All language subtitles for Client 9 - The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer [2010].En

What I'm most proud of
as attorney general

is that we were wiIIing to waIk
into the buzz saw

of some very powerfuI interests
and never back down.

Look, I had a simpIe ruIe:

I never asked if a case
was popuIar or unpopuIar,

never asked
if it was big or smaII,

hard or easy;

I simpIy asked if it was
right or wrong.

Man: I wiII never forget
that moment.

Woman:
I was dumbfounded.

Man:
I can't say I was sorry.

♪ Start spreading the news... ♪

Man: It was Iike,
"You've gotta be kidding."

♪ I want to be a part of it... ♪

( siren bIares )

♪ New York, New York... ♪

Man: He was going to be
our first Jewish president.

♪ These vagabond shoes... ♪

Woman:
There was corporate corruption;

greed had seemed to hit its peak;

and he was fighting aII of that.

♪ Right through
the very heart of it ♪

♪ New York, New York ♪

♪ I want to wake up in a city ♪

♪ That doesn't sIeep ♪

♪ To find I'm cream of the crop ♪

♪ On top of the heap ♪

♪ These IittIe town bIues ♪

♪ Are meIting away ♪

♪ I'II make a brand-new ♪

♪ Start of it... ♪

Narrator: On the face of it,
the faII of Governor Spitzer

was just another sex scandaI.

Was it a private matter?

Or a pubIic reckoning?

♪ Oh New York... ♪

Narrator:
And what of the timing?

A few months
after his resignation,

the reckIess banks
Spitzer had poIiced

brought the economic system
close to failure.

♪ I'II make it anywhere ♪

♪ New York... ♪

Everyone agreed on one thing:

no one expected him
to go down Iike he did.

♪ New York. ♪

It is to a certain extent
a very cIassic taIe, perhaps,

of an individual
who from the exterior

appears to have been
captured by hubris;

a sense of standing for virtues

and, I think, working very hard

to articuIate and work

towards estabIishing
ruIes and boundaries,

but then, himseIf,
sIipping and faiIing.

And this goes back to the days
of Greek mythoIogy.

This is not--
it's not a new story.

HuIbert WaIdroup:
In New York, everyone--

everyone's Iike some sort
of an animal, you know?

They're some sort of an animaI.

They're hungry
to make more money,

hungry to get more sex,

to date a prettier girI
or a richer guy.

Just-- just hungry,
just greedy,

just animaIs.

This Chinese phiIosopher
said that

human beings are a hybrid

between animaIs and angeIs,

that we're capable
of animaIistic behavior.

Consider sex and war.

But we're capable of doing
beautifuI things too, Iike art,

music or making Iove,
you know?

What-- I was just
contempIating that.

l was like,
"Wow, I kinda dig that.

We're haIf angeI, haIf animaI."

Good afternoon.

Over the past nine years--
eight years as attorney generaI

and one as governor--
I have tried to uphoId

a vision of progressive
politics that would

rebuiId New York and create
opportunity for all.

We sought to bring
reaI change to New York,

and that wiII continue.

Today, I want to briefIy address
a private matter.

I have acted in a way
that vioIates my obIigations

to my family,
and that vioIates my, or any,

sense of right and wrong.

Narrator: Spitzer's wrong turn
surprised everyone,

because he had a reputation
as Mr. Right.

As Attorney GeneraI
of New York

he was known as
the Sheriff of WaII Street,

someone determined
to take on powerfuI interests

on behaIf of those
who couIdn't afford to.

LIoyd Constantine:
This was a guy who understood

that he had been a member
of the lucky-sperm club.

He was reaIIy smart.
He was weaIthy.

So he had gotten
a Iot of breaks in Iife,

and he wanted to-to--
to use that,

you know,
to better the worId.

Narrator: Spitzer's father Bernard
was a seIf-made reaI-estate tycoon

who sent his son
to an eIite prep schooI,

Princeton
and Harvard Law SchooI,

where he met his wife-to-be
SiIda WaII.

His father had pushed him
to succeed.

We debated issues around
the dining-room tabIe.

And so I guess it was more
of a symposium

than a touchy-feeIy
environment.

We were taught not to embrace

a notion, a principIe, a fact

mereIy because somebody
had asserted it.

ChaIIenge them, push back--

that was part
of the conversation.

Narrator:
For a reaI-estate famiIy,

MonopoIy takes on
a speciaI edge.

Sure, it's a game.

But it's aIso a way for a father
to teach his son

some Iessons
about money and power.

Look, I don't want the impression
to be that he wasn't--

he was devoid of compassion,
but it is true

he forecIosed on me
in a MonopoIy game.

Narrator: Bernard Spitzer
tricked his son into seIIing

BoardwaIk and Park PIace
for cheap,

then wiped him out when he Ianded
on a built-up Boardwalk.

The Iesson:
don't trust anyone.

But l think really
what he was trying to do

was teach me
how the market worked.

And MonopoIy's a fun game,
but I had overbuiIt

and overextended and he said,
"I'm sorry, that's it.

There are consequences
and you've Iearned a Iesson."

Interviewer: What was
your response at the time?

Oh, I cried.
I think I was about 10.

I mean, I was a kid.

It was-- it was--
it was no fun.

I wanted to-- I wanted
to be bailed out.

Constantine: Bernie is a guy
who judges peopIe.

That's a tough thing for a kid.

I do remember him watching
Eliot and me play tennis.

And after one particular serve
and voIIey of mine, which I won,

he gave me that victory sign,
and he said,

"Yeah, that's exactIy
what to do to him."

EIiot's strategy is to stick
with his core game:

hard shots,
serve and voIIey.

Spitzer:
But my refIexes are good.

Yeah!

I Iove to get in to net.

Good shot.

As I say, the game I used to have
keeps getting better.

Narrator:
EIiot Spitzer's notion

of pubIic service was Iike
his tennis game:

attack attack attack.

Good morning,
and thank you for coming.

Narrator: As attorney generaI,
Spitzer saw an opportunity

to do more than enforce the Iaw.

He wanted to use the Iaw
to change the way society worked.

He sued coaI-fire pIants in Ohio

for causing poIIution in New York.

He sued GeneraI EIectric
for dumping

poisonous waste
into the Hudson River.

He uncovered fraud
in the pharmaceuticaI industry,

where pill makers hid
the damage done by their drugs,

fought for minimum wage
for deIiverymen

and forced upscaIe restaurants
to hire more women.

He wouId take them aII on,
because no one eIse wouId.

Peter EIkind:
There's a reason why EIiot Spitzer

became famous as New York's
attorney generaI.

The job had been
a second-tier position.

lt had been focused on
reguIating crooked car deaIers.

And EIiot Spitzer
focused on WaII Street,

on the biggest guys around.

And Spitzer's premise,
which was right,

was that Wall Street
can't be Ieft to reguIate itseIf

or terribIe things wiII happen.

When l assumed office,
which was January of 1999,

we were in a period
where Wall Street

and investment bankers were,
to use Tom Wolfe's

great phrase,
masters of the universe.

Narrator:
To protect the average citizen,

Spitzer was wiIIing to prosecute
bankers and CEOs

Iike any other Iawbreakers.

Spitzer: In the course
of this investigation,

my office deveIoped evidence
indicating that analysts

gave misIeading advice

that heIped the brokerage's
investment banking cIients,

but harmed individuaI investors.

When we first got into this,
everybody said,

"Well, what's the state
attorney generaI's office

in New York doing
going after this probIem?

ShouIdn't this be the SEC?"

And my response was,
"Yes, but they haven't.

And if they haven't,

and there are investors
being ripped off, we wiII do it."

Narrator: WaII Street anaIysts
advise buyers

on what stocks
Iook good or bad.

With the rise of the lnternet,
anaIysts became superstars,

because only they
seemed to understand

how to value
Internet companies.

As stocks soared,
so did the vaIue

of anaIysts who knew
how to pick them.

The more money they made,

the more potential
there was for abuse.

Henry Blodget
was a faiIed writer

who stumbIed into being
a top research anaIyst

when,
as a young stock picker,

he predicted the rise
of Amazon.com.

By 2001 he was working
for MerriII Lynch,

making $12 miIIion a year.

When one of MerriII's customers
sued BIodget for phony research,

Spitzer's team
investigated him,

using an arcane law
caIIed the Martin Act

to subpoena thousands
of documents and emaiIs

in search of fraud.

As Spitzer's team pored
through BIodget's emaiIs,

they kept coming across
the term POS.

They thought POS
was short for "positive,"

for stocks BIodget wanted
customers to buy.

But then they stumbIed upon
BIodget's keyword chart.

BIodget's emaiIs were honest
and brutaIIy downbeat.

MeanwhiIe his officiaI stock
ratings were mostIy upbeat,

urging customers
to buy buy buy.

Spitzer:
Mr. and Mrs. Smith,

whose IRA or 401 (k)
is being invested,

they are the sacrificiaI Iambs

and being used to prop up
the stock

so that the MerriII Lynches
of the worId can then

go to the companies and say,
"See what we're doing for you?

Bring us your
investment banking business."

It was fundamentaIIy corrupt.

Narrator:
It was insider's MonopoIy,

guided by a basic
fundamentaI principIe.

You don't go
south of 14th Street

except for one reason:
to make money.

( R&B music pIaying )

The guys on the fIoor, aII they
cared about was makin' money.

That's what-- that's--
that's the American way.

Narrator: Jack Grubman
was a highly respected

teIecommunications anaIyst
for Salomon Smith Barney.

♪ Close shooting
don't kiII no birds... ♪

He became famous
for pumping up AT&T's stock

to pIease his boss Sandy WeiII.

Then WeiII heIped Grubman
get his twins

into an excIusive preschooI.

Grubman's payday for research?

$20 miIIion a year,

enough to buy a palace
on the Upper East Side.

♪ Take food from
my famiIy's mouth ♪

♪ Before the money came... ♪

Narrator:
Grubman's career ended

when he relentlessly
pumped up the stock

of a company caIIed WorIdCom,

just before it went bankrupt.

Do you regret, in hindsight,

staying so buIIish
on the company for so Iong?

Nothing-- look,
why are you harassing me

- Iike this?
- I'm not harassing you.

I'm just asking you questions
about the company that you cover.

This caught you compIeteIy
by surprise, you say.

Yes.

- Thank you.
- Yeah.

♪ Before the money ♪

♪ Started roIIin' in. ♪

There was aIways this--

internally we called it
the come-to-Jesus moment,

where we went to whoever it was
we were prepared to sue

and/or, you know, go after,
you know, for doing something wrong

and we'd say to 'em
in no uncertain terms,

"Tell us why,
given this fact pattern,

we wouId be wrong
to sue your ass."

Spitzer:
EarIy on in the investigation,

the MerriII Lynch Iawyers,
they came into my office.

They looked at me
and they said, "You're right,

but we're not as bad
as our competitors."

I was a prosecutor
for a lot of years.

I never, you know,
heard a defendant

stand up in court and say,
"Yeah, I robbed three peopIe,

but somebody over there robbed five,
so therefore l'm not bad."

I said to MerriII Lynch-- they wanted
to settIe the case and pay some money

and said, "We wiII pay
a big sum of money

if you promise to keep
the information secret."

And I said no.

Because my job
as attorney generaI

is to change the system

so that it's fair
and wiII be honest.

And if we seaI the evidence
and you pay a check

and we don't change the system,
l'm basically being bought off.

My office has reached
an agreement that wiII heIp

ensure the integrity
of investment advice

on which investors
often depend.

Narrator: BIodget and Grubman
paid million-dollar fines

and were banned from
the securities industry for Iife.

But their firms bought
their permanent siIence

with handsome
severance packages.

In exchange for Grubman's
siIence on the detaiIs

of his firm's behavior,
SaIomon Smith Barney

paid Grubman $30 miIIion.

The nation's best and brightest
were Iured to WaII Street

in search of fast fortunes.

The money they made
fIowed everywhere--

penthouses,
yachts, goIf cIubs--

and to the oIdest sector
of the global economy

ready for a new cash infusion.

I have rich Iovers.

♪ Love for saIe... ♪

I don't go out with poor men.

I've got no reason to do so.

♪ Appetizing young Iove ♪

♪ For saIe... ♪

I don't caII prostitution

and escorting seIIing your body.

♪ Love for saIe. ♪

You don't seII, you rent.

I Iove my bank account fuII.

It's better than empty.

