Federal prosecutors seek to gag D.C. madam - UPDATE - 'D.C. madam' names a purported

[sws4420]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/art3/1201061inside1.jpg

MARCH 7--Federal prosecutors want to gag an indicted former Washington, D.C. madam who has recently threatened to go public with details about her former customers. In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court, investigators are seeking a protective order covering discovery material to be provided to Deborah Palfrey and her lawyers. Palfrey, 50, was indicted last week on racketeering and money laundering charges stemming from her operation of the Pamela Martin & Associates escort service, which closed last summer after 13 years in business. In their motion, a copy of which you'll find below, government lawyers claim that some discovery documents contain "personal information" about Palfrey's former johns and prostitutes that is "sensitive." The prosecution filing does not detail the nature of this confidential information, though the identity of Palfrey's D.C. customers would surely be cloaked if the protective order was signed by Judge Gladys Kessler. According to the prosecution motion, while Palfrey and her lawyers would be able to use the discovery material to help prepare a defense, they would not be allowed to disclose the documents to anyone else (nor use the material for any other purposes). Palfrey, whose assets were frozen late last year, has recently floated the idea of selling her escort business's phone records. She has also "made statements that could be considered veiled threats to cause embarrassment to former customers and employees," according to the motion. In connection with an asset forfeiture action, Palfrey has sought to depose political consultant Dick Morris, who she has identified as a former escort service client. While no clients are identified in Palfrey's five-count indictment, the charging document indicates that 14 former associates testified before the grand jury that indicted her. Palfrey was previously convicted of operating a prostitution business in California and spent 18 months in prison (where the above mug shot was snapped). Before closing her business, Palfrey operated a web site touting Pamela Martin & Associates as "the best adult agency around," claiming that it had an "ongoing repeat clientele rate of 65-75%." Palfrey's site also advertised for escorts. Prospective hookers, she noted, had to be at least 23 years old with two or more years of college. And her $275-an-appointment employees had to be "weight proportionate to height."


http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0307071palfrey1.html

[sws4420]

You are looking at the most powerful woman in the country right now.

[MedicCook]

I bet there will be a tabloid that is willing to pay her lots of money and maybe her legal bills for the little black book.

[sws4420]

Update:
WASHINGTON - Fify-year old Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the California woman accused of running a $2 million Washington prostitution ring, denied any role in illegal activities and said for 13 years she headed a "legal, high-end erotic fantasy service."

Emerging from the Washington offices of her court-appointed attorney near U.S. District Court, where she was arraigned this morning on federal racketeering charges, Palfrey said that she hired college educated women between the ages of 23-55 to provide an "upscale" escort service and a "refined way of life" to her clients.

Palfrey said her firm Pamela Martin and Associates, "did not engage in illegal behavior."

Her attorney in a separate civil suit, Montgomery Blair Sibley, said that Palfrey has her "back to the wall," and threatens to reveal what he says are more than 15,000 telephone record of her clients. Sibley said that there are at least 12 news organizations and publications interested in seeking access to those lists. Sibley did not say the client list was for sale, rather he said Palfrey wanted to "partner" with someone who could "mine the list on what went on," which Palfrey insisted was not illegal sexual activity.

Sibley also announced that Palfrey has filed another suit in federal court against Dr. Paula Neble and 15 Jane Does seeking damages in excess of $75,000.

The suit contends that Neble materially breached her contract with Palfrey "by engaging in illegal sexual activities with customers of the escort service without the knowledge or consent of Plaintiff."

The court filing states that Neble signed a contract with Pamela Martin and Associates "to solely provide legal sexual services to the customers of the escort service thereby establishing a legitimate bond between the parties."

Palfrey's legal defense fund, www.deborahjeanepalfrey.com says, "consideration is being given to selling the entire 46 pounds of detailed and itemized phone records for the 13 year period, to raise the requisite defense funds." Included on the web-site is "An example from a randomly selected 6 day period in August of 1996," containing a Sprint phone bill and 124 phone numbers in and around the Washington area.

In court, Friday, for her arraignment before U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, when asked how she would plead, Palfrey said, "I plead not guilty."

Liquidating assets
Palfrey says she had 10,000 clients contained in lists since 1993 which, according to her Web site, weigh in at "46 pounds of detailed and itemized phone records."

