Weirder and weirder.
We’re talking about the tangled matter of one Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who is being prosecuted in connection with what the authorities say was a pricey prostitution ring in the Washington, D.C., area that serviced as many as 15,000 clients between 1993 and 2006. A federal indictment was handed up in the district on March 1.
[…] Ms. Palfrey, evidently short of money for legal defense since prosecutors froze her $400,000 in cash and stocks last fall, attracted a good deal of attention over the last few weeks, some of it perhaps of a panicky nature, by threatening to sell her business’s phone records, showing the telephone numbers of thousands of customers, to the highest bidder.
[…] On Tuesday, Ms. Palfrey changed course. Her lawyer told WTOP radio in Washington that she had decided not to sell the records. Instead they will be handed over to a news organization, free of charge. Which one? Nobody is saying yet.
What, if not money, does Ms. Palfrey get out of that? The news organization’s help in combing the records and identifying customers, who can then become witnesses for the defense, the lawyer, Montgomery B. Silbey, told WTOP. And what does the news organization get? The opportunity to break the news if it finds anyone prominent in the list. About everybody else, we are told, the news organization has promised to be discreet.
One assumes that Ms. Palfrey wouldn’t be so cruel as to go on teasing us with her client list without ever delivering the goods. It wouldn’t be professional.
Pb
Well, that excludes Fox!
Tlaloc
Remind me again why we aren’t regulating and taxing this business?
Tsulagi
Hmm, following the link it said federal prosecutors are now trying to suppress any release of the customer list. Gee, you would think they would be eager to publicize any public figures that may be on it. You know, to expose the family values evildoers that may be in office..
Zifnab
Because its illegal. Same reason we don’t regulate and tax pot.
So thank your Republican Congressmen. Since the War On Fun began, we’ve never needed to spend a dime on pot and hookers that went to the federal government.
Mike S
It will be easy to figure out who has it when there are a bunch of stories coming our. If no stories, or only Democrats are named, then we know FOX has it.
Joe Scarborough was great on this story. The woman’s business took off in 1994 and he said ‘See, we were a revolution. We worked hard and played harder.’
Mike S
Unfortunately, both parties are very guilty in this. They do love to declare war and make sure to lose, don’t they?
Vladi G
Does this make sense to anyone? Wouldn’t she have just kept a customer list? You would think she would know who some of these people were, considering that she was doing business with them.
Isn’t she basically saying “go through the phone records so you can tell me who my customers were.”? Would have thought she may have known that.
Tlaloc
“So thank your Republican Congressmen. Since the War On Fun began, we’ve never needed to spend a dime on pot and hookers that went to the federal government.”
Can we legalize both and start a hookers-and-doobies on wheels business? Maybe call it “the Sublime Order of Tail and Roach”?
Keith
There’s a part of me that says even public figures have parts of their lives that should be private. But then again, it is illegal, so what the hell. On the other hand, if it’s illegal and therefore OK to make it public, is it also OK to make public all the kinky shit they’re probably requesting? Even if it is, do we want to know what kind of kinky shit someone like, say, Duke Cunningham might be into?
I really want to tune out for this story, but like sour milk I cannot turn away.
Jake
I suspect that in the near future my morning commute will be snarled by some unhappy hypocrite who has stepped under a train.
If I thought he were being honest it wouldn’t. This is a classic case of putting someone’s nads on the anvil and giggling madly. Will we see a last minute bid by an anonymous buyer? If not, I suppose handing it over to a news organ creates some sort of First Am. protection but I don’t know.
Zifnab
*Sags head.* Yeah.
Tim F.
Ask and ye shall receive!
Among other points in a post that everybody should just go over and read:
Pretty much what I guessed. The people who would go out and spend their income growth haven’t had any income growth.
Mike S
Paris Hilton’s cocaine use can only go up. Not that that helps with taxes but she is spending that extra cash.
Tim F.
Crud, I put the comment in the wrong thread. Discard that last bit about income…
Andrew
I think it’s safe to say that every elected and appointed official has a few whores on the side.
The real question: which ones like it in the ass?
Jimmy Mack
Give you 50 to 1 odds the name “Slick Willie” shows up in there….
scarshapedstar
Would you recognize a Congressman from outside your state? Do you think they paid with checks or credit cards or something?
Rome Again
It’s legal in certain parts of Nevada.
Rome Again
Imagining their graphics package now… very interesting!
merlallen
I doubt Slick Willie is in the book. The man got his for free, he doesn’t have to buy it.
Pb
And what about all the Sunnis that Clinton burned alive during Socksgate?
Zifnab
Deal, if you take my 50 to 1 odds that Hot Tub Tom and Newt “Divorced My Cancer Wife” Gingrich are somewhere on the list too.
Andrew
I found Stormy!
Pb
Sadly, I agree with Stormy there–that’s not a surprise at all unless you weren’t paying any attention whatsoever at the time–which explains why the news media has jumped on the ‘story’?
Zifnab
Maybe they can make him confess that he’s really Osama Bin Laden. Then we’ve caught Osama Bin Laden! Horray!
srv
Man, it’s spring break, get the f* outta bed and post.
Is there a bloggers guide to “The Proper Feeding and Care of Blog Readers?” We need to be fed at least once every morning, and not have to traipse around chatting on some dead thread until they deign to post. Would it kill them to have an open thread when they’re just too occupied with their sad lives? It’s not like open threads ever lack of some controversy or Darrell-bashing.
Dug Jay
The WaTimes blog says that Greenwald and Sullivan’s names are included in her records. Who knew they had a butch side to them?
Stormy70
Hi ppgaz! Sorry I haven’t been around, but I was spending way too much time duking it out with you guys. Work suffered, and I had to cut back. Blogs are like crack and as the great sage Whitney says: Crack is Wack!
Quick pop culture thoughts for my man ppgaz and Krista:
Lost sucks now. :( I only watch to stare at Naveen.
Criminal Minds is much better with awesome depravity added this season.
Ugly Betty is fun. “It’s like gay Star Trek.”
America’s Next Top Model: greatness.
24 – boring middle part of the season.
Heroes – got bored.
Bones – Good boney fun, now with more hot Angel action.
Bravo – Most Bestest Trashtastic Network.
Movies – It is all about the half-naked Spartans and their killing and maiming of creepies. Love it!
I can post more in the Summer.
Stormy70
Oh, and the hooker? Publish every name on it and let the fun and games begin anew! Same for Hollywood madams, the public has a right to all the good dirt.
srv
Tom in Texas opens a new thread for us to play in, Thx.
Krista
“Good boney fun”. Fantastic. Can’t believe you got bored with Heroes, though. And yes, the trainwreck that is ANTM is always delightful. I’m still waiting for Tyra to someday pull off her mask to reveal an insectile-like creature, who then immediately eats the head of the token “tomboy” model wannabe.
Stormy70
For Krista and all ANTM fans: Four Four’s recap.
This is last weeks episode. He puts the new one up on Monday.