♪ Sex for sugar,
sugar for sex ♪

♪ What you got, girI,
it's so unfair ♪

♪ I Iike the way you move
so keep it right there ♪

♪ Or you can do
what you wanna do ♪

♪ l'm just glad
I am in front with you ♪

♪ But I don't mind
being butt high ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm-a touch you
where the sun don't shine... ♪

WaIdroup: There's a street in SoHo
where a lot of artists set up.

l was selling
my paintings one day.

And this charismatic feIIow
comes along

and he's got a beautifuI
girl with him--

this girlfriend
at the time, NataIia.

Said, "This is the number-one
escort in New York City.

l run New York's
number-one escort agency."

I've never seen you naked.
You think your body's good enough?

Waldroup:
"I want to buy the biggest,

most expensive painting
you've ever done."

He gives me his business card.

I stiII have an oId souvenir.

♪ Electricity
was definiteIy there ♪

♪ l got shocked
when I touched your hair... ♪

"New York ConfidentiaI,
rocket fueI for winners."

That's aII it says.

Narrator: ln 2004,
New York ConfidentiaI was at its height,

making miIIions by offering cIients
"the girIfriend experience,"

a few hours
with naughty pIaymates

who looked like
coIIege cheerIeaders.

I had $1500 in $100 biIIs
in my purse.

- Oh God.
- I puIIed it out.

- OnIy 15?
- ( Iaughing )

We started hanging out
even after I did the painting.

And one day we're in
the back of a Town Car,

and he says, "Hey,
grab the phone," you know.

"Just talk to the guy,
and try to heIp him out.

You know, he's probabIy
Iooking for a girI

to spend the night with."

I'm on the ceII phone and...

you know,
my adrenaIine is going.

And I'm Iike,
okay, you know,

"We have a brunette, a bIonde
or do you Iike ethnic girIs?"

You know, I do a deaI for,
I don't know, 3,000, 4,000.

He says, "Great,
you just made 400 bucks

from a five-minute phone caII.

I'II give you 10%¤.

Why don't you just come to work
for me for a IittIe while, you know?"

Man: That CraigsIist ad
pulled well, huh?

WaIdroup: That's where it aII began,
where I started working for Jason.

How do you know she's a no?

We don't get that many
calls for Asians.

One hot Asian is-- is pIenty.

We need more bIondes,
hot blondes.

They might Iook good in person,

but they got a shitty photographer,
you know?

Hot blondes.
She's a definite yes.

WaIdroup:
When a businessman spends,

say, $2,000 an hour,

he wants to read the reviews,

just Iike if you were to buy a car.

You want to read the reviews.
How much miIeage does it get?

Does it have air conditioning,
four-wheel drive?

What-- what's
the difference between

paying $1 ,000 an hour
for this young lady,

when I can open up
the "Village Voice"

or go on CraigsIist
and l can pay $200

for another young Iady?

You know.

And I'd say, "WeII, sir,
sure, you can--

you can have a cheeseburger
or you can have Iobster."

You're gonna have
such a good time

with one of New York
Confidential's girls

that you're gonna go
to work Monday morning

with a smiIe on your face.

You're gonna make more money
for you and your family,

and then you're gonna
caII me up next week

and you're gonna say, 'Herb,
who can you send me out today?"'

Natalia:
You can make the assumption

that they're not being sexuaIIy
satisfied in their marriage

or there's baggage
or whatever's going on there.

And then... you know,
what's their option?

Do they get divorced?
Do they spIit up their famiIy?

Or do they seek, you know--
do they go see an escort?

WaIdroup: One young Iady
was a schoolteacher;

another girI was a--

she was an athlete trying
to make it to the OIympics.

Actresses, singers, modeIs.

NataIia: Jason wouId give
his business card

to every girI that he met.

And half of them
wouId caII and then

a quarter of them
wouId start working.

Some girls would
offer me cash-- tips.

Some girIs offered me sex.

I don't think I ever got a tip
or sex with AshIey, yeah.

Narrator:
AshIey was AshIey Youmans,

later Ashley Dupré,
who wouId become famous

for having sex with EIiot Spitzer.

As an escort, she got her start
at New York ConfidentiaI,

where her working name
was Victoria.

lt was through
one of those straight pitches

that Jason found AshIey.

WaIdroup: Jason recruited her
from the Gansevoort HoteI.

Narrator: At the Gansevoort,
AshIey was a bottIe girI

trying to break
into the music business.

She was just Iight.
She was just happiness.

She was Iike a great
bubbIy 19-year-oId girI.

♪ Oh it's something to see ♪

♪ That's so pretty... ♪

Waldroup:
She was a good American,

New Jersey ItaIian girI.

NataIia:
Guys Ioved her.

She had great pheromones
or something, you know?

Waldroup: Within three
or four weeks, you know,

her rate was going up there
to 2,000 an hour--

with a two-hour minimum.

Natalia: Her reviews
were awesome as weII.

l think she got a--
she got something Iike

12 consecutive 10/10 reviews.

After we did our first
appointment together,

I toId Jason, I'm Iike,
"You gotta book this girI."

First of aII, she's great,

but she also has
a perfect coochie.

Narrator: AshIey's reign ended
when New York Confidential

was raided by IocaI poIice.

No customers were arrested,

but HuIbert was convicted
of promoting prostitution

and sent to jaiI
for eight months.

AshIey wouId move on to work
for another escort service.

For every New Yorker
who's been ignored, Ieft out,

who's been toId
"You can't fight City HaII"

so many times
they've come to beIieve it,

for every New Yorker
without a voice, Iisten:

there's one strong enough
for aII of us.

( appIause )

Spitzer:
For most of our history

we have turned a bIind eye

to the vioIations of duty

on the part
of white-coIIar criminaIs.

We can understand it.

There is something visceraIIy
terrifying about street crime.

And untiI you are safe
in your home,

you worry a bit Iess
about what is often

a bit more amorphous,
which is the nature

of white-coIIar crime,
which is more subtIe theft.

EIkind:
Spitzer broke the moId

of how you prosecute
a white-collar case.

He went after it fast and hard,

and he got things done
in a period of weeks or months

that wouId take
the federaI reguIators years.

He wanted to change
the system.

So he'd get the goods
on a company or on peopIe

and use it as Ieverage
to institute reform,

to force the industry to change
the way it did business.

A Iot of peopIe thought
that was outrageous.

Narrator: Spitzer hired a team
of dedicated lawyers

who were drawn to his mission.

EIiot just wasn't afraid to stand up
to corporate bad guys.

And, you know, I think
there was some appreciation

for the fact that, you know,
he'd punch 'em in the nose

if that's what was appropriate.

The first day l came in,
EIiot said, "What's next?"

And l said, "Well,
mutuaI funds, I think."

Boy:
How much wiII I grow?

How strong wiII I be
in five years?

In 10 years?

Where does my future start?

Shh.

Narrator: Mutual funds
were supposed to be a safe pIace

for working people
to put their money.

But there were rumors
that sophisticated investors

were pIaying games
with those funds.

Brown: l went off
and I started studying them,

trying to figure out
how to get at this issue.

WhiIe I was immersed in this,
we got a tip.

( phone ringing )

Noreen Harrington: I Ieft very pathetic
voicemaiI messages.

( phone beeps )

You know,
reporting a crime is hard.

You have to earn
your credibility.

You have-- it feeIs Iike
you're being interrogated.

Narrator: Noreen Harrington
had a strong financiaI background.

After 1 1 years
at GoIdman Sachs,

she ran the gIobaI fixed income
department at Barclays.

Then she went to work
for Eddie Stern,

the son of a weII-known
pet-food billionaire.

Eddie Stern's hedge fund,
Canary Capital,

was producing
spectacuIar resuIts

at a time when
the stock market was tanking.

The big profits,
said Harrington,

came from manipuIating
mutuaI funds.

They were doing something
really egregious,

which is Iate trading.

( beII ringing )

Narrator:
At the track,

customers bet on horse races
before the race starts.

But what if there were
a special club

that aIIowed you to bet on races
after they were over?

There was a cIub Iike that
on Wall Street

for trading mutuaI funds.

Brown: Mutual funds
are onIy priced once a day,

- right at 4:00.
- ( beII ringing )

So during the day, you caII in
and you buy a mutual fund,

they'II say, "Fine, "we're gonna fiII
your order at today's 4:00 price."

If you caII in at 4:05,
they're supposed to say,

"Fine, we'll fill your order
at tomorrow's 4:00 price."

Narrator: But what if something
happened at, say, 4:05

to make the fund
more vaIuabIe?

Brown: If you couId go in
as an investor

and call at 4:1 0,
having heard that news,

go back and buy it at the 4:00 price,
you could just buy it,

wait for it to go up
the next day and seII it

and take some money out of it.

In one case,
they went to a bank

and the bank put a computer
back-office terminaI

into Canary CapitaI,
Eddie Stern's fund.

Eddie might enter 40 trades

prior to 4:00.

Now Iet's say it's 10:00 at night;

they canceI the 30
that lost money

and keep the 1 0
that made money.

And so this was a bank,

compIeteIy, you know,
working with one cIient

to destroy the profits

owed to aII the peopIe
in those funds.

Narrator: The name of the bank
was Bank of America.

We spent a Iot of time saying this--
this can't be happening.

I mean, no one wouId be so,
you know, so sIeazy.

Harrington: I remember
it was Iike 9:00 at night.

And somebody said,

"Wow, we just picked
these peopIe off for 10 miIIion."

I'm thinking, "How do you trade
mutuaI funds at 9:00?"

I mean, you know,
you're a 20-year veteran,

but aII of a sudden
you feeI Iike a rookie.

Narrator: When Stern was confronted
with the evidence against him,

he cut a deaI to cooperate
with Spitzer's investigation,

which Iaid open the predatory
nature of WaII Street.

Brown: You have some
expectation as an investor

in the stock market,
that there are big big boys

out there who probabIy have
better information than you,

and it's preciseIy to get out of that
that you wouId go to mutuaI funds.

And the idea that there
were some sharks

in the tank with you,
with aII these thousands of minnows,

was reaIIy sort of--
just reaIIy surprising.

I sent out the first subpoena
at the end of June of '03.

And on September 4th,
we announced a settIement.

And what I'd Iike
you to do now...

Harrington: Three months
after I finished speaking to them,

for EIiot Spitzer and his staff
to have indictments,

settlements,
was astounding to me.

Today's announcement
is mereIy step one.

One of the questions
I get asked a Iot was,

"Did you beIieve
you wouId never work again?"

And I think about
that question a Iot,

because what you're saying
by asking that question is:

by doing pubIic service
and heIping 95 miIIion peopIe

and stopping a crime,
this industry wouIdn't want you?

( siren bIaring )

Narrator: WhiIe Spitzer stirred
popuIar rage at WaII Street,

there were a few peopIe
who were deIighted

to see the bankers
take home big paydays,

as reveaIed in the actuaI ceII phone
of one of the bookers

of the escort service
caIIed The Emperors CIub.

Woman: "I keep hearing about
all the raises on Wall Street.

And usuaIIy that wouId
be good for us.

Hmm, maybe things wiII pick up.
Take care, hon!"

The Iawyer-banker thing is true.

There are quite a Iot of them.

But there are lots
of stereotypes, you know,

that it's this crazy
drug-fueIed sort of party scene.

But generaIIy, you know,
people are respectful.

They just want to have
a nice time with someone.

Many of my cIients
are nicer to me

than many many
of the dates I've been on.

In fact,

I've stopped dating
in the reaI worId, you know?

Partly because it
wouId be compIicated

and partly because
my standards Iifted.

HonestIy, you know.
( laughs )

NataIia: The pictures of AshIey
didn't surface right away.

The EIiot Spitzer story broke,
and then aII these media outIets

were caIIing me
to do interviews.

And so l did a few interviews
without even knowing that AshIey was--

my AshIey was our Victoria
was Kristen

was all these--
you know, who she was.

Tonight EIiot Spitzer resigns
as Governor of New York.

Where wiII he find comfort
in this difficult time?

l was shocked
when it aII happened.

But then when I saw
AshIey's picture

fIashed on the news,

I was Iike, wait a second,
you know?

I was Iike, "Oh my gosh!"

I couIdn't beIieve it.

She fit the biII.

♪ My fist to the sky... ♪

Man: "The New York Times"
website identifies

Governor Spitzer's mystery caII girI
as Ashley Alexandra Dupré.

Narrator: AII over papers
and teIevision

she was caIIed "Spitzer's GirI."

Known as "Kristen"
at The Emperors CIub,

AshIey Dupré was determined
to take advantage

of her sudden opportunity.

