Most of the foregoing commentary is based on a report by law school professor Scott Horton at http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002624
Exactly how did the case against Spitzer get launched? And was he really brought down by a politically motivated investigation?
An IRS office was tipped off by Republican officials at various banks that Spitzer was often depositing a few thousand dollars in different accounts within the space of a day or two. Realizing it just might have a political tiger by the tail, the Republicans at the IRS then contacted the Department of Justice and the FBI. At the Republican-controlled DOJ, the Public Integrity Section quickly launched an investigation. It’s not surprising that they jumped at this possibility of nailing Spitzer since they had already gone after six times more Democratic politicians than Republicans, mostly in conjunction with wiping out the Democrats’ prospects in upcoming elections.
With a little detective work and tapped phone calls, the Republicans at DOJ soon discovered that Spitzer was seeing high-priced call girls. This is a petty misdemeanor in most jurisdictions, but the DOJ went ahead and constructed an elaborate and costly sting operation, for the express purpose of getting the goods on one of the country's most powerful Democratic politicians -- who happened to be committing a petty, if potentially very embarrassing, crime.
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