Palfrey may have no other choice but to "liquidate her only remaining asset," records involving some 10,000 clients, said Washington attorney Montgomery Blair Sibley, who is representing her in a civil asset-forfeiture case that is now on hold because of the criminal indictment.

Prosecutors said that she may not be able to keep any profit from the sale of her client lists. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Cowden said, Palfrey, "might have to forfeit the money."

Authorities have already seized about $1 million worth of real estate and $500,000 in cash and stocks in the civil case, Sibley said. She faces criminal charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — known as RICO — and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In a February e-mail to federal prosecutors, Palfrey threatened to make "life miserable for those who used her escort agency's services," court records show.

Clinton administration connection?
While Palfrey has not specifically mentioned any individuals or Washington power brokers as clients, on Thursday the political newsletter The Hotline wrote, "A lawyer for an indicted D.C. madam is trying to drag Dick Morris into a juicy case that may involve thousands of former clients" and that when he was a Clinton adviser, Morris' "toe-sucking sessions with a professional call girl" were revealed. Though Morris "admitted publicly that he hired prostitutes from more than one agency, it's unclear whether he has any connection."

The Hotline went on to say Palfrey's attorney served a subpoena on Morris to "give a deposition on information, if any, he may have about the call-girl service."

"The press will have a field day at each of our expense," she wrote of the prospect of being prosecuted and releasing her 46 pounds of client records. "I can state with unequivocal certainty this situation will be a very long and unpleasant one. This, despite the sickening and humiliating additional lambasting I expect to receive in the media."

The background
Officials say Palfrey advertised for her "female employees" at the University of Maryland's Diamondback newspaper and did business in Washington under the name Pamela Martin and Associates.

Palfrey, the say, also hired "male 'testers' who agreed to and did meet with women who wanted to work with Pamela Martin and Associates and determine the ability of those women to perform the appropriate prostitution activities," according to the indictment.

The prostitution business allegedly involved 132 women, with the prostitutes keeping half of the fees and mailing the rest to Palfrey in money orders, prosecutors allege in the court filing.

The indictment, which also accuses Palfrey of arranging sex for money in Virginia and Maryland, occurred months after authorities seized Palfrey's bank accounts, stocks, real estate and gold coins in connection with the investigation.

On a Web site seeking donations to her legal defense fund, the company is described as "a high-end adult fantasy firm which offered legal sexual and erotic services across the spectrum of adult sexual behavior."

But federal authorities say it was a thriving call-girl service, begun in 1993, that dispatched college-educated women in their 20s to male clients in the Washington area who paid $275 to $300 per sexual encounter.

Palfrey has three homes, two in California and one in Florida. Judge Kessler ordered her to wear an electronic monitoring device, and she will be allowed to travel to her properties but not outside the country.

No date had been set for her trial.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17536810/

[Donna]

I look forward to more reading on this one!

[MedicCook]

List has been SOLD!!



Alleged D.C. madam shares client records

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/LAW/03/12/madam.clientlist.ap/story.escort.ap.jpg

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The former owner of a Washington-area escort business said she reached a deal to share her records of up to 15,000 client phone numbers with a media organization.

"I have decided to hand over all phone records, logs and invoices (including those presently unknown to the government) to what I believe to be one of the most reputable and respected investigative news organizations in the country, to assist me with my needs," Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, wrote in an e-mail to WTOP Radio.

She did not identify the news organization or give details of the arrangement. Palfrey's civil attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, would not say whether his client was getting paid, or if she was simply getting investigative assistance with uncovering the names associated with the phone numbers.

Palfrey ran an upscale escort service in the Washington area from her Vallejo, California home for 13 years, until August 2006. Her assets were frozen in October after an Internal Revenue Service investigation, and she pleaded not guilty Friday to federal racketeering charges in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.

The list currently has only telephone numbers, but Palfrey and her attorney have been negotiating with about a dozen serious bidders for the list, Sibley said.

"The records needed and need to be mined for potential defense witnesses, in the criminal and civil cases currently pending against me," Palfrey wrote in the e-mail.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said prosecutors could not comment because of the pending indictment.

