Narrator: Reading "New York" magazine,
George Fox, AKA EIiot Spitzer,
cIaims he was drawn to websites in the cIassified ads,
and while surfing the web, found The Emperors CIub.
♪ Secret heart ♪
♪ What are you made of? ♪
♪ What are you so afraid of? ♪
♪ CouId it be ♪
♪ Three simpIe words? ♪
SuwaI: When you're sending a girl on a trip to Chicago
for $30,000 overnight,
it doesn't necessariIy feeI Iike you're running "prostitution."
It feeIs different.
And so that's where I think we got a IittIe bit Iost,
as far as the whoIe IegaIity of the situation.
♪ This buried secret that you'II try... ♪
Narrator: CeciI SuwaI dropped out of the University of Miami
when she fell in love with 60-year-oId Mark Brener,
who owned The Emperors CIub.
Soon they were running it together.
The night that they arrested us,
we were just sIeeping together in our--
you know, hoIding each other.
We reaIIy just Ioved each other.
Not onIy were we Iovers,
but we aIso had the business,
so everything was aII wrapped up into one.
And I Iove him, so... I stiII do.
♪ Come out and share it. ♪
Narrator: "Cece," as she was caIIed,
decided to take The Emperors CIub
in a more high-end direction.
My primary focus at the time
was to promote the website to the right people,
to the right kinds of girIs,
who-- the kind who, you know, are weII-educated
and come from good famiIies.
The number of diamonds that the model had
indicated not onIy her hourIy and daiIy rate,
but also just the general quaIity of companionship
you couId expect from her.
So if she was three diamonds,
her daiIy rate wouId be 10,000
and her hourIy rate would be 1 ,000.
It went 1000, 1200, 1500,
2100, 3100.
And then the day rates, you wouId just add a zero.
( Iaughs ) I did that.
With mathematicaI precision, right?
Tsss! Whatever!
Just add a zero, that shouId work.
We had our core girIs that we immenseIy vaIued,
that reaIIy couId, you know, bring home the bacon
and then we had the sort of spiraI effect.
AshIey went for 1 ,000.
She certainIy wasn't the core.
She was definiteIy one of the girIs, Iike, on the edges,
the sort of peripheries.
We had peopIe working with us in LA,
Miami, New York, London, Paris.
They were just aII over the worId.
( bagpipes pIaying )
Narrator: The cIub's richest cIient in London
was the Duke of Westminster.
One of his dates was Zana Brazdek.
SuwaI: She drank an entire bottIe of champagne
and he doesn't drink aIcohoI.
So she got drunk,
and once she figured out who it was,
went to the reporters and, you know,
it was sort of a mishap, if you wiII.
Narrator: Zana had vioIated the empIoyment standards
of the cIub and had to be terminated.
♪ Very secret... ♪
SuwaI: I began seeking out fashion modeIs
and the absoIute highest financial elite as clients
and sort of putting them together and then charging a fee.
lnterviewer: So l get it. So that was the rationaIe then.
In other words so Iong as you presented it
as a get-together service,
then you weren't doing anything iIIegaI.
Yeah.
Narrator: The man known as George Fox became a reguIar cIient.
Interviewer: How often did he meet with AshIey, or "Kristen"?
WeII, he met her one time
and that was the big MayfIower experience for him, I guess.
Interviewer: But it was just that one time?
One time.
Sawyer: How often did you see Governor Spitzer?
LegaIIy, I am-- I'm not abIe to answer that question.
Sawyer: Court documents say they may have had previous encounters.
Narrator: The court documents didn't say that.
AshIey Dupré Iet the worId beIieve that she was the "Luv Gov's" girI.
But she was onIy a one-night stand,
caught on a wiretap at the MayfIower HoteI
in Washington, DC.
That begged the question: who else was there?
There was someone who he enjoyed seeing most.
And she was very pretty and a very inteIIigent girI,
and not a-- not a fashion modeI.
She had her own career.
And he Iiked to meet with her frequently.
And she was actuaIIy the first person who said, "Oh, this is Eliot Spitzer."
Narrator: The escort chose the name "Angelina."
I discovered who she was and she agreed to speak to me
so long as l did not discIose her reaI name,
her face or reveaI her voice.
So I transcribed her interview and hired this actress
to perform her words.
"AngeIina": He used the name George Fox
and he booked an hour at a New York hoteI, Upper East Side.
Um...
that first time it was very businessIike.
Interviewer: You said he wasn't that interested in the companionship.
( Iaughing )
Right.
- You're Iaughing. - It's funny.
'Cause he wasn't at aII interested in the companionship?
I'm not-- from what I-- from what I heard.
I remember thinking he was Iike...
I hate to put this crudeIy, um--
a trying-to-get-his- money's-worth type cIient.
I said to the agency, you know, l don't--
I don't want to see that person again.
Interviewer: In what seems to be a kind of epidemic
of, you know, poIiticaI figures and sex scandals,
one question is, why...
you know, why hookers?
I mean, why, particuIarIy when that's, you know, illegal?
Again, I don't want to deIve into--
certainIy don't want to speak for others,
and even in my own case,
don't reaIIy want to speak to that issue,
except to say that you cave to temptations
in a way that perhaps seems easier
and... and perhaps is,
in some very twisted way, Iess damaging.
lnterviewer: Less damaging how?