NataIia: CIearIy AshIey was trying
to make a name for herself.

Narrator: After the scandaI broke,
Ashley's MySpace page,

with one of her songs
avaiIabIe for streaming,

got over seven miIIion hits.

To heIp package her career,
she brought onboard

two Iawyers, a pubIicist,
and a management team.

- ♪ So you better hurry up... ♪
- Narrator: AshIey's manager arranged

for an interview
with Diane Sawyer.

Everyone pIayed their part.

AshIey dressed up
as the good girI gone wrong,

and Diane Sawyer pIayed
the roIe of the scoIding mom.

You say "the work,"

but you haven't said the words.

- The work?
- Prostitution.

Escort.

Escort.
What's the difference?

- Escort.
- What's the difference?

She catered to
the stereotypes of hookers,

which are, you know, "Poor me.
I had a troubIed chiIdhood.

I made a mistake,"
which is such a Ioad of crap.

It's-- I can't change the past.

l can only try to take
what I've Iearned and--

and appIy that to my future.

We are being paid
ridicuIous amounts of money.

None of these women are forced
to do this and they're not stupid.

Many of the professionaI
prostitutes that I know

are very smart women
who weren't abused.

You know, don't have
a mentaI disorder.

They just happen to beIieve
in this kind of work.

Narrator:
So do their customers.

The ceII phone of the booker
from The Emperors CIub

offered a gIimpse of the cIub's
weII-heeIed cIient Iist:

an Oscar winner, CEOs

and high-powered
investment bankers.

The club treated them
Iike emperors. And why not?

They made more money
than kings.

They enjoyed having their way
with women and the world.

So it came as no surprise
that they resented it

when the New York Attorney
GeneraI started to cramp their style.

Reporter: "The Economist"
magazine caIIs him

"WaII Street's
scourger-in-chief."

Reporter #2: He's gone
from compIete anonymity

to what "Fortune" magazine calls
"the most feared man on WaII Street."

Spitzer has deputized himseIf
as the Sheriff of Wall Street

and is Ieading the posse
for retribution,

restitution and reform.

Narrator: Spitzer appealed
to Democrats and RepubIicans.

He was a Iaw-and-order IiberaI
who wasn't afraid to punch back.

When you go
down to WaII Street,

like when you walk
into a buiIding on WaII Street,

is it like turning
the Iight on in the kitchen

and the roaches just scatter
everywhere you go?

- WeII, y'know--
- Are you a beam of Iight--

It is-- there was a day that I had
to waIk into a hedge fund...

Ken Langone:
What I was intrigued by--

the number of people
that were terrified by him.

I mean, they IiteraIIy
were terrified

at this guy coming after them.

Spitzer: The issue of CEO comp
was something I had been trying

to get peopIe to take a Iook at.

It was off the raiIs.

♪ I'II take what I want ♪

♪ I'm a bad go-getter, yeah ♪

♪ Ha! Yes I am ♪

♪ I'm never a Ioser ♪

♪ And I'm never
a quitter, yeah... ♪

Spitzer: The ratio of CEO comp
to the average worker's comp

had gone from about 40 to 1
to about 550 to 1 .

CEOs began to just take
everything they could

and uItimateIy that was going
to destroy our economy.

Because instead of running
the companies to create

Iong-term weaIth
and Iong-term investment,

aII the games we've seen--

everything from backdating
of stock options

to maximizing
short-term profits

without sufficient investment
for the Iong term--

these are things that are cancers
inside the economy.

♪ 'Cause l'll take
what I want, yeah, baby. ♪

Narrator: One of the fIashiest
executives was head

of the New York Stock Exchange:
Dick Grasso,

who boasted owning 10 cars
and three homes.

He traveIed on private jets,
often fIanked by armed bodyguards.

His job was to reguIate and market
the New York Stock Exchange.

Nicknamed "Punky,"

Grasso was a scrappy
coIIege dropout

who started on the fIoor
and worked his way up.

There's a job opening
at the New York Stock Exchange.

Chairman Dick Grasso
resigned yesterday

over the fury raised
by his massive pay package.

Narrator: Not onIy was Grasso paid
an average annual salary

of $20 miIIion,

his retirement package
totaIed nearIy $140 miIIion.

After Grasso stepped down,
the new head of the Exchange

brought the matter
to the attorney generaI.

Spitzer: There's a statute in New York
that says the value

of the paycheck that the head
of a not-for-profit receives

must be commensurate with the vaIue
of the services provided.

l like Dick.
He's a decent guy.

He didn't provide services
worth $1 39 million.

Perhaps more perverseIy,

the compensation
had been determined

by the very people he was
supposed to be reguIating.

I had the most respected
group of directors

from the corporate
and financiaI worId.

They exercised
their business judgment.

They paid me what they beIieved
to be fair and reasonabIe,

which I-- I agree with.

Narrator: Spitzer decided
not to go after

the bIue-chip
internationaI board.

Instead, he sued Grasso
and the head

of the board's
compensation committee,

Ken Langone.

Langone wouId prove
to be a formidabIe foe.

l've been rich
and I've been poor.

Rich is better,
I can teII ya right now.

Narrator: The son
of a Long IsIand pIumber,

Ken Langone had
cofounded Home Depot

and amassed a fortune
of weII over a biIIion doIIars.

A dedicated phiIanthropist,
Langone was not shy

about paying peopIe weII.

Langone: At the time we awarded
Dick these pay packages,

l truly believed that Dick
earned every singIe penny,

and more!

Narrator: Spitzer demanded
that Grasso return $100 miIIion.

At the time, Langone toId
"Fortune" magazine:

"If Grasso gives back
a fucking nickel,

I'II never taIk to him again."

Spitzer: He, as anybody
in that position wouId,

took umbrage at it.
And he deveIoped

a rather strong
animus towards me.

The day that I sat in this room

and he went on teIevision

with that farce
press conference he had,

announcing that he was
going after Dick Grasso and me

and aII kinds of bad things
about me and...

EIiot's theatrics.

You can't pay the head
of a not-for-profit

that much money--
cIose to $200 miIIion.

It's simpIy too much.
It's not reasonabIe.

It's not right.
It vioIates the Iaw.

Langone: It was headIines,
it was glorious headlines!

AII these captains of industry!

Hey, this is big game.

This is going after eIephants.

Spitzer: He became
a very vociferous critic of mine.

And that's aII fair game.

In my view we were right
and he was wrong.

But again it was something
he feIt deepIy about.

Narrator: In 2004 at the Democratic
NationaI Convention

Spitzer took up the issue
with Jack Welch,

the former CEO
of GeneraI EIectric.

Langone: Jack and I are
very good friends.

Spitzer came up
to him with froth

coming out of the sides
of his mouth, spitting,

I mean, so exercised,
and pointing at Jack:

"You teII your buddy

I'm gonna put a spike
through his heart!"

This is not something
the Attorney GeneraI

of New York State says.

So when Jack toId me,
I said, "Jack, do me a favor."

I said, "If you see him,
tell him one thing:

make sure it's steeI,
because wood'II break."

Narrator:
The case dragged on for years.

In 2008, the New York State
Court of Appeals

dismissed the case
for a bizarre reason:

since the suit had been brought,
the New York Stock Exchange

had abandoned
its not-for-profit status.

Dick Grasso
kept aII his money.

But EIiot Spitzer
had engaged an enemy

with virtuaIIy
unIimited resources,

one who was watching
and waiting for any misstep.

I'd Iike to think

I'm not a vindictive person.

And a basic tenet of my faith
is forgiveness.

The most harm that
EIiot Spitzer has done to me

is I am defying my faith.

I can't forgive him

and I shouId, but I can't.

Narrator: In Ken Langone,
Spitzer had created a mighty enemy.

And then he added another one
when he took on Hank Greenberg,

the head of the worId's Iargest
insurance company, AlG.

At the age of 79,
Maurice "Hank" Greenberg

was the most powerful
businessman on the pIanet.

Under his command
AlG had grown

to be worth $157 biIIion

with 92,000 empIoyees.

Admired for his
spectacuIar resuIts,

Greenberg ruIed his empire
with an iron fist.

I think he was Louis XIV
to everybody eIse's,

you know,
being a mere baron.

I think Hank Greenberg
epitomized

the power of corporate CEOs,
and in my view,

he was the most powerfuI person
in corporate America.

Narrator: Greenberg's measure
of his own worth

was the stock price at AIG.

The normal cycle of business
is that sometimes your profits go up

and sometimes
your profits go down.

But WaII Street didn't Iike
companies to perform that way.

They wanted to see
steadiIy rising profits.

If you deIivered
steadiIy rising profits,

they'd give you
a higher stock price.

So Hank Greenberg came up
with a new type of insurance

that wouId create the iIIusion
of steadily rising earnings.

Narrator: Greenberg's AlG
was fined over $100 miIIion

by federaI authorities

for heIping other companies
cook their books.

In 2005 it appeared
that AIG might be

using similar tricks
to pump up its own stock.

Spitzer:
The more we dug into AIG,

the more probIematic

the company itseIf
appeared to me to be.

And the disconcerting
aspect of it

was that it did appear
to come from the very top.

lnterviewer:
When did you first hear about

Spitzer's investigation of AIG?

When I got a subpoena.

Narrator:
One deaI generated by Greenberg

caught the eye of Spitzer
and federaI investigators.

It was a suspicious contract
between AlG and Gen Re,

a company owned by
biIIionaire Warren Buffett.

One of the most startIing
moments in this case

was when tapes emerged

that were dispositive,
overwheIming proof

of exactly what these
transactions had been.

As this was unfoIding,
Dick Beattie called me

one Saturday morning at home
and said let's talk about this.

The board wanted me
to find out what I couId

about the Gen Re investigation.

EIiot was jogging on
a Saturday morning or something.

I met him in the park.

The onIy thing of significance
he told me, as l recall,

was that they had Hank--

Hank's name on tapes.

Narrator: To boost his stock price,
Hank Greenberg wanted

to make it look like AlG
had $500 miIIion more than it did.

The original phone call
was to see if we couId get

a Iost portfoIio
from Ron Ferguson.

What happened afterwards,
l don't know.

I-- I didn't-- I wasn't invoIved
in the detaiIs of the transaction.

Narrator: A handwritten deaI memo
laid out the terms:

Gen Re would pretend
to pay AIG $500 miIIion

in two instaIIments

for a phony insurance poIicy.

There was no risk
of paying a cIaim.

For doing the phony deaI,
AlG would pay Gen Re

a $5-miIIion fee.

HouIdsworth: No risk.
No risk for 5 miIIion bucks.

Narrator: Hank Greenberg's
initials, MRG,

were aII over the document.

Monrad: The two peopIe
at AIG who are invoIved

are Hank Greenberg
and Chris MiIton.

AIG was a big company.

I didn't--
I didn't stay focused

on-on-- on the Gen Re
transaction.

Man:
Yes. ( Iaughs )

Graham: That sorta gives
you somethin'--

Man: Yeah, that teIIs you somethin',
doesn't it? Yeah.

Narrator: What was an unfair
advantage to Greenberg

was seen as cooking the books
to AlG's accountants,

PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The firm refused to accept
AlG's financial statements

as Iong as Greenberg
was the CEO.

Hank wasn't pushed out
by... by EIiot.

What happened was
the investigation that foIIowed

and the accountants,
at the end of the day,

said, "We're not taking
that certification anymore."

So you're sitting here
as a board of directors,

saying, "My God,
what does that mean?"

That's what drove the board

deciding that Hank had to go.
And one other issue.

Narrator:
Spitzer demanded

that Hank Greenberg
testify under oath.

However Greenberg's
lawyers advised him

to plead the Fifth,
despite AIG's poIicy

to fire empIoyees who didn't
cooperate with reguIators.

That troubIed a Iot
of peopIe on the board.

They wanted him to say,
you know, "AbsoIuteIy not.

I'm not gonna take the Fifth.
I'm gonna testify."

I think Frank Zarb and I
called Hank

and toId him that the board
had made the decision

that he had to step down.

These are very
serious offenses,

over a biIIion doIIars
of accounting frauds

that AlG has
aIready acknowIedged.

That company was a bIack box
run with an iron fist

by a CEO who did not teII
the pubIic the truth.

That is the probIem.

So does that mean you're moving
toward an indictment?

No, l didn't say that.
It depends what we wiII prove,

or can prove that Mr. Greenberg
knew at the time.

We have powerfuI evidence.
We wiII proceed with it.

lt's too bad that
the attorney generaI

doesn't come out
from behind his office,

where he's protected
against libel.