Palfrey said that in her time operating the business, she used discretion and confidentiality about who her clients were. But now, with her assets frozen by the government, she said she needs to leverage the list to help with her defense. Her attorney indicated they will search for individuals who can testify that contact with escorts and clients was legal.

Palfrey was released after her arraignment and must wear an electronic monitoring device.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/03/12/madam.clientlist.ap/index.html

[sws4420]

This is gonna be awesome.

[MedicCook]

I bet Billy Clinton's number will be in there.

There are going to be a lot of political people doing a ton of question dodging.

[Donna]

bet ya this is why Newt fessed up earlier this week.

[MedicCook]

Very good possibility. I highly doubt it is because he was going to run for president.

[sws4420]

Update:
WASHINGTON - A federal judge ruled Friday that a former escort service owner cannot sell phone records and other documents that could be used to publicly identify thousands of her clients.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, has said she planned to sell the list of up to 15,000 client phone numbers and other records to a news organization to help raise money for her defense. The alleged "D.C. Madam" ran Pamela Martin and Associates, an upscale escort service in the Washington area, for 13 years before it closed in August.

Palfrey's civil attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, said Friday he does not believe the judge's order bars him from distributing copies of the phone records for free.

In any event, Sibley said it's a moot point because he has already given copies of the records to an undisclosed news organization. Sibley said the original records are preserved and nothing he has done will prevent prosecutors from inspecting all the materials.

Federal prosecutors allege that Palfrey ran a prostitution ring that yielded $2 million in assets, including cash and homes. In October, the federal government froze the assets after a 2 1/2-year investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Palfrey is suing to have the assets returned.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler issued a restraining order against Palfrey on Friday and ordered her not to sell any company records or assets. She set a hearing on the issue for Monday.

Sibley has said there were a dozen serious bidders for the 40 pounds of phone records. The bidders ranged from "checkbook journalists to the gold standard of American journalism," Sibley said. Attorneys for people who fear their names will become public have also been after the records, he said.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070316/ap_on_go_ot/escort_list;_ylt=Av9ZvqrFaI9SNDe1YWQRhgWs0NUE

[MedicCook]

update



'D.C. madam' names a purported customer

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/LAW/04/12/dc.madam/vert.palfrey.ap.jpg

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The alleged "D.C. madam" dropped a name in court documents filed Thursday, but the man named laughed at being accused of hiring the high-end escort service run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

Government prosecutors say Pamela Martin and Associates was actually a prostitution ring that Palfrey operated in the Washington area for 13 years. Palfrey denies that her business provided sexual services to its customers.

In her motion to reconsider appointment of counsel, Palfrey named Harlan K. Ullman as "one of the regular customers" of the business.

Ullman is one of the leading theorists behind the "shock and awe" military strategy that was associated with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"The allegations do not dignify a response," Ullman told CNN. "I'm a private, not a public, citizen. Any further questions are referred to my attorneys."

Ullman -- a former Navy commander and "a highly respected and widely recognized expert in national security whose advice is sought by governments and businesses," according to his Web site -- also said he is considering "some sort of legal action."

His attorney, Marc Mukasey of Bracewell & Giuliani in New York, declined to add to his client's comment.

Palfrey's civil defense attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, told CNN that it was his understanding that Ullman used the business' services but did not engage in sexual activity with the escorts.

Palfrey is fighting a multiple-count racketeering and money-laundering indictment. Her attorneys have been engaged in a battle with the court over documents that list the names and personal information of her clients.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler has restricted access to the documents, but Sibley argued that the order applies to the originals of the documents, not to copies.

Copies have already been given to a media outlet, he said.

The motion filed Thursday asks the judge to install Sibley in place of the public defender Palfrey has been assigned for the criminal case, and to order the government to continue to pay for her defense. The government has seized her assets, and she cannot afford to pay on her own.

Sibley is Palfrey's attorney in a civil case against one of her former employees.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/12/dc.madam/index.html

[MedicCook]

Update



'D.C. Madam': Releasing clients' numbers not blackmail

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/LAW/04/30/dc.madam/story.palfrey.cnn.jpg

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An attorney for Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the alleged "D.C. Madam," rejected accusations Monday that releasing a list of phone numbers used to dial Palfrey's high-end escort service amounted to blackmail.

