Spitzer allegedly negotiating plea bargain with prosecutors
ALBANY, N.Y. – With Gov. Eliot Spitzer under growing pressure to resign, his lawyers are negotiating a possible plea deal with federal prosecutors stemming from his alleged involvement in a prostitution ring, sources said Tuesday.
The sources said Spitzer’s major bargaining chip to possibly avoid being charged with a serious felony – such as money laundering or avoiding federal currency rules in his payments to the ring – is to work out an arrangement in which he steps down in return for leniency. Prosecutors would guarantee he only has to plead guilty to at most a misdemeanor, the sources said.
Meanwhile, a defense attorney representing one of the women who worked for the alleged ring, Emperors Club VIP, but who didn’t deal with Spitzer, said federal prosecutors in Manhattan have been subpoenaing the women who worked for the ring and demanding they come in for interviews. ” ‘We want you to come in and you had better not lie,’ ” was how the attorney, who didn’t want to be identified, characterized the requests.
The attorney said prosecutors appeared to be trying to interview as many women as possible so they can follow the activities of other Web sites that advertise high-priced call girls.
In Albany, only 20 days before a new budget must be in place, the sex scandal and Spitzer’s future dominated the Capitol for a second day.
One GOP leader raised the specter of impeachment while support for the Democratic governor diminished, even among ardent backers such as the liberal Citizens Union.
“He must resign. … We will request a resolution of impeachment,” said Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, setting a 48-hour deadline. However, he acknowledged impeachment would be difficult in a Capitol dominated by Democrats and absent an indictment of Spitzer.
The second-year governor continued to weigh his options Tuesday, secluded in his high-rise apartment on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. His wife, Silda Wall, and top adviser, Lloyd Constantine, were both counseling Spitzer to hold out, according to people familiar with the matter.
Spitzer wasn’t expected to make an announcement Tuesday night.
In brief remarks Monday afternoon, Spitzer apologized for “a private matter” that he described as violating “my obligations to my family and … my, or any, sense of right and wrong.”
He didn’t admit using the Emperors Club VIP ring, though federal officials said they taped Spitzer arranging for a prostitute to travel from Manhattan to a Washington hotel where he was to stay on Feb. 13.
According to sources, the governor used the Emperors Club VIP several times. But a 22-year-old prostitute for another company told ABC News that Spitzer was one of her customers two years ago when he was still attorney general. She described him as a good tipper who “didn’t do anything that wasn’t clean.”