I wish he'd come out and say
these things as a citizen.

Spitzer attacked Greenberg,

and l saw him
on teIevision one night

saying that Hank Greenberg
was a crook.

Narrator: John Whitehead
had been a war hero,

a Deputy Secretary of State

and the chairman
of GoIdman Sachs.

And his office continued
to leak information

about why he was a crook

without ever any charges
being brought against Hank.

So l said this is something
I have to do something about.

So that's what caused me
to write that first articIe.

"Something has gone
seriously awry

when a state attorney generaI
can go on teIevision

and charge one of America's
best CEOs

and most generous
philanthropists

with fraud before any charges
have been brought,

before the possibIe defendant
has even had a chance

to know what he personaIIy
is alleged to have done

and whiIe the investigation
is still underway."

That was the thing
that set me off.

l had heard of
an incident invoIving

former GoIdman Sachs chairman
John Whitehead.

Mr. Whitehead
had come out pubIicIy

supporting Mr. Greenberg.

After that op-ed was pubIished,

he received a threatening
phone caII from EIiot Spitzer.

He asked me a coupIe
of questions about my articIe.

And then he came
right to the point.

He said, "Mr. Whitehead,"
he said,

"You and I are now at war."

You know, Iook, he had--
he had written an op.

I don't know if I said
those words or not.

If that's the worst I said,
you know, okay, that's--

peopIe are at war with me
all the time.

Interviewer: "You have fired
the first bullet."

"You have
fired the first buIIet.

But beIieve me,
by the end of this war,

l will fire the last one
and you wiII be dead."

WeII, I don't think I said that.
l mean, John White--

l wouldn't say-- l-- l--
Iook, I hope I didn't say that.

He was screaming
into the phone.

He and I had
a heated conversation.

I wiII Ieave it at that.
It was a private conversation.

As l've said,
I've never denied

that l have heated
conversations in private.

lt's... it was me,
it is me, so be it.

And I think sometimes
it's how you get things done.

He said,
"I wiII destroy you."

And those are--
those are strong words.

I had never heard words Iike that
before from anybody.

I couIdn't quite beIieve it.

Narrator: Spitzer's outbursts
became Iegendary to his staff.

When he exploded,
his staff wouId remark

that Spitzer's eviI twin "Irwin"

had dropped in
for an unexpected visit.

In fact, a very
prominent Iawyer

of a very fine company
had a meeting with him.

And this man said to me,

"When l came out of his office,
I swore I saw the words E-V-I-L

across his forehead."

I have no doubt if Hank Greenberg
were stiII running AIG,

AlG would not be
in the fix it's in today.

Today the federaI government
announced it has once again

reworked the bailout
of insurance giant AIG.

Reporter: Now the baiIout
needs a baiIout.

Two months after AIG was given

that first emergency
government Ioan,

it's getting another IifeIine.

Narrator: In 2008
AIG was at the center

of a gIobaI economic meItdown.

Before and after
Greenberg's faII,

AlG had been selling
biIIions of doIIars of insurance

to the worId's biggest banks

to hide their risky gambIes
on home mortgages.

When housing prices coIIapsed,
AlG couldn't pay the claims,

and US taxpayers
paid $183 biIIion

in an effort to save
the gIobaI economy from coIIapse.

According to Greenberg,
the bIame for AIG's faII

and the global meltdown
rested with one reguIator--

EIiot Spitzer.

Spitzer wanted me out.

When poIiticians
invoIve themseIves

in who is going to run
a company and who is not,

we're on dangerous ground
in this country.

Spitzer:
It is the big Iie writ Iarge.

The books were being cooked
at his company.

Hank Greenberg was removed
as CEO by his own board

when they saw
the underIying facts

of what was then one of the
Iargest financiaI frauds in history.

I didn't do anything improper.

Neither did any of the senior team
do anything improper.

Interviewer: You say to peopIe,
if Hank Greenberg had

stiII been there, this wouId
never have happened?

It wouId not have happened.

Spitzer: The very trading practices
that Ied to these

gargantuan obIigations

that taxpayers
are now baiIing out

aII began whiIe he was there:

Very significant
accounting frauds,

reinsurance contracts which
he participated in structuring

that were deemed
by a federaI jury

in Connecticut to be iIIegaI.

Four peopIe went to jaiI.

He was caIIed
an unindicted co-conspirator

by the prosecutor in that case.

So his maintaining
uninvolvement

in the structuraI issues
is simply wrong.

Narrator: Spitzer wanted
to prosecute Greenberg

for financial manipulation,
but was caIIed off the case

by the US Attorney
Michael Garcia.

Spitzer: MichaeI Garcia sent me
an over-the-top letter

when we were going to incIude

significant aIIegations

reIating to Hank Greenberg
in our AlG complaint,

teIIing us to back off.

And it was a moment of--

I don't want to say there was
anything improper

about the Ietter
that Garcia sent,

but he basically said,
"Don't you dare go near this.

We're doing this,"
reIating to Hank Greenberg.

Narrator: MichaeI Garcia never pursued
charges against Greenberg.

Instead he wouId Iead
the prosecution

that Ied to Spitzer's downfaII.

Both Greenberg and Langone

hired PR firms to go after Spitzer.

And Langone hired
a private investigator

to find out what he couId.

Interviewer: I want to move on to the--
to The Emperors CIub.

When did that start,
approximateIy?

- Sometime in '06.
- EarIy '06?

Thereabouts, yeah.

You were fIying about as high
as you couId possibIy be fIying.

- Mm-hmm.
- And this is prior to--

at that point in time,
you were pretty certain

you were gonna be
Governor of New York,

- wouIdn't you say?
- Right. WeII, reaIIy, Iook.

If your point is things were

as good as they couId get,

from a poIiticaI perspective,
I suppose that's right.

And the onIy metaphor

I can think of perhaps is Icarus.

Those whom the gods
would destroy,

they make aII-powerfuI.

A friend of mine
recentIy gave me a T-shirt

that he cIaimed he had
had printed

for investment banker
friends of his.

But he thought I wouId enjoy it,

and maybe I couId
maybe even Iearn from it.

The T-shirt said on its front,
"Hubris is terminaI."

♪ If I ruIed the worId ♪

( Iaughing )

♪ I'd Iove aII the girIs ♪

♪ I Iove 'em,
Iove 'em, baby. ♪

I'm not a kingmaker.

But I'm gonna caII it--
you're gonna win.

- WeII, thank you.
- I'II teII you why.

- l'm glad l came tonight.
- WeII, absoIuteIy, it's done.

Narrator:
In earIy 2006

Spitzer's approvaI ratings
were over 60%.

He had announced
his run for governor

and was predicted to win
in a landslide.

You couId do anything.
You couId punch a toddIer and stiII win.

Narrator: His career
was every poIitician's dream.

No, I was the enforcer.

I mean, I was the kid
who pIayed Ieft fuIIback,

not because I had reaI taIent,
but I took peopIe out.

You pIay hard, you pIay rough
and hopefuIIy you don't get caught.

( Iaughs )

Narrator: Right around this time,
CeciI SuwaI,

the 22-year-old CEO
of The Emperors CIub,

took a phone call
from a new customer.

Though he used the name
"George Fox,"

it was actuaIIy EIiot Spitzer.

The very first time that he caIIed,

I answered the phone.

And he called
and he was whispering.

So I thought it was a prank.

And so the other booker
called and said,

"Okay, I'm ready to start
answering the phones."

So we transferred the phone
to her, and I said,

"Oh, I just spoke with someone.

You know, I'm gonna
let you handle that."

And apparentIy, he saw,
I think, three peopIe in a row,

just back to back that evening.

So I guess it wasn't a prank.

Narrator:
Reading "New York" magazine,

George Fox,
AKA EIiot Spitzer,

cIaims he was drawn to websites
in the cIassified ads,

and while surfing the web,
found The Emperors CIub.

♪ Secret heart ♪

♪ What are you made of? ♪

♪ What are you so afraid of? ♪

♪ CouId it be ♪

♪ Three simpIe words? ♪

SuwaI: When you're sending
a girl on a trip to Chicago

for $30,000 overnight,

it doesn't necessariIy feeI Iike
you're running "prostitution."

It feeIs different.

And so that's where I think
we got a IittIe bit Iost,

as far as the whoIe IegaIity
of the situation.

♪ This buried secret
that you'II try... ♪

Narrator: CeciI SuwaI dropped out
of the University of Miami

when she fell in love
with 60-year-oId Mark Brener,

who owned The Emperors CIub.

Soon they were
running it together.

The night
that they arrested us,

we were just sIeeping
together in our--

you know,
hoIding each other.

We reaIIy just Ioved each other.

Not onIy were we Iovers,

but we aIso had the business,

so everything was
aII wrapped up into one.

And I Iove him, so...
I stiII do.

♪ Come out and share it. ♪

Narrator:
"Cece," as she was caIIed,

decided to take
The Emperors CIub

in a more high-end direction.

My primary focus at the time

was to promote the website
to the right people,

to the right kinds of girIs,

who-- the kind who,
you know, are weII-educated

and come from good famiIies.

The number of diamonds
that the model had

indicated not onIy
her hourIy and daiIy rate,

but also just the general
quaIity of companionship

you couId expect from her.

So if she was
three diamonds,

her daiIy rate
wouId be 10,000

and her hourIy rate
would be 1 ,000.

It went 1000, 1200, 1500,

2100, 3100.

And then the day rates,
you wouId just add a zero.

( Iaughs )
I did that.

With mathematicaI
precision, right?

Tsss!
Whatever!

Just add a zero,
that shouId work.

We had our core girIs
that we immenseIy vaIued,

that reaIIy couId, you know,
bring home the bacon

and then we had
the sort of spiraI effect.

AshIey went for 1 ,000.

She certainIy wasn't the core.

She was definiteIy one
of the girIs, Iike, on the edges,

the sort of peripheries.

We had peopIe
working with us in LA,

Miami, New York,
London, Paris.

They were just aII over the worId.

( bagpipes pIaying )

Narrator: The cIub's
richest cIient in London

was the Duke of Westminster.

One of his dates
was Zana Brazdek.

SuwaI: She drank an entire
bottIe of champagne

and he doesn't drink aIcohoI.

So she got drunk,

and once she
figured out who it was,

went to the reporters
and, you know,

it was sort of a mishap,
if you wiII.

Narrator: Zana had vioIated
the empIoyment standards

of the cIub and had
to be terminated.

♪ Very secret... ♪

SuwaI: I began seeking out
fashion modeIs

and the absoIute highest
financial elite as clients

and sort of putting them together
and then charging a fee.

lnterviewer: So l get it.
So that was the rationaIe then.

In other words
so Iong as you presented it

as a get-together service,

then you weren't doing
anything iIIegaI.

Yeah.

Narrator: The man known as George Fox
became a reguIar cIient.

Interviewer: How often did he meet
with AshIey, or "Kristen"?

WeII, he met her one time

and that was the big
MayfIower experience for him, I guess.

Interviewer: But it was
just that one time?

One time.

Sawyer: How often did you see
Governor Spitzer?

LegaIIy, I am-- I'm not abIe
to answer that question.

Sawyer: Court documents say they may
have had previous encounters.

Narrator:
The court documents didn't say that.

AshIey Dupré Iet the worId beIieve
that she was the "Luv Gov's" girI.

But she was onIy
a one-night stand,

caught on a wiretap
at the MayfIower HoteI

in Washington, DC.

That begged the question:
who else was there?

There was someone
who he enjoyed seeing most.

And she was very pretty
and a very inteIIigent girI,

and not a--
not a fashion modeI.

She had her own career.

And he Iiked to meet
with her frequently.

And she was actuaIIy the first person
who said, "Oh, this is Eliot Spitzer."

Narrator: The escort chose
the name "Angelina."

I discovered who she was
and she agreed to speak to me

so long as l did not
discIose her reaI name,

her face or reveaI her voice.

So I transcribed her interview
and hired this actress

to perform her words.

"AngeIina":
He used the name George Fox

and he booked an hour
at a New York hoteI, Upper East Side.

Um...

that first time
it was very businessIike.

Interviewer: You said he wasn't
that interested in the companionship.

( Iaughing )

Right.

- You're Iaughing.
- It's funny.

'Cause he wasn't at aII interested
in the companionship?

I'm not-- from what I--
from what I heard.

I remember thinking
he was Iike...

I hate to put this crudeIy, um--

a trying-to-get-his-
money's-worth type cIient.

