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Spitzer spent $80k on call girls
12/03/2008 12:06 - (SA)
Albany, New York - With pressure mounting on Governor Eliot Spitzer to resign over a call-girl scandal, investigators said he was clearly a repeat customer who spent tens of thousands of dollars - perhaps as much as $80 000 - with the high-priced prostitution service over an extended period of time.
Spitzer and his family, meanwhile, remained secluded in their Fifth Avenue apartment on Tuesday, while Republicans began talking impeachment, and few if any fellow Democrats came forward to defend him. A death watch of sorts began at the state Capitol, where whispers of "What have you heard?" echoed through nearly every hallway of the ornate, 109-year-old building.
Spent thousands
On Monday, when the scandal broke, prosecutors said in court papers that Spitzer had been caught on a wiretap spending $4 300 with the Emperors Club VIP call-girl service, with some of the money going toward a night with a prostitute named Kristen, and the rest to be used as credit toward future trysts. The papers also suggested that Spitzer had done this before.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a law enforcement official said on Tuesday that Spitzer, in fact, had spent tens of thousands of dollars with the Emperors Club. Another official said the amount could be as high as $80 000. But it was not clear over what period of time that was spent.
Still another law enforcement official said investigators found that during the tryst with Kristen on the night before Valentine's Day, Spitzer used two rooms at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington - one for himself, the other for the prostitute. Sometime around 22:00, Spitzer sneaked away from his security detail and made his way to the room where she was waiting, the official said. The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Preference for not wearing condoms
In the court papers, an Emperors Club employee was quoted as telling Kristen that Client 9 - Spitzer, according to investigators - "would ask you to do things that ... you might not think were safe," and Kristen responded by saying: "I have a way of dealing with that. ... I'd be, like, listen, dude, you really want the sex?"
A law enforcement official said on Tuesday the discussion had to do with Spitzer's preference not to wear a condom and the call-girl's insistence that he use one.
Spitzer's vast personal wealth would have made it easy for him to spend thousands of dollars on prostitutes. The scion of a wealthy Manhattan real estate developer, Spitzer reported $1.9m in income to the IRS in 2006.
- AP
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