The DC Madam case, which forced Sen. David Vitter's (R-La.) "very serious sin" confession, is getting weirder by the minute.
DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey is trying to subpoena gossip columnists, investigative TV reporters, government officials, madams of scandals past, and, now, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee: Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
And no, Leahy is not embroiled in the madam scandal. He's being threatened with a subpoena because of his outspoken criticism of the Bush administration's Justice Department, mainly over the U.S. attorney firings brouhaha.
As Palfrey attorney Montgomery Blair Sibley wrote in an email update on the case, Palfrey is seeking to subpoena Leahy to testify "as to his knowledge of the 'corruption' of the justice system by political influence."
What does Leahy have to say about the absurdity of his involvement in this? "As chairman, he gets some awfully wacky requests. But this one might make it into the top ten," Leahy spokesman David Carle tells us.
Among others, Palfrey wants to subpoena: New York Post gossip doyenne Cindy Adams to testify how she got information still under court order; Heidi Fleiss, the infamous Hollywood madam; and ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross, who, through an exclusive agreement with Palfrey, was first to obtain the madam's client list.
Palfrey's attorney suggests "political pressure" was put on ABC News to "bury" the names of other prominent clients listed in the phone records. To that assertion, Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president for ABC News, says, "Utter nonsense."
"Our decisions about what to report were based solely on what we deemed newsworthy," he told us yesterday.
Meanwhile, even after fresh allegations surfaced this week that he had sex with another prostitute, Vitter was back in Washington, all business as usual, presumably heaving a sigh of relief that at least he's not Larry Craig.... --MORE--
No comments:
Post a Comment