I said to the agency,
you know, l don't--

I don't want to see
that person again.

Interviewer: In what seems to be
a kind of epidemic

of, you know, poIiticaI figures
and sex scandals,

one question is, why...

you know, why hookers?

I mean, why, particuIarIy when
that's, you know, illegal?

Again, I don't want
to deIve into--

certainIy don't want
to speak for others,

and even in my own case,

don't reaIIy want
to speak to that issue,

except to say that
you cave to temptations

in a way that perhaps
seems easier

and... and perhaps is,

in some very twisted way,
Iess damaging.

lnterviewer:
Less damaging how?

Than having affairs
or reIationships

that take on a different tenor.

That have--
I'm sorry, that have what?

ReIationships that take
on a different tenor.

You mean that have
some sort of emotionaI--

Perhaps, yeah.

Narrator: Eliot Spitzer
had taken the first step

into his doubIe Iife.

He had just entered
a worId which formerIy

he had seen onIy from the outside,
as a prosecutor.

In ApriI 2004,
after wiretapping

a sociaI cIub
in Staten IsIand,

Spitzer heIped
the FBI and NYPD bring down

a sophisticated prostitution ring.

He knew how it was done.

He aIso knew his Iife
was about to become

more public
than it had ever been.

Announcer: If we're ever going
to reform AIbany,

it's gonna start
on November 7th,

EIection Day.

Because if one man can stand up
to the powerful, so can you.

He'II ask and you'II answer.

And with one coIIective roar,

we'II wake the state government
right out of its long sleep.

And on that day,
government wiII stop being

that thing we compIain about

and start being that thing
we can do something about.

Jimmy SiegeI: When I started
doing EIiot's campaign ads,

everyone was very enthusiastic
because we aII feIt Iike

we were working for a candidate
that comes aIong once every,

I don't know, 20 years,
you know, 30 years.

I came in with a Iine which was

"Bring some passion
back to AIbany."

New Yorkers don't Iike anger,

but every New Yorker
likes passion.

( upbeat music pIaying )

Narrator: SiIda WaII Spitzer
persuaded her husband

to hire Jimmy SiegeI.

She sensed that SiegeI
had the abiIity

to frame Spitzer's severe
combative style

in an emotionaI
popuIist campaign.

SiegeI: I don't think she signed up
to be a poIiticaI wife,

the wife of a poIitician.

But l think she ended up
reaIIy enjoying the campaign.

She was amazing to work with,

and one of the nicest peopIe.

And she reaIIy cared.

She reaIIy beIieved in him
and beIieved in this cause.

Pre-Barack Obama,
you couId make the case

that EIiot was the preeminent
Democratic politician

in America at that point.

In the poIiticaI worId, it was
kind of Iike working for a rock star.

( crowd cheering )

- ( fanfare )
- Announcer: Ladies and gentIemen,

I present to you the Governor-EIect
of the State of New York,

the HonorabIe EIiot Spitzer.

( audience appIauding )

Narrator: Taking a record
69%¤ of the vote,

Eliot Spitzer had a popular
mandate to make big changes.

Together Iet's buiId
that one New York,

Iet's waIk toward
that better day.

Thank you, and God bIess
the great state of New York.

Constantine: Here he was,
he's Governor of New York,

he's king of the worId,

he's the future President
of the United States.

EIiot Spitzer is going
to fix up this state

and then he's going to go to
Washington and do the same thing

that he just did for New York
for the United States.

That was in everybody's mind.

Spitzer: PeopIe had said
to me before l won,

"Do to AIbany what you did
to WaII Street."

And we tried.
We went at it

with a determination that was aIien
to the cuIture of AIbany.

Narrator: The CapitoI buiIding in AIbany
was a monument to corruption.

America's most expensive
government building

was Iike the IegisIature--

a bog of waste,
doubIe-deaIing and graft.

The gargoyIes on the waIIs
haunted the place.

The maze of grand stairways
navigated by speciaI interests

robbed Iawmakers
of any sense of perspective.

Spitzer:
It's Iike an Escher.

You don't know if you're going
up or down, Ieft or right.

The mind gets turned upside down
inside that building.

Fred Dicker: I think over the years
that some peopIe have appropriateIy

seen it as a metaphor
for the Iabyrinthian nature

of New York poIitics.

Radio announcer: It's time for
"Live from the State Capitol,"

with Fred Dicker.

Narrator: Fred Dicker,
of the "New York Post,"

was a 25-year veteran
in AIbany.

WeII, this is Fred Dicker
Iive at the state capitoI.

WeIcome.
What a beautifuI day...

Narrator: DeepIy conservative,
Dicker was proud

of calling himself
"an equaI-opportunity prick,"

attacking whomever
came into office.

Dicker: Eliot Spitzer,
who didn't suffer fooIs IightIy,

was treating a separate
branch of government,

the IegisIature that couId
bIock him at every turn,

as if he couId just
push 'em around

Iike they were
WaII Street executives.

WeII, they pushed back
and they pushed back hard.

Narrator: The man
who pushed back hardest

was RepubIican
Senate Leader Joe Bruno.

A charming
oId-schooI deaImaker,

he wasn't much interested
in Spitzer's reforms.

Bruno: He thought that he reaIIy
was sort of the Second Coming

and that he was going
to get everybody

to do what he wanted to do.

I think he started
thinking dictatoriaIIy

aImost, you know,
in his own mind.

It wasn't a cakewaIk.

It was not going to be as easy
as building a legal case,

presenting it to a fact-finder
and then you get a resoIution.

This is a poIiticaI process,
which is much more compIicated.

It's three-dimensionaI chess.

( foIk music pIaying )

Narrator:
Chess was not Joe Bruno's game.

A former boxing champ,

he knew when to duck,
when to punch back,

and sometimes
how to fix a fight.

Yeah.

Narrator: In the Senate,
he had an annual

discretionary fund
of $85 million

to spread around the state
Iike poIiticaI fertiIizer.

Yeah.

Narrator:
By 2007, the FBI

was investigating him
for corruption.

Word was that Joe wanted
a gracefuI way out.

Bruno:
He toId me, repeatedIy:

"We're partners.
We're gonna get things done."

But he didn't know
how to negotiate,

he didn't know
how to compromise.

Narrator: Spitzer attacked
AIbany head-on.

Early, he won
some big victories,

but to get his
first budget passed,

he had to pIay the game
Joe Bruno's way--

trading favors
in backroom deaIs.

When we did the budget,
when I sat with him--

this went off, this went off,
this came on, this came on,

we shook hands, we come--
it got done face to face.

FrankIy, he got criticized

for caving in to some
of our needs.

He got panned for that
in the press.

Narrator: Spitzer responded
by insisting on the very thing

that AIbany poIs despised--

open, rationaI debates.

Thank you to everybody
for being here,

in what is now,
I think, our fifth

in what will be
a continuing effort to meet

to forge consensus on issues,
raise issues, frame an agenda...

Narrator: Spitzer wanted debates
to be Iike his father's dinner tabIe.

But Joe Bruno was the turd
in EIiot's punchbowI.

But, Governor,
l mean, again,

I say this very respectfuIIy,

that is nuts!

( audience Iaughing )

What he wanted was for you
to just sit there

Iike pupiIs with a teacher,
nod your head

as he was Iecturing you
and pontificating.

WeII, government
doesn't work that way.

You responded--

Joe, I'm now gonna teII you
something very simpIe--

this is my room;
you're not gonna now deraiI us

from a conversation about energy,
which we were just having.

- This has been a usefuI--
- I thought you'd concIuded.

And I caIIed him severaI times.

I said, "What on earth
is the matter with you?"

You understand that you have
to have the cooperation

of the IegisIature, both houses.

He said, "WeII, we're at war.
This is a war."

And he said it Iike
a big overgrown kid.

There'II be-- there'II be a few
tackIed bodies on the fieId, so be it.

He was eIected to get
to AIbany and turn around

the 30-year decIine
of the state,

to reform state government
and do something

about the economy,
which for decades has been Iike,

you know, on a sIow downward
spiraI in New York state.

He had a temper.
He had this passion.

lt was, when focused
and weII-conceived in its execution,

it's what, you know, the peopIe
wanted to have happen.

♪ Well,
I'm a steamroIIer, babe ♪

♪ I'm bound to roII
all over you... ♪

Yeah, weII, I was toId

that Governor Spitzer
had just gotten off the phone

with Jim Tedisco,
the AssembIy Minority Leader,

and had said to him,
"You'd better toe the Iine

of what I'm trying to do here
or be subjected

to the governor's wrath,"

which he had described as being
a "fucking steamroIIer."

So James TayIor was on my mind
and he has a famous song.

It was a throwaway Iine
honestIy meant in good humor

with Jim Tedisco.

And frankIy, I said,
"You know what?

We're not trying to be the steamroIIer."
It was in that context.

When he said,
"I'm an effing steamroIIer,"

I mean he meant it!

Narrator: He took on his own party
when he bitterIy opposed

their choice for state controIIer.

So he had both houses
of the legislature,

one from his party,
one from the other party

who are now sitting up
and taking notice

that whoa, this guy--
this is not a guy

who pIays weII with others.

Democrats wouId come
into this room and say

they couIdn't stand
the governor.

Democrats were saying
they loved Joe Bruno,

the RepubIican, because he
was taking on the governor.

A steamroIIer is no match
for that baby.

I can teII you that right now.

( engine revving )

♪ Now I'm a napaIm
bomb, baby ♪

♪ Just guaranteed
to bIow your mind... ♪

Dopp: Some of those
oId-time poIs, you know,

reaIIy understood
human nature.

And I think EIiot's
view of it was

we wouId force them
to do the right thing,

but it's not the way
the system is set up.

Again, I don't want to just say
you're wrong, but you are.

We...

Dopp: I'd say to him,
"Boss, this system is set up

so that onIy incrementaI
change is possible."

And he'd be Iike,
"God damn it, no it's not."

And the resuIt that it produced
is he began to go around

Mr. Bruno to specific members
of the State Senate.

Mr. Bruno took that to be an act
of, you know, a hostile act.

He quickIy
announced pubIicIy

he's going to take me
out as Ieader.

I'm history

and the RepubIican majority
was going to cease to exist.

He was going to take us out.

I said something Iike,
"You know,

I've been threatened by hoods
and thugs my whole life.

You're just an amateur.

If you think you're gonna
bother me, you just don't."

Dopp: We knew that folks
wouId come down hard on us

if we ever stumbIed.

He said, "You're damn right.

If we ever faII,
they'II kick us in the nuts."

Which is why the downfaII
was so shocking.

Interviewer: Did it begin to haunt you
as something that you thought

was possibIe, that you were
gonna get caught?

Or did you--
that didn't even--

at a certain point,
that didn't even occur to you?

No, of course it does.

Of course it does.

And you just deaI with it.

How did you deaI with it?

That's the one--

those are the mysteries
of the human mind, I suppose.

I-- I don't think I can
answer that question,

because I don't think I know.

"AngeIina":
I got a caII months Iater.

And this-- this was kind
of a Iast-minute thing.

This was at the WaIdorf HoteI.

He showed up
with this basebaII cap on,

like, clearly trying
not to be recognized.

And l'm like, you know,
"Don't teII me it's that guy again."

In that second meeting, you know,
I was rather pushy with him.

I was Iike, "We're gonna sit
and have a chit-chat

and have a nice
IittIe date here."

And it ended up being
a fun coupIe of hours.

I thought it was EIiot Spitzer,

you know, but I couIdn't
be absolutely sure.

So I made a point to Iook out
for him in the papers.

And it was at that point that l said
to the peopIe who ran the agency,

"You know who this guy is,
don't you?"

And they said no.

He was hiding.

He didn't want anyone
to know who he was.

He was extremeIy paranoid.

He knew that his entire
poIiticaI career was on the Iine.

And ultimately vice
just took over virtue.

He couId not controI himseIf.

l don't know,
I just remember one time

he was trying to book
an appointment.

And I just remember
thinking to myself,

I was Iike, "This man
is so paranoid.

He's just going
to attract a situation."

You know, because he was
just asking for it.

It's Iike, "Listen, man,
if you are so worried

about what you're doing,
don't do it."

I mean, just getting a deposit
from him was an issue.

In order to book
an appointment out of town,

you had to pay upfront.

So he wouId have to go through
sending these money orders in.

We're Iike, "Okay, why don't
you just deposit 'X' amount

in the bank if you want
to meet her by tomorrow

and we're not gonna receive
payment by tomorrow."

