He was billed as a possible future president, a rising star in the Democratic party who made his name on the back of high-profile prosecutions against organised crime and corruption. But last night Eliot Spitzer, the governor of the state of New York and self-styled Mr Clean, was facing calls to resign after he apologised on camera in the wake of an alleged link to a prostitution ring.
Spitzer delivered a short statement in Albany, the state capital, with his wife of 21 years, Silda Wall Spitzer, by his side. The governor did not refer to the allegations that he had employed the services of a high-class prostitute in Washington last month, but he did admit that in what he called a "private matter" he had acted in a way that "violated my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right or wrong".
The news that the hard-man of New York politics – once known as the sheriff of Wall Street – had become embroiled in precisely the kind of ring for which he is famous for cracking caused astonishment across the state and beyond. Minutes after the New York Times broke the news on its website, local TV stations were clearing their schedules to focus on the story.
Law enforcement officials told Associated Press that Spitzer had been recorded through wire taps as he communicated with a high-end call-girl service, the Emperor’s Club VIP, which also operates in several European cities, including Paris and London. Detectives planted an undercover agent in the prostitution ring, and Spitzer, allegedly identified in court papers filed in a Manhattan court as Client 9, was tracked as he arranged a meeting with at least one woman in a Washington hotel .. ok welll ….