I have listened with great interest at the “outrage” over New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s recent admission of “wrongdoing” (which was well crafted to not directly admit any criminal liability). Mostly, the talking heads have decried his hypocrisy at being an unforgiving, zero tolerance, prosecutor in the past and then doing exactly the things that he eschewed. With that I agree completely. I have to say as a defense attorney that I did not like his tactics (he was the one that really invented the “perp walk”) and ruined a lot of lives of people who may have only been tangential players. That said, as a citizen, I always appreciated that someone aggressive was monitoring the greedy bastards on Wall Street that play endless illegal games that cost a lot of us a lot of money.
Spitzer’s fundamental problem was the bevy of powerful enemies that he made over the years. I am not inclined to conspiracy theories, as a rule, but I smell a rat here. Here’s the company line: a bunch of nondescript IRS bureaucrats slaving away at meager government wages in the bowels of some gray bland office building saw about $4,000.00 change hands and did a check on it (because they are just public servants doing their jobs). Then, voila, it turns out to be the immensely popular and powerful Governor of New York paying for sex. It had, they say, nothing to do with politics, revenge, powerful interests on Wall Street or any of that stuff. Just doin’ my job.......yeah, right.
Spitzer’s fundamental problem was the bevy of powerful enemies that he made over the years. I am not inclined to conspiracy theories, as a rule, but I smell a rat here. Here’s the company line: a bunch of nondescript IRS bureaucrats slaving away at meager government wages in the bowels of some gray bland office building saw about $4,000.00 change hands and did a check on it (because they are just public servants doing their jobs). Then, voila, it turns out to be the immensely popular and powerful Governor of New York paying for sex. It had, they say, nothing to do with politics, revenge, powerful interests on Wall Street or any of that stuff. Just doin’ my job.......yeah, right.
Let’s be clear....there were literally thousands of recorded calls and an extensive investigation by both state and federal cops....all because a few bucks looked a little “irregular?” Unlikely. This is more akin to a set up whereby unseen forces were sifting and searching for any dirt that could possibly find on this man to bring him down. Don’t get me wrong...he brought this on himself in terms of his conduct. However, the cover story that they just stumbled on some small financial blip and then spawned a multistate investigation reserved normally for international drug smuggling operations is a lot of nonsense.
John A. Birdsall, Birdsall Law Offices, S.C.
135 W. Wells St., Ste 214, Milwaukee, WI 53203
414.831.5465 - www.birdsall-law.com
135 W. Wells St., Ste 214, Milwaukee, WI 53203
414.831.5465 - www.birdsall-law.com