And he's Iike,
"I can't go to the bank."

I never acknowIedged
who he was,

but he--
he knew that I knew.

He started to request me.

I saw him outside of New York,

in PaIm Beach, Puerto Rico,

DaIIas, Washington.

He was aIways very guarded
about what he would say.

And-- I mean, I wouId insist

on having a conversation
before we started.

I'm Iike-- I'm totaIIy
taking advantage of this.

'Cause he's so smart
and interesting.

I wouId, Iike,
have my IittIe rants

about what was wrong with New
York City that needed to be fixed.

And he-- he Iistened.

Bruno: When I saw him
out with his wife,

with his chiIdren,
he had it aII together.

You know, what was strange
with EIiot Spitzer

was he could be pleasant
and charming and act very caring.

When my wife was reported
as being seriously ill,

he caIIed me severaI times.

And this is right in the height
of some of our worst exchanges--

couIdn't have been
any more pIeasant.

But when he came after me,
in what was caIIed Troopergate,

then it was apparent that this man
reaIIy intended to destroy me.

Narrator:
In the Spitzer-Bruno war,

the biggest battIe
was Troopergate,

so-caIIed because
of the way state troopers

may have been misused
for poIiticaI purposes.

lt was an attack on Bruno
that wouId boomerang on Spitzer.

lt was a Sunday and l was
reading the IocaI newspaper,

the AIbany "Times Union."

And there was a story
on the front page

and the suggestion was
that Bruno had misused

state helicopters
and other state traveI

for personal
and poIiticaI purposes.

We reIeased pubIic documents
on use of the aircraft.

It turned into a story,
a one-day story.

But in a briIIiant, I think,
communications move

by Mr. Bruno's peopIe,
it was portrayed as,

"Oh, those are records
that aren't normaIIy reIeased.

Oh, there's spying going on.
There's dirty tricks going on."

The aIIegations
are that the executive

conspired to use the state poIice,

state resources,
to IiteraIIy spy

on a coIIeague
in government.

I was toId, "No, don't comment.
Don't-- don't respond."

And I kept saying,
"We've got to respond.

We're Iosing badIy in
the pubIic-reIations capacity

by not standing up and saying
how ridicuIous

these aIIegations are."

Why wouIdn't he answer
questions under oath?

Because of--

What's the expIanation
for that, Governor?

Fred, I--

And was it on the advice
of counseI in your agency?

- Fred--
- In the executive chamber?

Was he advised not to do it?

Fred-- Fred, I'm--
as I've said very cIearIy,

the investigation was one
where they asked for information--

- You keep changing the subject.
- l'm not changing--

The question is why--

Okay, Fred, I've answered
the question. Yes, Josh.

Dicker: It was a very intense
press conference

where Spitzer was trying
to cIaim he had nothing to do

with Troopergate and he hardIy
knew anything about it.

Narrator: Spitzer insisted
the leak had been

Darren Dopp's idea
and suspended him.

But in fact, he had told
Dopp to reIease the records

about Bruno
and suggested how.

The famous quote
that you're referring to is,

"Shove it up his ass
with a red-hot poker."

Narrator: Investigations
enguIfed Spitzer's office

and created the pubIic perception
that he'd abused his power.

In reaIity, the controversy
was a smokescreen

that hid Bruno's corruption.

The guy Bruno was going
to basically fundraisers

and then, you know, making sure
he made a two-second call

to, you know, some guy
in the eIectricians' union

so he couId say, "No, this was,
you know, state business."

As far as I'm concerned,
it's a compIete fraud and a hoax,

you know, with one of the most
corrupt state capitaIs.

"We're investigating
whether or not

there was a Ieak to a reporter.
Oh my God!

A crime
has been committed!"

You know, it's the most--
the biggest joke.

Narrator: A carefuI examination
of Bruno's travel logs

reveaIed that state troopers
had ferried Bruno

on extended visits to see
Spitzer's poIiticaI enemies,

including a trip to CV Starr,
the office of Hank Greenberg.

Interviewer: Do you recaII
Senator Joe Bruno coming to see you?

Yeah, Joe Bruno wouId come
from time to time to see me.

They're aIways trying
to raise money.

When he came,
did you taIk Spitzer?

I don't recaII.

I don't think that--
if we did, it wasn't--

it wasn't a major topic
of our conversation.

Narrator: Spitzer's enemies
were beginning

to taIk to each other.

To push the attack
on Spitzer,

Joe Bruno hired
a poIiticaI operative

who reveIed in his reputation

as the country's most notorious
dirty trickster, Roger Stone.

Here you have Mr. CIean,
the Sheriff of WaII Street,

someone for whom ethics
is his signature issue

charging that Bruno is...
is dirty.

This is a tyrant,
a megaIomaniac,

a wouId-be dictator who reaIIy
beIieves that you--

in government, you somehow
either have the right,

by getting a Iot of votes
or being born to priviIege,

to just issue orders
and peopIe do what you say.

Stone was this, Iike,
legendary figure.

He had his hair dyed.

He was a "swinger,"
in IiteraI terms.

And the reporters,
they were Iike--

they thought of him
as Iike a piece of work.

But they had, Iike,
affection for him,

because he didn't make
any bones about the fact

that he was such
a fIawed character.

Even in his own
RepubIican ranks,

he was Iike, regarded
as, Iike, a maverick,

if not gadfIy, if not Iunatic.

But crazy-Iike-a-fox
kind of a guy, I guess.

Sure, I beIieve in a gonzo
brand of politics,

because you have to get--
you've gotta get peopIe's attention.

In a worId where there's
so much competition

for their attention
poIiticaIIy,

and then there's
the rest of life:

sports, food, entertainment,
whatever it is.

You're competing for all
of that, because poIitics,

Iike aII those other things,
is entertainment.

Narrator:
In 1996, Stone was fired

from the DoIe
presidentiaI campaign

when it was reveaIed
that he and his wife

had marketed themseIves
as swingers.

"We are seeking simiIar
couples," said the ad,

"or exceptionaI muscuIar,
weII-hung singIe men."

But that didn't stop Roger.

An eIegant dresser
with a taste for martinis,

he reinvented himself
as a charming secret agent

with a Iicense to kiII.

He reveIed in the body poIitic
and his own bodybuilding.

Just beIow his neckIine,

he bore a tattoo of his hero
Richard Nixon.

Just a few weeks
after Bruno hired Stone...

( phone ringing )

...a mysterious voice message
was left on the phone

of Spitzer's
80-year-oId father.

( beeps )

Man: This is a message
for Bernard Spitzer.

You wiII be subpoenaed to testify

before the Senate Committee
on Investigations

on your shady campaign Ioans.

If you resist the subpoena,

you wiII be arrested
and brought to AIbany.

And there's not a goddamned
thing your phony,

psycho, piece-of-shit son

can do about it.

Bernie, your phony Ioans
are about to catch up with you.

You wiII be forced
to teII the truth,

and the fact that
your son's a pathoIogicaI Iiar

- wiII be known to aII.
- ( clicks, beeps )

We spent some time and effort
to see where it came from,

and it came from an apartment
that had been rented

by either him or a company
that he owned.

And the voice, we were abIe
to compare from the voice--

the message he'd Ieft
on the voicemail--

to appearances
he had made on TV,

and we got a voice anaIyst to say,
"Yeah, it's the same voice."

And people who knew him said,
"Yeah, that's Roger Stone's voice."

The tape did sound
eerily like me.

UItimateIy, private investigators
that l retained

determined that there
had been a tap on my phone

at 40 CentraI Park South.

I now beIieve that a rogue unit
of the New York State PoIice,

under the direction
of EIiot Spitzer,

who understood that we had
jujitsued him on Troopergate,

was monitoring my caIIs.
In other words,

I think the tape
that was reIeased was--

was pasted together.
It was a-- it was a--

it was a put-up job.

The FBI caIIed my dad's office

and asked to come by.

Narrator:
On September 6th, 2007,

Agent Katzman from the FBI

visited Bernard Spitzer
at his Manhattan offices.

The questions
didn't focus much

on what Roger Stone had done
or allegedly done

or the issues reIating
to the phone caII.

It was more about me.

Did you think anything
about that in retrospect?

WeII, in retrospect,
I-- it has crossed my mind.

And it crossed your mind
in what way, since then?

WeII, wondering whether

this was part of the investigation
that led to my downfall.

The FBI showed up
at my apartment.

They just showed up at 8:00 a.m.

And they said,
"We want to taIk to you.

We think you know
what this is about."

Agent-- Agent Katzman
was the guy's name.

He-- he wasn't very nice.

Narrator: Stone said that the FBI
also contacted him

and wanted to taIk.

Stone: We could never
actuaIIy get a confirmation

about what they wanted
to taIk about.

And I decIined to have that interview
on the advice of my attorney.

Narrator: Bruno fired Stone
because of the phone caII.

But Stone confirms
that he was then hired

by weaIthy,
motivated RepubIicans

to stay on the Spitzer detaiI.

A few months Iater Rich Baum,
secretary to the governor,

received an emaiI from Stone's
consuIting company.

The question is

how did the investigation
of Spitzer begin?

The government cIaims it spotted

a suspicious wire transfer
of severaI thousand doIIars.

What was interesting to me
is that the whole thing

comes from a singIe
money transfer

that sort of sent up a red fIag,

a suspicious activity report.

Every day there are thousands
of these suckers filed.

Narrator: The FederaI CIearinghouse
receives 3400

suspicious activity reports,
or SARs, every day.

Someone had to have taken

a very personaI interest
in this particuIar transaction

and kind of shepherded it
through the process

in order for it to be the subject
of a lot of attention

and uItimateIy be
the basis for a case.

Narrator: The SAR was fiIed
by North Fork Bank

after Spitzer asked the bank
to keep his name off

a $5,000 wire to something
called QAT Consulting.

Barrett:
My understanding is that

they didn't even know
what QAT ConsuIting was

and that they caIIed
Morgenthau's office.

Narrator: Robert Morgenthau,
the Manhattan District Attorney,

was surprised when
the federaI government

came Iooking for heIp on how
to prosecute escort services.

The feds just didn't do
prostitution cases.

They aIso naiveIy asked

if it was common
to prosecute customers.

The answer from
Morgenthau's office was no.

Barrett: Once they figured out
it was a prostitution ring,

then it seems to me you're
at a juncture in the road here.

Once you reaIize

that it's just a governor
with a hard-on,

the most you're gonna
get out of this

is a news story
and a resignation.

I think the government
has better things to do.

Narrator: The US Attorney
for the Southern District of New York

was MichaeI Garcia, the man
who had tangIed with Spitzer

over the investigation
of Hank Greenberg.

NormaIIy focused on terrorists,
mobsters and WaII Street,

Garcia's office was suddenIy
spending enormous resources

to go after a smaII
escort service.

Garcia was a RepubIican.

Was this a poIiticaI hit?

The Spitzer investigation
began at the very moment

when the Justice Department
was involved

in a huge scandaI of its own.

And the issue was whether
the Justice Department

was hiring and firing US Attorneys
based on politics,

and whether it was going after
powerfuI Democrats

in order to get rid of them.

The only banking activity
that seemed to interest them

was EIiot Spitzer's
banking activity, you know,

as we sunk deeper and deeper

into this horrendous
banking scandal

that's convuIsing the country.

Suspicious banking activity
by Eliot Spitzer

and the United States
government was on the traiI.

Narrator: After notifying
superiors in Washington,

the US Attorney's office
obtained permission

to wiretap the phones and emaiIs
of The Emperors CIub.

The night before,
it's Iike 8:00 p.m.

We're both sitting
at our computers.

And aII of this information,
Iike our cIient information,

is being sucked out
of the computers.

And we're Iike, "Oh my goodness,
we have hackers."

We downIoad some kinda,
Iike, encryption software,

and try to, Iike, save our
information, whatever is left.

And then we go to bed as usuaI.

And 6:30 a.m.--
bang bang bang.

It's the FBI.

Okay, shock.

( knock on door )

SuwaI:
I was certainIy unprepared

to just be woken up
out of my sleep

at 6:30 a.m. and, you know,
have the FBl come

in their buIIetproof vests

asking me if there are
firearms in the house.

You know, I mean, just--
and all l'm thinking,

I'm Iike, "That cash is gonna
get us in trouble."

Narrator: Cece and Mark Brener
had nearIy a miIIion doIIars

in cash in a safe in their cIoset.

The guy came in,
one of the FBI men.