"I call that due process of law," said Montgomery Blair Sibley, who represents Palfrey in a civil matter. "Why didn't we start in October if we were trying to blackmail people for money?"

Defending the "sexual albeit legal" service that she ran for 13 years, Palfrey said during a news conference that she expects the names of more clients to surface as the federal case against her moves forward. (Watch Palfrey assert that her "fantasy service" never offered sex )

The news conference came after a hearing in which Palfrey requested that the public defender representing her in the criminal case be replaced.

She filed a motion, citing "irreconcilable differences" with and "ineffective assistance of counsel" by public defender A.J. Kramer. She elaborated only to say that Kramer's assistance in the case is "lacking."

Palfrey initially said she would sell the list of clients' phone numbers to raise money for her defense. In the motion requesting Kramer be replaced, Palfrey asks the court to set aside $150,000 so she can retain private counsel.

She has said that because the government seized the assets from Pamela Martin & Associates -- which Palfrey calls an "erotic fantasy service" -- she could not immediately afford the legal bills she is facing in the multiple-count federal racketeering and money-laundering indictment.

Palfrey has given 46 pounds of telephone records to ABC News, she said, in hopes that the network can turn telephone numbers into names of clients who could testify on Palfrey's behalf.

Palfrey says she can't afford counsel
She said she decided against selling the records, even though a judge's order forbade the sale. While ABC "is under no obligation whatsoever to me, I do expect their reporting to help identify potential witnesses for my defense," she said. (Watch as the possibility of more names surfacing spreads fear in Washington )

"For me, this is an absolute necessity since the government has placed me in the untenable position whereby I do not have sufficient monies to undertake this extraordinarily expensive task on my own," she said.

Sibley added, "We don't have another option left."

Palfrey's prepared statements struck conspiratorial tones as she questioned why the government has made no attempt to charge any patrons or escorts if they, indeed, engaged in illegal activity.

Anyone who received or provided sex for money disobeyed her directives, and in some cases, their own "signed contracts," she insisted.

"I would expect the government -- as a matter of fairness and to avoid any hint of selective prosecution -- to charge each and every individual with the crimes of money laundering, racketeering and/or conspiracy as well," she said.

She implored the media to help her find out why she appears to be the sole target of the investigation.

"I believe there is something very, very rotten at the core of my circumstance and without money to hire my own investigators, I must rely upon your acumen and talent," she told reporters.

Two names have been released so far, though ABC News reports on its Web site that potential "witnesses" could include a "Bush administration economist, the head of a conservative think tank, a prominent CEO, several lobbyists and a handful of military officials."

Randall Tobias, a top State Department official, resigned for "personal reasons" after acknowledging to ABC News that he had been one of Palfrey's clients. Tobias told ABC News he never had sex with the escorts; rather, he would "have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." (Watch how Tobias abruptly stepped down )

Palfrey apologized to Tobias on Monday but said she was dismayed that he never came to her defense "with this extremely valuable exculpatory evidence."

Earlier this month, Palfrey dropped the name of Harlan K. Ullman as one of her "regular customers," but Ullman -- a former Navy commander who helped design the White House's "shock and awe" military strategy for Iraq -- quickly scoffed at the accusation. (Full story)

"The allegations do not dignify a response," he said. "I'm a private, not a public, citizen."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/30/dc.madam/index.html

[sws4420]

How is it blackmail if she's not asking for anything in return? :huh:

[MedicCook]

The politicians think their names being released is political blackmail I think.

[sws4420]

I think the fact that they fuck prostitutes is something that should be public record. Fuck them.

[MedicCook]

I think the fact that they fuck prostitutes is something that should be public record. Fuck them.

No thanks, they have been fucking nasty crack ho DC hookers. It probably burns when they pee.

[sws4420]

No thanks, they have been fucking nasty crack ho DC hookers. It probably burns when they pee.Even better.

Liberal Democrats are already going after Guiliani because he's been married three times, so why not bring up everyone's history as part of all campaigns? Frankly, I'd rather see a guy who knows he's not happy and moves on than having some old bitch who stays married to her husband that gets head in the Oval Office just for the sake of staying married.

[MedicCook]

I have no issues with people who are divorced. I hope to be one of those people soon.

[sws4420]

Exactly my point.