Wealthy, Male Sex Addicts -- Above the Law?
I couldn't agree more with Ms. McLennan. Despite her unashamed life as a high-end escort, I have to agree that the law SHOULD BE GOING AFTER THEIR CLIENTS. Hit the demand not the supply will probably work were the reverse has failed miserably.
I despise double-standards. I had a lot of dealings with Spitzer's office of Attorney General in 2004, was impressed with them and campaigned for his run for Governor. He had a take-no-prisoners, "the law IS the law" style I liked.
Why then is he getting a pass? Why aren't clients of high-price escorts sent to 'John School' and publicly shamed like the guys who frequent streetwalkers? Why the double standard?
By NATALIE McLENNAN
I'm not naive. I know life isn't always fair and justice isn't truly blind.
Yet Eliot Spitzer getting off scot-free and US Attorney Michael J. Garcia's saying, "We have determined that there is insufficient evidence to bring charges against Mr. Spitzer," tests the limits of even the most cynical New Yorker.
There's a trail of wired money transfers between Spitzer's bank account and the Emerald Club, and the ex-governor himself has acknowledged (if obliquely) his role in the scandal - yet the government claims they don't have the goods?
Let's be honest: Eliot Spitzer, like so many johns before him, is getting a free pass because of his wealth, his connections and, yes, his gender.
In 2005, I was involved in a high-end escort scandal that in many ways would foreshadow the Spitzer/Dupre affair.
In need of money and in a toxic relationship, I made the fateful decision to give escorting a try.
For a while it seemed the perfect solution to my problems. I was making unimaginable amounts of money and, for the most part, I liked my clients.
There was the Hollywood agent, a real-life Ari Gold, who treated sex the way I imagined he did his deals - brusquely, all business and with no time to waste.
There was the sports legend who relived his glory days by hiring a woman who would worship his stamina in bed.
There was the British aristocrat who hired me and a gorgeous male escort to put on a drug-fueled show in front of him.
But, like Ashley, the easy money and nonstop party came crashing down when the feds busted my agency.
I landed on the cover of New York magazine as "The $2,000-An-Hour Woman" and, shortly after, in jail. I spent 26 days on Rikers Island.
My first night, I slept next to a homeless woman who reeked of urine.
I was cavity-searched, threatened and had my private property stolen.
But none of my clients ever faced legal consequences for engaging in the same activities I did.
Clearly, there is a double standard at work. Spitzer may have lost the governorship in a humiliating public scandal, but I can assure the former governor that that doesn't compare to the private pain of having your mother visit you in jail, where you're clad in a standard-issue uniform and not allowed to hug her.
Three years later, I still struggle with the fallout from my arrest.
Why is it that escorts, bookers and escort-agency owners are consistently punished and made examples of - and the same isn't true for the clients of these agencies?
Clients who, like Spitzer, have full knowledge of the laws they're breaking but don't hesitate to do so over and over again?
It's obvious that when Spitzer participated in his illegal activities, he was acting under the assumption the so-called "sheriff" was above the law.
Apparently, he was correct.
In August 2004, Natalie McLennan was working for and dating now-convicted pimp Jason Itzler when he auditioned and recruited a 19-year-old named Ashley Dupre into his high-end prostitution ring, New York Confidential. McLennan's memoir, "The Price: My Rise and Fall as Natalia, New York's #1 Escort," will be published on Nov. 25 by Phoenix Books.
SOURCE
Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has gone into therapy in the wake of the hooker scandal that swept him out of office, a Spitzer insider told The Post yesterday.
As part of the therapy, Spitzer will explore whether he has an addiction to sex, the source said.
The last time Spitzer was seen publicly was on Saturday, when he hopped behind the wheel of an SUV outside his Upper East Side building with his wife, Silda, two of their daughters, and their Wheaton terrier, James, and made a beeline to their weekend home in upstate Pine Plains.
A spokeswoman for Spitzer said yesterday he was still with his family there, but declined to comment on whatever therapy Spitzer had sought.
Spitzer formally stepped down on Monday after it became public that he was caught on a federal wiretap arranging a tryst with a $4,300-a-night call girl at a Washington hotel in February.
Since then, it has emerged he has had a jones for pricey professional girls going back as far as a decade, and hooked up with "Kristen" - the nom-de-sack of 22-year-old Ashley Alexandra Dupre - several times prior to getting nabbed on tape, sources have said.
Experts say this type of behavior exhibits classic signs of sexual addiction.
Thinking it might be evidence of bribery, investigators from the US Attorney's Office uncovered Spitzer's involvement with a high-end sex ring called Emperors Club VIP.
Spitzer was one of 10 deep-pocketed johns caught on wiretaps arranging for trysts with top-dollar Emperors Club VIP hookers.
On March 6, investigators shut the ring down, busting four people who ran the operation.
Spitzer has not been charged with a crime, but federal prosecutors are continuing to follow the money trail to see if the fallen Democrat had used any campaign money to fund his sexcapades.
They are also investigating if he arranged any unnecessary out-of-state trips - ostensibly on government business - to rendezvous with call girls, and are looking into whether he violated banking laws by trying to obscure the nature of his transactions with Emperors.