He came in and he was Iike,

"We are closing
Emperors CIub VIP."

And I was Iike, "Oh oh!

My God, my stomach,
my everything, my baby."

It was just surreaI.

l mean,
that was Iike my chiId.

The essence of what
went on here was,

in federal-law terms,
a vioIation of the Mann Act.

Narrator:
Known as the "white sIave act,"

the Mann Act made it a crime
to transport women

across state Iines
for immoraI purposes.

That is why federaI prosecutors
were particuIarIy interested

in out-of-town dates
with "AngeIina" and AshIey.

In recent years, it's used to go after
child-prostitution rings.

It is never used to prosecute
johns or customers.

Scott Horton: We have to Iook
at these statutes

in terms of standards
of enforcement.

ls this statute in fact
being enforced that way

uniformIy across the country?

And the answer is it is not!

Narrator: Why then did the Department
of Justice want the case?

After months
of investigating Spitzer,

MichaeI Garcia's deputies
suddenIy sent emaiIs

to Washington seeking support
for using the Mann Act.

Wiretaps reveaIed
many customers

who paid for escorts
all over the world.

But Garcia's office
was onIy interested

in prosecuting one
of the customers.

They pressured me--
Iike they do on TV.

And they said, "We know
you worked for this agency

and we want you
to Iook at some pictures

and teII us if you
recognize anyone."

And I did that

and EIiot Spitzer was in there.

And l said yes, l recognized
him and yes, I had seen him.

And I said, "ShouId I maybe
have a Iawyer?"

And they said, "WeII, we want
to keep this confidentiaI."

The main thing
about that meeting

was that they were
very insistent

and pressuring me
in an uncomfortabIe way,

you know, for me to admit
that I had sex with EIiot Spitzer.

You know, why him
and why not anyone eIse?

All you have to do is
Iay this case side by side

with the DC Madam case
and Iook at the way

the prosecutors behaved
in Washington

and the way they
behaved in New York.

And it's Iike night and day.

They're constantIy
making clear that,

"No, we're just after the madam
and we're after the business.

We are not interested
in the customers."

Narrator: In the DC Madam case,
two high-profile Republicans

were discovered using an escort service
in Washington DC.

Senator David Vitter had
actuaIIy ordered prostitutes

during roII-caII votes
when he was a congressman.

He apologized,
but he did not resign.

Horton: David Vitter is stiII sitting
in the Senate. He never Ieft.

Nor was there ever
any pressure brought

by the federaI government
for him to leave.

And what's the difference
between these cases?

One case invoIves
two prominent RepubIicans

and the other invoIves
a Democrat.

That's the onIy difference, frankIy.

Narrator: The question remained:
how did the U.S. government

first find out about Spitzer?

Was the FBI tipped off
by one of Spitzer's enemies?

Stone:
I was in a private cIub--

an aduIt-themed cIub in Miami
caIIed Miami VeIvet.

There was a woman
sitting at the bar.

I was sitting at the bar.

And we began a conversation
and I asked her what she did.

And she said she was
professionaIIy a caII girI,

but she wasn't working
this particular night.

I said, "WeII, you know,
what, who are your--

what kind of cIients
do you have?"

You know, she had athIetes.
She had captains of industry.

She had prominent businessmen.

She had poIiticians
and so on.

And I said, "WeII, Iike who?"
She said, you know,

"I recentIy-- I was--
I aImost had a date

with the Governor
of New Jersey."

l said, "Jon Corzi--?
You had a date with Jon Corzine?"

She said, "Who's he?
I had a date with EIiot Spitzer."

l said, "No, Eliot Spitzer
is the Governor of New York,

not New Jersey."

She said, "Yeah weII,
l'm not into politics."

l said, "Was there
anything eIse notabIe?"

And she said,
"WeII, he was kinda weird."

I said, "WeII, what do you mean?"
She said, "Well, he kept--

he had these black knee socks
and he kept them on the whoIe time."

So I ask you: what kind of guy
fucks with his socks on?

( chuckIes )
The bIack-socks thing isn't true.

He wore Iow-cut socks

and he took them off.

Stone: The next day I discussed it
with my attorneys

and l asked them
to contact the FBI

and teII them what we knew
in a formal letter.

Now I don't cIaim

that this was a reveIation
to the federaI investigators.

It may have been a piece of a puzzIe
that they were putting together.

I may have started an investigation
in an area they weren't looking at.

I have no idea.
And I haven't made any cIaim.

Narrator: The FBI insists
that it never received

the Ietter from Stone's attorney.

( horn honking )

Spitzer: It wasn't an addiction.
It was a desire,

the need to find an outIet
that was not within

the very confined worId
that l had been living.

Interviewer: Had you found
a way to compIeteIy

compartmentaIize it so that
it was this over here, and--

Yeah yeah.

And was that the--
was that the--

the beauty of it, in a way,
as you saw it?

Look, l don't want to go there,
but it-- it did not affect governance.

And in fact, I can say
with reaI certainty

in February, March of '08,

peopIe were beginning to say,
"Hey, wait a minute,

their strategy is working."

We were winning
the poIiticaI races,

getting the economic
agenda in place.

People were beginning to see
that the chess game was pIaying out.

- ( appIause )
- Spitzer: Join me in good faith.

l will meet you
with an open hand.

For we will realize
this opportunity best

if we work together
in a spirit of cooperation.

( appIause )

Man:
We'd been through so much.

And we had had a very successfuI
State of the State address,

we had a great
budget announcement

and we reaIIy thought
we were turning the corner.

ln fact, we were at a bar
and one of the senior advisors

to the governor
raised his gIass,

in what l'm sure was
the moment that jinxed us aII,

and said,
"To turning the corner!"

WeII, we didn't turn the corner.

Man:
This prostitution business,

referred to as
The Emperors CIub VIP,

was an internationaI
organization...

Narrator: On March 6th,
the Department of Justice

brought charges against the four
peopIe who ran The Emperors Club.

Prosecutor: In addition with
the prostitution offenses,

they are charged
with money Iaundering...

Narrator: Two things caught
the attention of reporters:

the high prices paid
to the escorts

and the highIy unusuaI appearance,
in a prostitution case,

of members of the pubIic-corruption unit
of the Department of Justice.

Interviewer: When did you
first have an inclination

that you were gonna have
a serious poIiticaI probIem?

The Thursday

when it was announced

that a case had been made

against The Emperors CIub.

Interviewer: And when that came out,
what did you think?

I said this is an issue.

Narrator: The FBI wiretaps
of The Emperors Club

intercepted more than 5,000 phone caIIs
and text messages

and more than 6,000 emaiIs.

They knew where I had been.
They had dates and times.

On one trip, the booker and I were
texting back and forth.

You know, Iike she wouId say,

"He's there now
and he's ready to see you."

And I wouId say, "Okay,
I'm heading over there."

They said, "Look,
we aIready know aII about you.

We know that you were
at this hoteI at this time

and 10 minutes Iater
you were here.

We know this."

Narrator: The Iist of charges
against The Emperors Club,

the affidavit,
was surprisingIy detaiIed.

As a piece of writing,
it was crafted Iike a mystery story,

fuII of cIues.

lt teased the reader
with a few sentences each

on CIients One to Eight;

and then five riveting pages
on Client Number Nine

and his one date with "Kristen,"

otherwise known as AshIey Dupré,

at the MayfIower HoteI
in Washington, DC.

The affidavit was filled
with aII sorts of cruciaI detaiIs

that aIIowed reporters
to go off

and find out
who CIient Nine was.

Barrett:
"The Times" won a PuIitzer

because they went down
and, you know,

they did things like they
went to every major hoteI

in Washington and figured out
who was in that suite,

in which hoteI, 'cause they didn't know
which hotel he was in.

Narrator: The affidavit was fuII
of steamy sexual banter

and concerns about whether
the cIient was difficuIt

or even safe.

Was the writing meant
to convict the accused

or embarrass the cIient?

An FBI guy with sandy-coIored
hair and a mustache

brought up something
from the wiretap.

He said, "We heard that sometimes
you were asked to bring sex toys."

And the guy kept pressing me.

It was Iike he wanted to get
some kind of information

about some kinky sex stuff
or something juicy that happened.

You know, Iike the governor's
into whatever.

And I fIat out said,
"I don't see how any of that

is reIevant to your
investigation to prosecute

what you're trying to prosecute."

There was nothing.

Maybe some sexy Iingerie
or something,

but that was aII I ever took.

There were a number
of leaks in this case,

most obviously
to "The New York Times."

But a coupIe of New York
TV stations aIso were on to the story.

And the AIbany "Times Union"
got sent

the criminal affidavit
in The Emperors CIub case.

And its reporter
was toId specificaIIy

to Iook at CIient Nine
and told that

he was a weaIthy New York
public official.

Narrator: EIiot Spitzer was never
charged with any crime.

So you reaIIy have
to wonder whether or not

the purpose of the investigation
at some point became the Ieak.

Some breaking news
this afternoon.

"The New York Times"
is reporting

that Governor EIiot Spitzer
of New York

has informed some of his
senior administration officiaIs

that he had been invoIved
in a prostitution ring.

I recessed the conference.

We went into my office,
the whoIe conference and had the TV on.

Reporter: Cheers erupted on
trading fIoors around the city

as word spread of Governor
Spitzer's stunning downfall.

Some traders reportedIy broke out

bottIes of champagne to ceIebrate.

Narrator:
They weren't the onIy ones.

Four diners at the 21 CIub

cIaimed that they spotted
Dick Grasso,

Hank Greenberg
and Ken Langone

celebrating Spitzer's fall
with a magnum of champagne.

Woman: WouId you say that you were
surprised by this news?

Not at all.
I had no doubt

about his Iack of character
and integrity.

It wouId onIy be a matter of time.

I didn't think he'd do it this soon.
Or the way he did it.

Barrett:
We do know that Ken Langone,

you know, toId CNBC shortIy

after aII of this broke

that he had a friend
who was in the post office.

I know for sure he went
himself to a post office

and bought $2800 worth of maiI orders
to send to the hooker.

- How do you know that?
- I know it.

Barrett: Why is CNBC sticking
a mike underneath his mouth?

Because he was

enemy number one.

Spitzer's now-- it's his turn.

And the guy is in back of him,
you know, when you wait in Iine.

The guy's in back of him
waiting to buy a money order,

and Spitzer goes up and buys
$1800 worth of money orders.

Okay, so you're saying that
he said he had a friend

who stood behind EIiot Spitzer
in the post-office Iine,

overheard him sending
a money order for a prostitute.

I mean, this is
too amazing to be true.

lt was totally coincidental
that somebody teIIs me this

an hour before that.

That's God at work,
I'm teIIing you.

Here's God saying
here's a IittIe bit more for you.

Barrett: Unless you think
Ken Langone has friends

who caII him from post offices,
my hunch would be

that it was someone cIoser
to him than a friend.

Interviewer:
What do you mean

"someone cIoser to him
than a friend"?

An employee,
a consuItant, a--

you know, somebody
that he hired to be there.

That wouId be my hunch.

But it's, you know,
do I know that?

Is he gonna teII us that?
He said it was a friend.

Why he voIunteered
this information--

he just couIdn't stop
himseIf from crowing.

l didn't have any
private eyes on him.

I didn't have any dirty-tricks guys
on him; none of that.

"I knew before the rest
of you guys."

WeII, how did he know?

I don't know, but I did discuss it
with the governor

and the governor feIt Iike
he was under surveiIIance.

He thought he was
under surveiIIance.

( siren waiIing )

The day I gave my proffer,

l walked out
of the courthouse

and there were journaIists
suddenIy everywhere.

I went straight to the bar.
I had a coupIe of drinks.

And I was sitting in the bar
and a news reporter

sat down next to me
and said, you know,

"What do you think
of the EIiot Spitzer news?"

And I was Iike, "Oh my God,
they've got me aIready!"

I was, Iike, freaking out.

Narrator:
The very day the news broke,

there were messages
on "AngeIina's" phone

from reporters
who wanted to taIk.

Mysteriously, they knew her
reaI name and her phone number,

information only available
to the government investigation.

"AngeIina" Ieft town
and never returned the caIIs.

( techno music pIaying )
♪ How Iong, how Iong ♪

♪ How long,
how Iong... ♪

I do not beIieve that poIitics,
in the Iong run,

is about individuaIs.

It is about ideas,
the pubIic good

and doing what is best
for the state of New York.

But I have disappointed
and failed to live up

to the standard
I expected of myseIf.

I must now dedicate
some time

to regain the trust
of my family.

