Table of Contents
Also by Peter Elkind
The Smartest Guys in the Room:
The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron (coauthor with Bethany McLean)
The Death Shift
For Stephen, Landon, George, Adele, and Sam
Authors Note
IT HAS BEEN NEARLY TWO YEARS SINCE ELIOT SPITZER WAS abruptly transformedas though by a ray gun fired by space aliensinto Client 9. While not exactly the expanse of history, enough time has passed for some perspective.
Spitzer is evidence of how modern times have compressed the natural rhythm of everythingeven scandal. He leapt onto the national stage overnightand vanished in a moment. In the period it has taken me to write this book, he has performed what passes for him as penance, and has already begun a comeback. As with many things about this hyperkinetic man, it may prove too much, too soon. But Spitzer isnt the sort to accept a contented lifeor even an extended staysitting on the sidelines. (Or, for that matter, to salve his soul and reputation performing charity work with Honduran refugees.) For reasons of ego, temperament, ability, and conviction, he remains hell-bent on making his mark in the public arena, no matter how bloodied and beaten that leaves him.
Spitzers fall wasnt the first sex-based implosion of one of our iconsand was quickly followed by others. But it was surely among the most improbable, as measured by the chasm between public image and private reality. A man born and bred to act on cold facts and reason proved all too hot-blooded and humanrevealing first his temper, then his temptations. He damaged himself with the first and committed hara-kiri with the second.
I began working on Rough Justice twenty-two months ago, not long after Spitzer resigned as governor of New York. I had written extensively about his Wall Street crusades as attorney general in the pages of Fortune magazine, my journalistic home, and profiled him there as well. This book benefits from that work. But the story took me many places I had never beenfrom the gothic corridors of the New York capitol to the fantasyland of high-priced hookers.
I became interested in telling this story right after the scandal broke, after learning of the news on my BlackBerry during a spring-break ski trip with my family. Alex Gibney, the Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, had the same thought. We had worked together as he produced his film on Enron, based on the book I coauthored with Bethany McLean, The Smartest Guys in the Room. We quickly agreed to collaborate again, only this time preparing our separate projects concurrently, sharing ideas and information along the way. This has proven a remarkably productive partnership.
This book relies, in good part, on an intimately detailed, contemporaneous written record. Through Freedom of Information requests, investigative files, and the openness of others, I gained access to a treasure trove of documents: private diaries, handwritten notes, unsent letters, andso fitting for a story about Spitzerthousands of e-mails. They helped piece together a remarkable tale. But ultimately, the book benefits most from the often-painful candor of the many people I interviewed who lived through these events. That starts with Spitzer himself.
This is not an authorized book. Its conclusions and revelations about himsome admiring, some harsh, some startlingare entirely my own. Yet Spitzer, whom I first met in college, began speaking with me early, when he was saying nothing in public, and continued doing so regularly through the completion of this project. Our conversations covered every aspect of his life and work, often in great detail. Spitzer is not a naturally introspective man, and many of my questions were uncomfortable. Ultimately, he was remarkably forthcoming, even reflective, tackling almost every question I asked. He asked nothing more than that I treat him fairly. I am grateful for this trust and cooperation.
Silda Wall Spitzer politely declined my repeated requests for an on-the-record interview. The quotations attributed to her come from my 2005 interview with her for Fortune, those who have spoken directly with her, and published interviews elsewhere. In 2005, I also interviewed Spitzers parents, Bernard and Anne, and his siblings, Emily and Daniel.
The world of prostitution, for obvious reasons, was tough to crack. In the end, Alex Gibney and I came to a detailed understanding of life inside Emperors Club VIPand its dealings with Eliot Spitzer. I interviewed its founder, Mark Brener, three times in jail before his sentencing, and benefited greatly from conversations with his criminal defense lawyers. Alex conducted a remarkable interview with Breners young partner, Cecil Suwal, after purchasing an option to acquire fiction film rights to her planned memoir; this is the only circumstance in which anyone was paid in connection with an interview for this book. I also spoke to Suwal several times in January 2010. Emperors Club VIP booker Temeka Lewis has said nothing to the press, but her attorney shared his insights. I also obtained scores of secret text messages from inside the Emperors Club during 2007. Although Ashley Dupr declined repeated interview requests, we spoke with two others who are far more knowledgeable about both Emperors Club VIP and Spitzers involvement. Neither woman has been previously identified or interviewed. To protect their privacy, we have changed their names; other than the stage names used by escorts, they are the only pseudonyms in this book. Tammy Thomas worked as a phone booker at Emperors Club VIP for about seven months; she spoke with me at length. Angelina was an Emperors Club VIP escort; Alex conducted a wide-ranging tape-recorded interview with her, as well as several follow-up sessions. Both were candid about their experience; both had extensive dealings with the mysterious George Fox.
Eliot Spitzers fatal misdeeds were private acts of marital infidelitythe very sort that some of our greatest presidents had gotten away with from the dawn of the republic. Those days are clearly over. In the modern media age, its impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. Character mattersand so do laws. But its worth giving a moment of thought: should we care so much about personal flaws when our governmentand our financial systemis so hobbled by the sort of incompetence, greed, and corruption that hurt everyone? These pages, I hope, offer a window into how things workand how they dont: on Wall Street, in our houses of government, in the hearts and souls of our political leaders.
PETER ELKIND, FEBRUARY 2010
Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something.
WILLIE STARK, ALL THE KINGS MEN
Introduction
IT WAS COLD AND BARELY DAYLIGHT WHEN LLOYD CONSTANTINE arrived at 985 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, a stones throw from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The media horde that would soon gather outside had not yet begun to arrive. Constantine, a regular visitor, stepped quickly into the lobby. The doorman, crisply dressed in his black uniform, waved him through into the elevator.
The urgent summons from his old friend had come the night before, in a shocking phone call. I have to resign, the fifty-fourth governor of New York had told him. As early as tomorrow, it will be reported in
