At Harper’s, Scott Horton has his Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy mojo workin’:
It looks like the Bush Justice Department just bagged themselves another Democratic Governor.
***
…According to ABC, the whole investigation of the prostitution ring itself was triggered by an investigation of Spitzer.
He then selectively quotes from the ABC News account, which refutes his conspiracy theory:
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.
It was only months later that the IRS and the FBI determined that Spitzer wasn’t hiding bribes but payments to a company called QAT, what prosecutors say is a prostitution operation operating under the name of the Emperors Club.
***
The suspicious financial activity was initially reported by a bank to the IRS which, under direction from the Justice Department, brought kin the FBI’s Public Corruption Squad.
***
Spitzer, who made his name by bringing high-profile cases against many of New York’s financial giants, is likely to be prosecuted under a relatively obscure statute called “structuring,” according to a Justice Department official.
Structuring involves creating a series of financial movements designed to obscure the true purpose of the payments.
The law on “structuring,” however, would not be at all obscure to a bank, which was obligated to report suspicious activity to the IRS. Moreover, once this information was reported by ABC News, anyone can Google “structuring” and find it immediately. The feds were not on a politically-motivated fishing expedition — they got a report from a bank of suspicious activity requiring investigation.
The New York Times fleshes out some of the details:
(T)his was not typical: transactions by a governor who appeared to be trying to conceal the source, destination or purpose of the movement of thousands of dollars in cash, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The money ended up in the bank accounts of what appeared to be shell companies, corporations that essentially had no real business.
The transactions, officials said, suggested possible financial crimes  maybe bribery, political corruption, or something inappropriate involving campaign finance. Prostitution, they said, was the furthest thing from the minds of the investigators.*
 Thus, Scott Horton is left with his ad hominem innuendo against the Public Integrity Section at the Department of Justice, which is amusing given Horton’s own failure to disclose a major conflict of interest in his other reporting, not to mention his failure to substantiate other politically motivated claims he has made in the past.
*The NYT story also answers the tinfoil-hat speculation of people like Jane Hamsher.
Bonus: Wonkette (who else?) has safe-for-work screencaps from the now-shuttered Emperor’s Club website. I tracked those down solely as a courtesy to you.
Update: Allahpundit links, noting that the nutroots are suggesting “the only true crime is hypocrisy.” I have noticed that there is a lot of talk about the Mann Act and the history of politically-motivated prosecutions thereunder. However, “structuring†is itself a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison. Nearby, Dan Collins notes that DoJ actually dragged its feet in this case.
The prostitution aspect is a Godsend to the Democrats, and they ought to be sacrificing fatted calves in gratitude. The actual core of the case is official corruption, with a politician shuffling cash around like mad and using the power of his office to crush opponents while maintaining a facade of respectability. Democrats and their Press stooges are working overtime to make sure the public story is all about sex, and the sad fact is that there are enough prudes on our side of the aisle to make their success near-certain.
Regards,
Ric
[…]  Yes. Wads of libido, wads of cash… Posted by Serr8d @ 1:54 pm | Trackback Share This […]
Karl, you magnificent bastard.
re: “structuring”
I have some person experience with this issue. In my case, the bank notified me with a certified letter requesting that I respond, on the record, with a reasonable explanation as to why the financial transaction in my account might be misunderstood, otherwise I risked the account being closed and/or getting the IRS involved.
I don’t know the specific NY laws that may or may not require the NY Banks to send written notification to the account holder prior to contacting the Feds, but it would be interesting to see whether Spitzer was actually notified that they were watching his transactions and he still continued with this behavior- not to mention what his “on the record” explanation might have been.
personal*
I thought first that I was finally going to agree with Tic Toc on SOMETHING…if only pigs could, well.
Let me see if I can get someone to wax bipartisan with me.
Let’s get all the liars, thieves, and hypocrites out of politics,
regardless of political stripe, NOW!
Any takers?
Now if we could just agree on the method.
“Now if we could just agree on the method.”
Trebuchet?
