Spitzer Resigns, Trying to Avoid Indictment

Can Spitzer's loss of his job be punishment for a crime?

Losing your job is a frequent result when you are arrested, indicted or convicted of a crime. Elliot Spitzer, Governor of the State of New York , is just as liable to suffer all of the above as a result of his involvement in a prositution ring. Two days ago the papers reported that he had used the services of a high class prostitution service.

Since then, it has come out that his involvement was discovered due to routine bank surveillance of the movement of large sums of money, which is frequently reported to the IRS. Spitzer was evidently routing cash from personal accounts by the thousands of dollars to the account of a ficticious company, in order to withdraw sums for meetings with employees of a certain “introduction service.”

Prostitution is not the issue.

Prostitution should not be a crime. However, being involved in some way with prostitutes makes one liable to extortion and blackmail. A man on the way to running for President in a few years would be vulnerable. He would fear revelation of dark deeds of even a non-criminal sort to his family, to his enemies, and others. He could then be “forced” to use his high office's power to end government action against someone or to generate large favors to someone. Spitzer should be indicted and prosecuted. He should not be allowed to dodge the full consequences of his misdeeds.

This constitutes “high crimes and misdemeanors.” He was rightly challenged to resign on threat of impeachment.

Ironically, this man who with righteous anger fought corruption in government and people in high positions in the financial world, as Attorney General of New York State. This the man that posed as a prosecutor of corruption, including money movement and prostitution rings! Now he and his friends are hoping to negotiate with authorities to lay off if he resigns. The argument is that he has suffered enough by the embarrassment of the deeds and by losing his job.

However, these are totally separate matters.

He should be indicted and prosecuted. A signal has to be sent to all officials in government that this kind of behavior is a serious threat to our system. It is a potential cause of serious corruption. Whatever punishment he would suffer would be fully deserved as determined by the justice system.

Losing his job as Governor is a side-effect, based on loss of potential for effectiveness in that job, as well as avoiding the additional black mark of impeachment.