The documents should give us some interesting insights into Eliot Spitzer and the FBI investigation. Some say the probe was politically motivated and the feds wouldn’t have normally gone so far in a prostitution case. Others say there was enough suspicion of possible corruption to carry out the probe. Documents should be released next week.
By William K. Rashbaum
New York Times
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the federal prosecutors whose investigation exposed former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s involvement with a prostitute to unseal court records that may shed some light on the origins of the case that led to his resignation in March 2008.
The judge, Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan, ordered federal prosecutors to provide the records – sworn affidavits that were part of wiretap applications in the case – to The New York Times, which in December filed a motion to have the material unsealed.
Prosecutors argued that the documents should not be released, citing the privacy concerns of the more than 60 apparent clients of the prostitution ring who were intercepted and the need for confidentiality of law enforcement investigations.
But The Times agreed to the redaction of the names of the apparent clients and Judge Rakoff said that there was no longer a need for confidentiality concerning the investigation, which has concluded with charges against four people involved in the ring. Mr. Spitzer was never charged with a crime.
The judge, in ruling for the newspaper, wrote that “there is obvious interest in obtaining information about the origins of an investigation that led, ultimately, to the resignation of the governor of New York.”