[…] that); (b) the whole prosecution is a politically motivated witch hunt by Bush’s DOJ, a claim debunked here by Karl in wondering what the feds were supposed to do, precisely, once Spitz’s bank raised the alarm […]
Let’s get all the liars, thieves, and hypocrites out of politics,
regardless of political stripe, NOW!
I think you’d find more takers on this side of the isle than on the other. REmember, we eat our own over here.
Well, for my sins I cut my programing teeth on the Bank Secrecy Act:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_secrecy_act
Structuring is the deliberate attempt to circumvent the reporting requirements.
E.G., you went around to 10 ATMs belonging to the same bank, and deposited $1,000 in each, that’d be and attempt to circumvent the law.
So what did he want to do that some of the girls found unsafe, but were “very basic things”?
Geez Ric, I’m a prude for thinking the unsavory sex is part of the story? I mean, high rollers always have creative business dealings, most of which I don’t understand, and requiring a covey of lawyers to sort out what is legal or not. But a Governor involved in a prostitution club? Even a blue collar rube like me can understand what’s wrong with that.
I’m with you Semanticleo,
And in the spirit of bipartisanship, I’ll allow you to get rid of all the Dems that fit into your categories first. Then after that 38-year project is completed, we’ll start on the Republicans.
and the sad fact is that there are enough prudes on our side of the aisle to make their success near-certain
Call me a prude for being disgusted a married man with three daughters spends tens of thousands of dollars on young prostitutes.
N.O. @ #10
It doesn’t even have to be that complicated to trigger the “structuring” alarm. Making deposits/withdrawals of $9,000. (cash) once a week is sufficient to set the bank in motion.
lee,
Unsavory sex is part of the story, yes, but it’s an incidental part.
Eliot Spitzer is a thug with a nice line in sanctimony who has spent the last decade or more enforcing “clean” business practices; a “clean” business practice, by his definition, is one engaged in by somebody who bows abjectly to his sanctity and forks over cash to the right people. The sex is symptomatic, not causative. Discovering that a person like that is into abusive sex practices is about as unexpected as finding fur on a cat.
Regards,
Ric
I’m frankly surprised that Hamsher didn’t try to tie this to the Patriot Act somehow.
“First, we’ll kill all the lawyers…………”
cleo,
Are you aware you have wrenched that Shakespeare quote rather violently out of context?
Shsh, Karl. I think Cleo is onto something …
Sean M- Hamsher thinks it was illegal wiretapping. That trumps the Patriot Act.
MayBee – I love how quickly they managed to get this turned around to illegal wiretapping and a political witchhunt.
Karl, you magnificent bastard……….
” Few people are unfamiliar with the phrase The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyer. Rueful, mocking, it often expresses the ordinary person’s frustration with the arcana and complexity of law. Sometimes it’s known known that the saying comes from one of Shakespeare’s plays, but usually there’s little awareness beyond that. This gap in knowledge has inspired a myth of “correction”, where it is “explained” that this is line really intended as a praise of the lawyer’s role.
For example, one legal firm states:
“The first thing we do,” said the character in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, is “kill all the lawyers.” Contrary to popular belief, the proposal was not designed to restore sanity to commercial life. Rather, it was intended to eliminate those who might stand in the way of a contemplated revolution — thus underscoring the important role that lawyers can play in society.”
http://www.spectacle.org/797/finkel.html
The facts are that self-proclaimed international human rights expert is a BDS addled hack. He put out a fantasy filled post about Spitzer pointing the finger at the DOJ without any evidence to go on. He has been proved wrong time after time after time, with a record almost as bad as Greenwald. I’m curious how his stories about Haditha, Scott Beuachamp, and Bilal Hussein among others are working out for him. His latest project has been creating a witch hunt over the unfair prosecution of Don Siegelman, which he links to this Spitzer probe. He’s been flogging Siegelman hard.
It is telling that no one wants to have a clean sweep of both Parties.
The only comment(and worth mentioning only in this context) is that
we would have to get the Dems first before we contemplate going after
Reps. When I posted this couple years back at JOM, got the same nonresponse.
