Mar 12, 2008 9:17 pm US/Eastern
Experts: Indictment Looms For Spitzer
Disgraced Leader Could Face Myriad of Charges
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Eliot Spitzer's resignation Wednesday spares him and the state the spectacle of an impeachment, but what about an indictment?
It was a rare and unequivocal declaration by U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia: "There is no agreement between this office and Gov. Eliot Spitzer, relating to his resignation or any other matter."
And in Spitzer's own words:
"Over the course of my public life, I've insisted, I think correctly, that people regardless of their position or power take responsibility for their conduct."
But what conduct? And what form will that responsibility take? Legal observers say there's a good chance the governor will be indicted.
"To move funds from one place to the other, to hide the source of the money … it's still going to be money laundering," said John Jay College School of Criminology professor Joseph King.
Experts say "Client 9," who is alleged to be Spitzer, could face the following charges:
* Money laundering for trying to conceal the source and recipient of financial transactions.
* Tax evasion, if he was a knowing party to an all-cash business that wasn't filing taxes.
* Violation of the Mann Act for paying for the trip from New York to D.C. by the call girl known as "Kristen."
* Misuse of state resources, if he used his state-issued credit card for hotels or meals with prostitutes as well as if he was being protected by State Troopers during his dalliances.
* And finally, soliciting prostitution.
There's also the question of whether Spitzer allegedly used campaign funds for these trysts, which opens up a whole other litany of charges from fraud to federal election violations.
Court documents and published reports indicate perhaps as much as $80,000 were transferred from Spitzer's account to a trio of dummy companies that were fronts for the escort service.
North Fork Bank reportedly grew suspicious when the governor asked that his name be taken off the latest transactions.
The prostitution charge carries the least severe possible sentence. Ironically, one of the first bills Spitzer signed into law raised the penalties for Johns, the men who patronize prostitutes, from a maximum of three months, to now up to a year in jail. Money laundering has a maximum of 20 years.
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