Judge orders release of Spitzer wiretap documents

NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge has ordered the government to make public sealed documents about wiretaps in the Eliot Spitzer scandal.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff ordered prosecutors today to release documents detailing calls on cell phones used by a prostitution ring whose clients included the former governor. The documents were not immediately released; prosecutors will have a chance to appeal.

The New York Times sued late last year to get the material unsealed. The newspaper has agreed to allow the government to withhold the names of 67 customers named in the documents.

Spitzer resigned last year after details were revealed of a tryst with one of the ring’s prostitutes in a Washington, D.C., hotel. Investigators had been looking into the governor’s affairs after noticing unusual activity — later shown to be payments to prostitutes — in his bank accounts.