And So It Begins
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Kneel Before Zod | Law | Rooting For Injuries | Spitzmas — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The spin efforts to make the Spitzer scandal nothing more than a Bush Justice Department sting operation against a political opponent has commenced. In the event that people are actually interested in how the investigation began--not that Scott Horton really is interested, mind you; he just wants to throw out as much doubt as humanly possible to save a political figure he considers sympathetic--they can read this to get a comprehensive understanding of how the investigation was launched. And amazingly enough, Horton actually links to this story, which tells you why the Feds were tipped off to the possibility that something may be wrong:
The suspicious financial activity was initially reported by a bank to the IRS which, under direction from the Justice Department, brought in the FBI's Public Corruption Squad. "We had no interest at all in the prostitution ring until the thing with Spitzer led us to learn about it," said one Justice Department official.
Horton excerpts this, and then has the temerity to state that "The Justice Department has yet to give a full account of why they were looking into Spitzer's payments." Um . . . the account is found in Horton's own post. If that's not clear enough for him, I don't know what will be.
Horton also goes on to argue that Mann Act violations should not be brought because in the past, they were brought against people who perhaps should not have been prosecuted. The Mann Act isn't invoked that often but neither that, nor the argument that it might have been abused in the past is an excuse for not bringing it now. And again, structuring violations should be taken very seriously. But it appears that Horton won't take them seriously because Eliot Spitzer is not a Republican.
Spitzer did this to himself. No one else is responsible. People like Scott Horton can invoke the dread name of Karl Rove et. al. until the cows come home. It will avail them nothing.
........prostitution ring."
We all know stories about the cop on the beat who is offered freebies at the donut shop, or an apple from the corner grocer's fruitstand. These events are just part of neighborhood political lore.
Was Spitzer poking around looking for something other than criminal activity with that 'ring' when he was given a polite slap on the hand and told politely to not touch the merchandise without paying for it and go away?
'Not even one taste of the apple?! Then, here's your subpoena!'
"Flies cause disease, so keep yours closed!" General Maxwell Taylor, advising his 101st Airborne soldiers before their jump into Normandy, France; June,1944.