NEW YORK — Surrendering to intense pressure to step down after a federal wiretap investigation revealed this week he was a client of a high-priced prostitution ring, Eliot Spitzer on Wednesday announced his resignation, effective Monday, as governor.
“In the past few days, I have begun to atone for my private failings with my wife, Silda, my children and my entire family,” said Spitzer, 48, his wife at his side. “The remorse I feel will always be with me. … I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me.”
He noted that in his public life he has insisted “people — regardless of their position or power — take responsibility for their conduct.”
“I can and will ask no less of myself,” Spitzer said. “For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor.”
Lt. Gov. David Paterson, 53, will take over Monday. Paterson, a Harlem Democrat who has been nearly sightless since birth, will be New York’s first black governor.
Spitzer made the announcement without securing a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, though a law enforcement official said the former governor was still believed to be negotiating one.
Spitzer’s resignation came as state Republicans ramped up calls for him to leave office after it was revealed Monday that he spent thousands of dollars for a prostitute called “Kristen” on the night before Valentine’s Day at a hotel in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement officials said the governor — the millionaire heir to a New York real estate fortune — had hired prostitutes several times before.
The dragnet that caught Spitzer involved the federal Bank Secrecy Act, which requires financial institutions to report suspicious transactions to the Treasury Department. Those transactions are then reviewed and, in some cases, passed on to criminal investigators if they suggest potential illegal activity.
That is what happened in the case of Spitzer, according to federal law enforcement authorities, who said it was the alleged transactions themselves — and not the governor or the high-priced prostitution ring now linked to him — that prompted the investigation.
On Tuesday, authorities said it is the transactions themselves that could get Spitzer into legal trouble, especially if authorities determine that he was trying to “structure” them to avoid reporting requirements or disguise the true nature of the payments.
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