview. "Prostitution was not a high priority."
Law enforcement officials said the F.B.I. has about 450 active prostitution cases under investigation, almost all involving enterprises and some using techniques like wiretapping. In addition, since 2005, the F.B.I. has led an initiative known as Innocence Lost, which investigates prostitution involving underage women.
Justice Department officials insist that it has a strong record of breaking up large prostitution rings around the country, but many of the cases they cite involve case brought several years ago, especially before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks; after that, the department vowed to focus its attention on national security threats.
And for years, they acknowledge, the department has rarely, if ever, prosecuted or even identified the clients of a prostitution ring.
UPDATE II: TPM brings us this piece from McClatchy:
Almost four months before Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a sex scandal, a lawyer for Republican political operative Roger Stone sent a letter to the FBI alleging that Spitzer ''used the services of high-priced call girls'' while in Florida.
The letter, dated Nov. 19, said Miami Beach resident Stone learned the information from ''a social contact in an adult-themed club.'' It offered one potentially identifying detail: The man in question hadn't taken off his calf-length black socks ``during the sex act.''
Stone, known for shutting down the 2000 presidential election recount effort in Miami-Dade County, is a longtime Spitzer nemesis whose political experience ranges from the Nixon White House to Al Sharpton's presidential campaign. His lawyer wrote the letter containing the call-girl allegations after FBI agents had asked to speak to Stone, though he says the FBI did not specify why he was contacted.
There's something incredibly suspicious about the investigation into Eliot Spitzer. With so many exceptions to the rule--along with the Bush administration's history of politicizing the Department of Justice--this definitely warrants further investigation.
How can we get that to happen?
Easy--contact Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and demand an investigation into the DOJ's takedown of Eliot Spitzer:
In Washington, D.C.
2204 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)