Spitzer Has Sinned, But It’s Our Sex Obsession That’s Criminal

[Phx_Dem]

When Eliot Spitzer was my research assistant in the 1980s, he was a young man of great brilliance, high integrity, conservative demeanor and enormous promise. It pains me deeply to see him brought down so far, and so quickly, by private sexual misconduct.

I think somewhat less of him now than I did before I heard this week’s news of his indiscretions, largely because of what he did to his family — but let’s all take a collective deep breath and try to regain a sense of proportion about the essentially private actions of this public man.

snip

There is another issue that is potentially quite troubling in this case. The story about how Spitzer’s alleged crimes were discovered does not ring true.

As a criminal defense lawyer, I have dealt with many money laundering and other bank-related cases. The financial transactions that allegedly gave rise to the federal government’s interest in Spitzer do not generally result in a criminal investigation.

I strongly suspect that we will learn more about how the feds came to focus on Spitzer’s financial transactions. The money laundering statute is so vague and open-ended that it can be used selectively to target political and economic opponents. On this issue, stay tuned. We have not heard the last of it.

http://www.forward.com/articles/12885/