Curious.
The first question when anything like this comes to light should be, “What do the Clinton’s have to gain?”
Patterson, Spitzer’s erstwhile replacement as governor, is a dedicated and vocal Hillary supporter. As a lieutenent governor, he doesn’t have a vry high national profile; but as governor, this would give Hillary a very high profile black supporter in a very important blue state.
Wasn’t Craig Livingstone a New Yorker?
I was rather serious in my response. You simply didn’t care for it.
I rue the fact that this came out after,/i> Rudy was out of the race. Having a mistress while in office seems positively upstanding in comparison.
Using Hamsherian logic, I can only conclude the DoJ withheld information about this investigation to destroy Rudy.
Yikes.
Horton hears a Who?
Daley
Horton is a total hack. He routinely selects and hides bits of information and he has been sorely embarrassed. Only knee jerk progressives who need a nice little conspiracy to cling to help them make through the day, listen to him.
Regardless of the morality or lack thereof of utilizing hookers, it is still ILLEGAL to do so.
So, I’ll leave Spitzer’s soul to his own guidance as it’s really none of my business, but I hope he gets drummed out of office for the ILLEGAL act(s).
***What ‘unsafe’ but very basic sex acts? I’m guessing BJ’s and buttsecks. C’mon, you know you were thinking it.
“I was rather serious in my response. You simply didn’t care for it.”
I simply didn’t know WTF you were talkin’ bout. Still don’t.
Ric, all true, I’m sure.
I haven’t heard much more than I’ve seen excerpted here, but wasn’t the reason for shady banking deals to hide the fact that he was involved in the illegal sex trade?
That’s why morals are important, even for lawyers. Vice of one kind usually branches out, as the need to feed the addiction, and mask it, corrupts the person in it’s grip.
You say the infidelity is symptomatic, not causative. I say it’s illustrative, like deciding you are seeing a cat by looking the shape of it’s fur.
I tracked those down solely as a courtesy to you
Because, Karl, you’re a giver like that.
It is telling that no one wants to have a clean sweep of both Parties.
It is more telling about your level of credibility amongst the readers here, you little twit. We all know that you do not mean it.
If I might speak up for Carin, see Craig, Larry for example.
Yes: what it tells us is that Cleo reads what it wants to read, rather than what’s actually written. Nothing new here, though.
Finally, you’re feeling our pain.
TSK9 – We share an opinion on Horton it seems. I have been disappointed he does not allow comments at Harpers. I have been denied much merriement. CY has had an infestation of Horton fans recently.
It isn’t that. It’s that no one takes you seriously enough to respond to you seriously. You’re a troll. You’ve always been a troll. Even when you say something we might all agree with 100% you’re still nothing but a filthy stinking troll.
That’s why nobody’s playing along with you. It isn’t us. It’s you.
No, Carin. The problem is twofold: first of all, it’s a lot like the old saw about killing fools. It’s just too hard to figure out where to stop.
And second, semanticleo isn’t sincere, except in the cynical sense — “the important thing in this business is sincerity. Once you learn to fake that, you’ve got it made.”
Politics is the means by which we allocate resources, and that’s as true within Exxon as it is for Government. It is thus inevitable that politics attracts those who see an opportunity to divert some of those resources to their own aggrandizement, whether that be monetary riches or the delicious opportunity to make other people acknowledge their power. To a limited degree, that problem can be handled by “checks and balances”, by having people who are ready, willing, and able to expose and prosecute abuses. The problem is that such a “watchdog” post is itself a source of power and self-aggrandizement, the more so because the person occupying it can easily portray himself as highly virtuous in rooting out corruption; Spitzer himself being something of a canonical or definitional example.