I wiII not be taking questions.
Thank you very much.

I wiII report back to you
in short order.

- Thank you very much.
- ♪ How Iong, how Iong ♪

♪ How Iong, how Iong. ♪

StiIes:
Everybody was just in shock.

l was angry
and that was the Iast thing

I ever wouId have expected
of him to have done.

My heart broke for-- for SiIda.

I knew SiIda very weII
and his family.

And they'd aIways seemed
to have such a strong

reIationship and a bond.

Dopp: He was Iike, you know,
so straitIaced as to be,

Iike, IaughabIy straitIaced.

At some sociaI event, EIiot said that
he had met PeneIope Cruz.

And at the time she was
the hottest star out there.

And I said, "Wow, that girI
is amazing, isn't she?

She's dynamite, no?"
And his response to me is,

"I couId see how some peopIe
might think she's alluring."

And I just said to him,

l said, well, "Wow,
what are you taIking about?"

But yeah, that was Eliot.
That's why this notion that,

you know, there wouId be
someone other than SiIda

was such a shock.

Interviewer: Did you Iearn
something about your wife

that you didn't expect in this--

as a resuIt of this experience?

l wish l hadn't
needed to Iearn it,

but I Iearned that the depths
of her forgiveness

are deeper than are...

ever to be caIIed for.

Narrator:
After the initiaI announcement,

Spitzer considered his options.

Despite her pain,
his wife encouraged him

to stay on as governor.

CaIIs went out to the Ieaders
of the State House and Senate.

No one wouId support him.

The reservoir
of goodwiII was empty.

The combative styIe

Ieft him without friends
and defenders in the end.

Spitzer: The onIy reIevant
question really was

what can I do to minimize

the continued pain to my famiIy?

And it seemed to me that

to fight to retain
the office at that point

wouId make it even Ionger,
uglier, more painful

than to take the aIternate path.

So I resigned.

From those to whom much is given,
much is expected.

I have been given much:
the Iove of my famiIy,

the faith and trust
of the peopIe of New York

and the chance
to Iead the state.

I think I was in shock first

because I saw SiIda
standing there.

We've seen so many
women standing there,

behind their man.

And many women just feIt,
you know, this is enough.

Narrator: Intrigued by the cuIturaI
issues of the scandaI,

performance artist Karen FinIey
wrote a one-woman pIay

about the intersection
between sex and state.

The pubIic performance
of this private moment

was-- was just so voyeuristic.

The painting in our mind
of what we weren't seeing...

this very personaI,
sexuaI, private act.

♪ You never know
how much I Iove you ♪

♪ Never know
how much I care... ♪

I'm not the most poIiticaIIy-correct
person in the world,

and l saw Eliot later
after this whoIe thing

and I said, you know,

"You couId have run in France
on this and won," so...

♪ When you kiss me ♪

♪ Fever when you
hold me tight ♪

♪ Fever in the morning... ♪

Barrett: EIiot Spitzer is a joke,
a national joke.

He is Iike the poster boy

of a man out of controI.

But these other guys aren't;

these other poIiticians aren't.

l mean, Bill Clinton is
one of the most popuIar

figures in American poIitics

and he got a bIowjob
in the Oval Office.

♪ Do you remember ♪

♪ When we met ♪

♪ That's the day ♪

♪ I knew you were my pet ♪

♪ I want to teII you ♪

♪ How much ♪

♪ I Iove you. ♪

( vocaIizing )

He had sex.
Oh my God!

KiII him.

Burn him at the stake.
You know?

I hope when history
Iooks back at that

they say, "Gee, changed the way
Wall Street operates;

went after, you know,
environmentaI abuses;

you know, went after
the insurance-company fraud;

went after this."
And then on this side,

"Had sex in a Washington
hoteI room."

Matt Lauer: He resigned
13 months ago and has remained

IargeIy siIent untiI now.

With the US economy in turmoiI,
the man once known

as the Sheriff of WaII Street is back.

Governor Spitzer, good morning.

- It's good to see you.
- Good morning, Matt.

I've heard rumors
that he's trying

to figure a way out to get
back into pubIic Iife.

I mean, the guy's got skin
like that, okay?

I mean, that-- that thick.

Narrator: After his resignation,
Spitzer watched

as his WaII Street reforms
were attacked and roIIed back

by investment banks
and the federaI government.

He had been on to the very
issues that aImost did us in

and collapsed
the financiaI system.

These are the guys that got us
to the brink of disaster.

And EIiot Spitzer was after them
years before the coIIapse occurred.

GoIdman Sachs wiII have a profit

that we estimate of about
$1 2 billion last year.

That is precisely
what taxpayers gave them

to heIp them get baiIed out
from their AlG exposure.

Banks shouId be Iending
to peopIe who have

a repayment schedule,
who produce something.

It shouId be an oId-fashioned,
boring business.

And then you grow an economy.

The outrage is
because it is our money

that is subsidizing
these crazy bonuses.

Narrator: As Spitzer began
reappearing in pubIic,

so did AshIey Dupré.

With uncanny timing,
it seemed that AshIey appeared

on Fox TV or the cover
of the conservative

"New York Post" whenever Spitzer
made public appearances.

Hi, I'm AshIey Dupré.

I used to be on the front page
of the "New York Post."

Now I'm writing for it.
That's right.

I'm the "New York Post"'s
new advice coIumnist.

Ask me anything about Iove,
sex, and reIationships.

A Iot of peopIe around the country
are discussing EIiot Spitzer's efforts,

and that's what it cIearIy is,
to rehabilitate himself.

Senator Joe Bruno,
of the great capitaI district.

Good morning, Senator.
Thank you for being with us.

- I think he needs therapy.
- I agree.

They oughta help him
to get himseIf rehabbed.

Assuming he can.

Because peopIe Iike this
are very dangerous.

Roger Stone, let me ask you about
what's going on now with EIiot Spitzer.

WeII, Senator Bruno
is essentiaIIy correct;

the man is a psycho.

Don't bust people
who are running caII-girI rings

if you yourself
are gonna patronize one.

I mean, the man's
entire life is a lie

and I therefore thought this
fight needed to be finished.

Narrator: Roger Stone's campaign
against Spitzer

continued with his promotion
of Kristin Davis,

a convicted madam
who cIaimed to have

suppIied escorts
to EIiot Spitzer.

New York Iaw enforcement says

there's no evidence of any Iink.

But newspapers continue
to print her cIaims anyway.

In March 2010,

Stone backed her
as a candidate for governor.

I am running
for Governor of New York.

Interviewer: What do you think about
an EIiot Spitzer comeback?

Look, I can't forecast it.
I hope not.

- I hope what he did--
- Interviewer: You think it was--

Yeah, he thought
he was above the Iaw.

The Iaw didn't appIy to him.

Woman: What do you think
is next for Governor Spitzer?

You know, we aII have
our own private hells.

I hope his private heII is
hotter than anybody eIse's.

Interviewer:
Ken Langone

and Hank Greenberg
are powerfuI enemies.

Did it ever concern you

that they might have pIayed
a roIe in your downfaII?

l guess it didn't
concern me enough.

You know, Iook, not to...

sort of mince words,

there are aII sorts
of rumors about

their heIping or taking
credit occasionally

for bringing me down.

My view is I brought
myself down,

and I wiII not try
to blame others

or excuse my behavior.

I did what I did and--
and shame on me.

If they were invoIved
in unearthing it,

okay, so be it.

That isn't my concern right now.

What I did in our investigations

of the companies obviousIy
I beIieve it was right.

My personaI behavior that Ied
to where l am right now

was obviousIy wrong,

vioIative of everything
l hope l believe in.

And I make no excuses.

Finley: We want
our poIiticaI peopIe to be God.

And maybe that's
the biggest probIem for us--

is that he's a human being
and he's not God.

This isn't just
a nationaI narrative,

but it's an ancient narrative
that happened,

that has to repeat itseIf

into our cuIture because
it is unresolved.

Aside from
your journaIism career,

your coIumn, you're aIso
a lovely singer.

Before-- and I want you
to come back

and be a reguIar coIumnist
for us as well.

I wouId Iove to, thank you.

But can you give us
a IittIe Christmas-- Christmas cheer?

- Oh my God, on the spot.
- Sing us something.

- Okay okay.
- Uh, go ahead.

♪ The weather outside
is frightful ♪

♪ The fire is so deIightfuI ♪

♪ But since you've
no pIace to go ♪

♪ Let it snow,
Iet it snow ♪

♪ Let it snow. ♪

GeraIdo: AshIey Dupré.

Man:
Yeah, New York, stand up.

♪ Start spreading
the news ♪

♪ Start spreading the news ♪

- ♪ I'm Ieaving today ♪
- ♪ I'm Ieaving today ♪

♪ I wanna be a part of it,
New York, New York... ♪

GoId went up to 1040 today.

There was a huge panic
about inflation

and the Arabs wanting
to be paid for their oiI

in a currency other than US.

But l think that's
just a temporary rumor.

But it did have serious impact.

- ♪ New York ♪
- Man: ♪ Yo, it's so deep ♪

♪ I woke up in the city
that don't sIeep ♪

♪ Got me up aII night Iike
a sink with a slow leak ♪

♪ HoIds me in its grips... ♪

There's a coupIe of peopIe
that l'd like to do that to.

( Iaughing )

Man: ♪ And this must mean up
in here comes... ♪

Okay, the Governor of New York
is using our service.

How bad can what
we're doing be? Right?

♪ NYC-- known as where you go
to become the person you wanna be ♪

♪ Look, you got some
smaII-town bIues ♪

♪ You're trying to Iose,
we got a big city here ♪

♪ To abuse your virtue,
it might heIp you or hurt you ♪

♪ Save or desert you ♪

♪ Get cIose to bright Iights,
might burn you ♪

Woman: ♪ Start spreading
the news... ♪

It's virtuaIIy worthIess.

About-about 100--

about $100 miIIion.

♪ New York, New York ♪

♪ New York,
New York ♪

- ♪ These vagabond shoes ♪
- ♪ These vagabond shoes ♪

♪ Are Ionging to stray ♪

♪ The very heart of it ♪

♪ New York, New York ♪

♪ FeeI me ♪

♪ New York, big city
of dreams, big schemes ♪

♪ Petty hustles on the corner
cIaim they're doing big things ♪

♪ Winning battIes, never wars,
doing dirtIike chores ♪

♪ Never know who's teIIing Iies
but the city keeps score ♪

♪ Good pIace to watch your back
and back-watch your front too ♪

♪ Jump too high,
someone is quick to bump you ♪

♪ Stuff you in a trunk
with a Iump when you come to ♪

♪ And then everyone's committing crime
to steal enough food ♪

♪ Trudge through the urban jungIe
and you'II see some things ♪

♪ New York eats its young
and defeats its kings ♪

♪ Projects to penthouses,
Park Ave to the hood ♪

♪ Win or lose
you can't choose ♪

♪ You take the bad
with the good ♪

♪ And the upside is higher
than the sky above the 'scrapers ♪

♪ If you're Iooking for fame,
power, influence or paper ♪

♪ Make your move but don't think
your little lunch comes free ♪

♪ It's granted by the higher
power known as NYC ♪

- ♪ These IittIe-town bIues ♪
- ♪ These IittIe-town bIues ♪

- ♪ Are meIting away ♪
- ♪ Are meIting away ♪

♪ I'II make a brand-new
start of it ♪

- ♪ New York, New York ♪
- ♪ New York, New York ♪

♪ If I can make it there ♪

♪ lf l can
make it there ♪

♪ I'II make it anywhere ♪

♪ It's up to you New York ♪

♪ New York ♪

♪ New York, New York ♪

♪ New York,
New York ♪

♪ New York City ♪

♪ New York, New York ♪

♪ New York City
is the place ♪

♪ New York,
New York ♪

♪ New York City is
the pIace to be ♪

♪ New York,
New York ♪

♪ New York City is
the pIace to be ♪

♪ Ba-ba-da
ba-ba-ba-da ♪

- ♪ Start spreading the news ♪
- ♪ Start spreading the news ♪

- ♪ I'm Ieaving today ♪
- ♪ I'm Ieaving today ♪

♪ I wanna be a part of it,
New York, New York ♪

- ♪ These vagabond shoes ♪
- ♪ These vagabond shoes ♪

- ♪ Are Ionging to stray ♪
- ♪ Are Ionging to stray ♪

♪ Right through
the very heart of it ♪

♪ New York, New York. ♪

( vocaIizing )

( music fading )