SOURCE
I despise double-standards. I had a lot of dealings with Spitzer's office of Attorney General in 2004, was impressed with them and campaigned for his run for Governor. He had a take-no-prisoners, "the law IS the law" style I liked.
Why then is he getting a pass? Why aren't clients of high-price escorts sent to 'John School' and publicly shamed like the guys who frequent streetwalkers? Why the double standard?
By NATALIE McLENNAN
I'm not naive. I know life isn't always fair and justice isn't truly blind.
Yet Eliot Spitzer getting off scot-free and US Attorney Michael J. Garcia's saying, "We have determined that there is insufficient evidence to bring charges against Mr. Spitzer," tests the limits of even the most cynical New Yorker.
There's a trail of wired money transfers between Spitzer's bank account and the Emerald Club, and the ex-governor himself has acknowledged (if obliquely) his role in the scandal - yet the government claims they don't have the goods?
Let's be honest: Eliot Spitzer, like so many johns before him, is getting a free pass because of his wealth, his connections and, yes, his gender.
In 2005, I was involved in a high-end escort scandal that in many ways would foreshadow the Spitzer/Dupre affair.
In need of money and in a toxic relationship, I made the fateful decision to give escorting a try.
For a while it seemed the perfect solution to my problems. I was making unimaginable amounts of money and, for the most part, I liked my clients.
There was the Hollywood agent, a real-life Ari Gold, who treated sex the way I imagined he did his deals - brusquely, all business and with no time to waste.
There was the sports legend who relived his glory days by hiring a woman who would worship his stamina in bed.
There was the British aristocrat who hired me and a gorgeous male escort to put on a drug-fueled show in front of him.
But, like Ashley, the easy money and nonstop party came crashing down when the feds busted my agency.
I landed on the cover of New York magazine as "The $2,000-An-Hour Woman" and, shortly after, in jail. I spent 26 days on Rikers Island.
My first night, I slept next to a homeless woman who reeked of urine.
I was cavity-searched, threatened and had my private property stolen.
But none of my clients ever faced legal consequences for engaging in the same activities I did.
Clearly, there is a double standard at work. Spitzer may have lost the governorship in a humiliating public scandal, but I can assure the former governor that that doesn't compare to the private pain of having your mother visit you in jail, where you're clad in a standard-issue uniform and not allowed to hug her.
Three years later, I still struggle with the fallout from my arrest.
Why is it that escorts, bookers and escort-agency owners are consistently punished and made examples of - and the same isn't true for the clients of these agencies?
Clients who, like Spitzer, have full knowledge of the laws they're breaking but don't hesitate to do so over and over again?
It's obvious that when Spitzer participated in his illegal activities, he was acting under the assumption the so-called "sheriff" was above the law.
Apparently, he was correct.
In August 2004, Natalie McLennan was working for and dating now-convicted pimp Jason Itzler when he auditioned and recruited a 19-year-old named Ashley Dupre into his high-end prostitution ring, New York Confidential. McLennan's memoir, "The Price: My Rise and Fall as Natalia, New York's #1 Escort," will be published on Nov. 25 by Phoenix Books.
SOURCE
Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has gone into therapy in the wake of the hooker scandal that swept him out of office, a Spitzer insider told The Post yesterday.
As part of the therapy, Spitzer will explore whether he has an addiction to sex, the source said.
The last time Spitzer was seen publicly was on Saturday, when he hopped behind the wheel of an SUV outside his Upper East Side building with his wife, Silda, two of their daughters, and their Wheaton terrier, James, and made a beeline to their weekend home in upstate Pine Plains.
A spokeswoman for Spitzer said yesterday he was still with his family there, but declined to comment on whatever therapy Spitzer had sought.
Spitzer formally stepped down on Monday after it became public that he was caught on a federal wiretap arranging a tryst with a $4,300-a-night call girl at a Washington hotel in February.
Since then, it has emerged he has had a jones for pricey professional girls going back as far as a decade, and hooked up with "Kristen" - the nom-de-sack of 22-year-old Ashley Alexandra Dupre - several times prior to getting nabbed on tape, sources have said.
Experts say this type of behavior exhibits classic signs of sexual addiction.
"If it becomes an overwhelming urge to the detriment of your professional and familial relationships - if it starts to screw up your life - that is addictive behavior," said Dr. Jeffrey Gardere, a clinical psychologist.The randy politician's penchant for ladies of the night came to the attention of federal prosecutors when they noticed several unusual financial transactions from Spitzer's bank accounts.
"Someone who displays this sort of behavior could be classified as having a sexual addiction."
Thinking it might be evidence of bribery, investigators from the US Attorney's Office uncovered Spitzer's involvement with a high-end sex ring called Emperors Club VIP.
Spitzer was one of 10 deep-pocketed johns caught on wiretaps arranging for trysts with top-dollar Emperors Club VIP hookers.
On March 6, investigators shut the ring down, busting four people who ran the operation.
Spitzer has not been charged with a crime, but federal prosecutors are continuing to follow the money trail to see if the fallen Democrat had used any campaign money to fund his sexcapades.
They are also investigating if he arranged any unnecessary out-of-state trips - ostensibly on government business - to rendezvous with call girls, and are looking into whether he violated banking laws by trying to obscure the nature of his transactions with Emperors.
SOURCE
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