There is no solution, as such. Our Founding Fathers recognized that one way to ameliorate the problem, perhaps keeping it below society-damaging levels, was to limit the scope of Government, thereby simultaneously limiting the problem and making Government posts (somewhat) less attractive to problematic persons.
semanticleo is a Democrat, an awkward mix of Populist and Socialist ideals. For her the notion of limiting Government is dangerous nonsense, because she has fallen hook, line, and sinker for the false identity of “society” with “Government”. It is perfectly plausible to argue that society should limit certain practices — without specifying which; that’s a matter for debate — but when you apply the false identity and empower Government to do the limiting, you create precisely the set of Government posts which are irresistably attractive to the cynical self-aggrandizers, who promptly set about convincing the optimistic that they really are sincere about eliminating Evil (however defined).
It is horripilatingly satisfying to imagine our entire political class up against the wall. Bang! — and the problem is solved. It isn’t, though. Ambition, cynicism, greed, and the ability to lie with a straight face are widely-distributed attributes of the human critter, and so long as you accept the principle of strong activist Government the posts within it are just as attractive to those who would exploit them. Six months later you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference unless you could make them wear name cards. semanticleo, who is virtuously and emotionally attached to the principle that Society Should Help the Weak and Redress Injustice, cannot accept that principle and therefore remains a significant part of the problem.
Regards,
Ric
Karl brought the pictures, so I’ll bring the email:
That’s hot!
Also, they can get away with being so drug addled your booking agent tells the client he needs to give them a deposit in advance so she won’t steal the $$.
Republicans are pretty much self-cleaning. Even the great Newt was taken out by allegations of infidelity.
Dems, not so much.
MayBee – I love you ;-)
Oops. ignore that last line. Apparently posting is very difficult for me today.
Democrats believe the great tragedy is that Spitzer was caught in corruption; so they’ll use the prostitutes to keep their asses clean.
There ought to be some betting pools on when/if Spitzer is going to resign. How many days until Spitzmas?
Just for that, JD, I won’t link to any scary pictures today.
“Comment by Carin on 3/11 @ 9:19 am #
Shsh, Karl. I think Cleo is onto something …”
Well, there’s a first.
Ric, the only counterweight to the Spin you’ve described is to stand on the Soapbox and loudly proclaim “Yeah, the Guy banged hookers. Banging hookers is illegal. He broke the law, and he should resign for breaking the law. The other way he broke the law was X, Y, and Z.”
In other words, let’s stop pretending that the seamy side of this is in any way exonerative, or that it’s prudish to think so. This son of a bitch was using the power of his office to break political enemies and cheat with money, and when the Feds caught up to him, they found him with his pants down giving Deee Licious a Dirty Sanchez. Exactly why should I not be outraged about that?
Deee Licious a Dirty Sanchez
I would think for 5 grand, it would have been a Paddington Ambush followed by an Alabama Hot Pocket. I’m just sayin’ that 5 G’s is a lot, that’s all.
Andrew, I fully endorse your second paragraph. The problem is a practical one: if you continue with the approach described in your first, you give Spitzer’s apologists a lever — “Hell, it’s just sex. Everybody does sex. What’s the big deal?” — which they are already leaning on, and with a will.
Criminal abuse of office is the disease. Dirty sex is one of the symptoms. Hold fast to that principle and you have a chance of prevailing. Getting righteously indignant about the dirty sex lets the apologists use it as a distraction from the real problem.
Regards,
Ric
Spitzmas
First!
I am so glad I don’t know what the hell you two are talking about.
I don’t know about an Alabama Hot Pocket, but the ones we get over here in Georgia are okay. I like the barbecue ones, myself.
[…] like FDL’s Christy Hardin Smith, the fact that law enforcement officials gave the media the background of the Spitzer investigation — particularly that it arose from Spitzer’s suspicious […]
The problem is a practical one: if you continue with the approach described in your first, you give Spitzer’s apologists a lever  “Hell, it’s just sex. Everybody does sex. What’s the big deal?† which they are already leaning on, and with a will.
But that approach can’t be abandoned. It’s illegal as well as immoral, and why give in to the assumption that liberals can’t be hypocrites. Let’s not agree to an uneven playing field.
I’ll go even further, and say we we express great disgust for the smarmy details, as a lever, when explaining why the dick needs to leave office today, not after a year long investigation into “alleged” corrupt financial dealings.
