Eliot Spitzer let off the Hook (New York, Albany: attorneys, tax, costs)

[1979]

U.S. attorney Michael J Garcia decided not to pursue criminal charges against Eliot Spitzer for hiring prostitutes. How do New Yorkers feel about this? A betrayal of the publics trust? Or no big deal?

[cheese9988]

What was the attorneys reasoning? Prostitution was illegal the last time I checked.

[Hinton Bound]

Originally Posted by cheese9988

What was the attorneys reasoning? Prostitution was illegal the last time I checked.

Silly Cheese! Don't you know, the laws only apply to ORDINARY citizens!

[Finger Laker]

ridiculous - also funny that this guy made his name "cleaning up wall street" - good job you did there buddy, a bunch of publicity grabs that if anything did damage to wall street without fixing any actual issues

[piperspal]

I tried to follow this as closely as I could since I voted for Spitzer (again - not much to choose from). When they first raised the possibilty of pressing charges against him, the news outlets in the Albany area said he would most likely only see charges having to do with the money that may or may not have been laundered to fund his activity. They said "usually" customers of prostitution are only charged if they are caught in the act or caught soliciting in a sting set up w/undercover officers posing as hookers. Whatever.

I at least had hopes that he would be charged/tried for the financial end of it, but seems there isn't "enough" evidence to do so; that supposedly he used his own money for this. Well, that isn't how I see it at all. Even if the funds did come from his own bank account, he was often on a business trip when these events took place. Washington, D.C. in particular. MY tax money went towards that; yours too if you are a New Yorker.

Now Patterson has set up a website so that you & I can e-mail him our suggestions on how to save $$$ for the state before he has to further hurt the small business owner (me) & thousands of state workers ( a big part of my customer base). I thought about getting on there & "suggesting" that good ol' boy Eliot pony up a few hundred thou as a "good faith" payment, but I don't really believe any of Patterson's posse will actually read the website posts, so why bother?

Further considering it, I thought if they did charge him & go to trial, it would probably be the same outcome plus the added court costs that once again, MY tax $ would help cover. Additionally, the politico pundits here say he probably wasn't charged because he cooperated with the investigation. ??? What was there to investigate besides him????