The allegations bearing down on New York’s governor didn’t start with a prostitute — despite lurid details in a federal affidavit detailing an alleged tryst with a “very pretty brunette” named Kristen last month.
Rather, sources familiar with the investigation said Tuesday that Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s troubles began with a federal money-laundering probe.
Prosecutors unsealed an affidavit that details a rendezvous in a Washington hotel room between a prostitute and “Client 9,” who a source with knowledge of the case said Monday was Spitzer.
Spitzer, who has not been charged with any crime, stood beside his wife, Silda, on Monday, apologizing to his family without specifically mentioning accusations of a romp with a high-dollar prostitute.
NEW YORK - As Gov. Eliot Spitzer faced mounting calls to resign, Republican legislators indicated they will seek to impeach him if he doesn’t quit within 48 hours, a spokesman for a leading New York assemblyman said Tuesday.
“The governor has 48 hours to resign or articles of impeachment would be introduced,” Josh Fitzpatrick, spokesman for Assembly Republican Minority Leader James Tedisco, told Reuters.
Online editions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported that Spitzer’s top aides expected the governor to resign, although the timing remained uncertain.
N.Y. Governor Spitzer Resignation Expected After Sex Allegations
NEW YORK - Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s political career teetered on the brink of collapse Monday after the corruption-fighting politician once known as “Mr. Clean” was accused of paying for a romp with a high-priced call girl.
The Democrat faced immediate calls to step down after a news conference in which a glassy-eyed Spitzer, his shellshocked wife at his side, apologized to his family and the people of New York.
“I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself,” said the 48-year-old father of three teenage girls. “I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”
ALBANY — Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer, who came to office promising to change the ethical ways of Albany, has been caught up in a prostitution ring — a move that may cost him his governor’s post.
In a brief appearance before reporters this afternoon in Manhattan, he apologized to his family, and added, “I apologize to the public, whom I promised better.”
Spitzer did not mention a report in the New York Times of his involvement in a high-end prostitution ring, which federal prosecutors recently broke up.
The governor described his actions as a violation of his sense of “right and wrong,” and that he “failed to live up to the standard I expected for myself.”
The idea that Gov. Eliot Spitzer — the square-jawed crusader who promised to bring ethics to Albany, the former prosecutor who chased corruption on Wall Street so ferociously that people nicknamed him Eliot Ness — was somehow involved in a prostitution scandal was too much. New Yorkers who thought they had heard everything were, for a change, dumbfounded.
ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer was a client of a high-end prostitution ring broken up last week by federal authorities, according to law enforcement officials, a development that threatened to end his career and turned the state’s political world upside down.
Mr. Spitzer’s involvement with the prostitution operation came to light in court papers filed last week, the officials said, as federal prosecutors charged four people with operating the service, Emperor’s Club V.I.P. Mr. Spitzer was caught on a federal wiretap discussing payments and arranging to meet a prostitute in a Washington hotel room last month. The affidavit, which did not identify Mr. Spitzer by name, indicated that he had used the prostitution service before, although it was not clear how often.