For 5K/hour she better dispense Ketel One martinis from her titties and shit prime rib. With horserasish.
For 5K/hour she better dispense Ketel One martinis from her titties and shit prime rib. With horserasish.
Na, whatever the price, it’s always a seafood dish and two jugs, however you want.
I’m thinking for 5k, the requirements were quite, ah…special.
I recognize that Dhimmicrats are immune to prosecution or pressure to resign for their actions; but I’d like to see a 40′ pine enema prescribed for those all those of any political affiliation who, while holding elective office, are found guilty of misusing public funds. Or forcing their wife and kids to bear the brunt of full news coverage of their untamed voluntary body functions.
so they’ll use the prostitutes to keep their asses clean
Now that’s kinky, also expensive. I’ll stay with Charminâ„¢
Or corncobs when funds are low.
Let’s get all the liars, thieves, and hypocrites out of politics,
regardless of political stripe, NOW!
To expand on Ric Locke at 40: Liars and thieves attraction to politics in directly proportional to how much power they can obtain there. Giving more power to the government attracts the corrupt and dishonest because there is more potential for abuse and self-enrichment. Less powerful government is less attractive, to the really good thieves, there are better ways to cheat and steal in the real world. So you tend to get the hacks that can’t do so much damage.
So to answer for call for bi-partisanship, cleo, I would suggest if you were serious you would realize that the real answer is not in trying to get the thieves out of government, it ain’t going to happen, but to limit the scope of government thereby limiting the damage they can do.
Feel bad for his wife.
Since she’s a Spitzer,
was he just renting a Swallower?
[…] already debunked Horton here and here, I will add only that the Hamsher-Horton delusions regarding the DoJ and the role of […]
[…] Protein Wisdom had the pithiest explanation of the real meat of the scandal that’s likely to force New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to resign, without the prurient sidebars. There was immense money laundering going on that caught the bank’s attention and triggered a law requiring them to report to the IRS, which in turn alerted the Justice Department. They went looking for political corruption and bribery, and inadvertently found prostitutes. […]
[…] that’s not even the crime. The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s […]
[…] complaint was inaccurate at the time, as the very story he quoted on March 10 contained plenty of detail as to how the […]
I find it astonishing that so many people believe that the investigation into Eliot Spitzer’s activities began as result of his shuffling money around at his bank, and then that the bank contacted the IRS, suspecting money laundering. That story is total rubbish. What obviously happened is that Spitzer was having ALL his electronic communications intercepted–from the start– by the FBI as part of the Bush administration’s ongong illegal wiretapping program. While the program has the cover of being used to identify “terrorists,†its real purpose–as all civil libertarians have known all along–was to go after political enemies. Yes, the age of “Communism†is already arrived and the Feds can listen in on any calls they want to and read any emails they want to. Spitzer is an obvious political enemy to the big money interests, and so he certainly be one of the individuals they would be listening in on and tracking. So, while bin Laden is being carefully protected, such individuals as Eliot Spitzer posing a threat to the power interests are carefully watched and monitored. And in Spitzer’s case, I would not at all be surprised if he was set-up by the Feds in the first place.
As for Senator Larry “Bathroom stall wide stance†Craig and Senator David “Diaperman†Vitter, they can sleep comfortably knowing that the power interests and the Feds will do all they can to make sure they remain in power. You see, it’s not a questions of laws, morals, or ethics. Those things are irrelevant. It’s whether you are working for the corrupt system or against it. And if you are a political opponent, the power interests will find a way to dispatch you. Whether it’s with frivolous, but embarrassing legal threats like prostitution, or more deadly courses of action, such as having your private airplane taken down like Senator Paul Wellstone’s, the power interests need to keep their enemies in line, or get rid of them.
That’s the way our corrupt system works.
[…] renditions policy, as he now resorts to quoting Scott Horton (someone who is almost as fond of conspiracy theories as Sully himself): There are two fundamental distinctions between the (Clinton and Bush) […]