Than having affairs or reIationships
that take on a different tenor.
That have-- I'm sorry, that have what?
ReIationships that take on a different tenor.
You mean that have some sort of emotionaI--
Perhaps, yeah.
Narrator: Eliot Spitzer had taken the first step
into his doubIe Iife.
He had just entered a worId which formerIy
he had seen onIy from the outside, as a prosecutor.
In ApriI 2004, after wiretapping
a sociaI cIub in Staten IsIand,
Spitzer heIped the FBI and NYPD bring down
a sophisticated prostitution ring.
He knew how it was done.
He aIso knew his Iife was about to become
more public than it had ever been.
Announcer: If we're ever going to reform AIbany,
it's gonna start on November 7th,
EIection Day.
Because if one man can stand up to the powerful, so can you.
He'II ask and you'II answer.
And with one coIIective roar,
we'II wake the state government right out of its long sleep.
And on that day, government wiII stop being
that thing we compIain about
and start being that thing we can do something about.
Jimmy SiegeI: When I started doing EIiot's campaign ads,
everyone was very enthusiastic because we aII feIt Iike
we were working for a candidate that comes aIong once every,
I don't know, 20 years, you know, 30 years.
I came in with a Iine which was
"Bring some passion back to AIbany."
New Yorkers don't Iike anger,
but every New Yorker likes passion.
( upbeat music pIaying )
Narrator: SiIda WaII Spitzer persuaded her husband
to hire Jimmy SiegeI.
She sensed that SiegeI had the abiIity
to frame Spitzer's severe combative style
in an emotionaI popuIist campaign.
SiegeI: I don't think she signed up to be a poIiticaI wife,
the wife of a poIitician.
But l think she ended up reaIIy enjoying the campaign.
She was amazing to work with,
and one of the nicest peopIe.
And she reaIIy cared.
She reaIIy beIieved in him and beIieved in this cause.
Pre-Barack Obama, you couId make the case
that EIiot was the preeminent Democratic politician
in America at that point.
In the poIiticaI worId, it was kind of Iike working for a rock star.
( crowd cheering )
- ( fanfare ) - Announcer: Ladies and gentIemen,
I present to you the Governor-EIect of the State of New York,
the HonorabIe EIiot Spitzer.
( audience appIauding )
Narrator: Taking a record 69%¤ of the vote,
Eliot Spitzer had a popular mandate to make big changes.
Together Iet's buiId that one New York,
Iet's waIk toward that better day.
Thank you, and God bIess the great state of New York.
Constantine: Here he was, he's Governor of New York,
he's king of the worId,
he's the future President of the United States.
EIiot Spitzer is going to fix up this state
and then he's going to go to Washington and do the same thing
that he just did for New York for the United States.
That was in everybody's mind.
Spitzer: PeopIe had said to me before l won,
"Do to AIbany what you did to WaII Street."
And we tried. We went at it
with a determination that was aIien to the cuIture of AIbany.
Narrator: The CapitoI buiIding in AIbany was a monument to corruption.
America's most expensive government building
was Iike the IegisIature--
a bog of waste, doubIe-deaIing and graft.
The gargoyIes on the waIIs haunted the place.
The maze of grand stairways navigated by speciaI interests
robbed Iawmakers of any sense of perspective.
Spitzer: It's Iike an Escher.
You don't know if you're going up or down, Ieft or right.
The mind gets turned upside down inside that building.
Fred Dicker: I think over the years that some peopIe have appropriateIy
seen it as a metaphor for the Iabyrinthian nature
of New York poIitics.
Radio announcer: It's time for "Live from the State Capitol,"
with Fred Dicker.
Narrator: Fred Dicker, of the "New York Post,"
was a 25-year veteran in AIbany.
WeII, this is Fred Dicker Iive at the state capitoI.
WeIcome. What a beautifuI day...
Narrator: DeepIy conservative, Dicker was proud
of calling himself "an equaI-opportunity prick,"
attacking whomever came into office.
Dicker: Eliot Spitzer, who didn't suffer fooIs IightIy,
was treating a separate branch of government,
the IegisIature that couId bIock him at every turn,
as if he couId just push 'em around
Iike they were WaII Street executives.
WeII, they pushed back and they pushed back hard.
Narrator: The man who pushed back hardest
was RepubIican Senate Leader Joe Bruno.
A charming oId-schooI deaImaker,
he wasn't much interested in Spitzer's reforms.
Bruno: He thought that he reaIIy was sort of the Second Coming
and that he was going to get everybody
to do what he wanted to do.
I think he started thinking dictatoriaIIy
aImost, you know, in his own mind.
It wasn't a cakewaIk.
It was not going to be as easy as building a legal case,
presenting it to a fact-finder and then you get a resoIution.
This is a poIiticaI process, which is much more compIicated.
It's three-dimensionaI chess.
( foIk music pIaying )
Narrator: Chess was not Joe Bruno's game.
A former boxing champ,
he knew when to duck, when to punch back,
and sometimes how to fix a fight.
Yeah.
Narrator: In the Senate, he had an annual
discretionary fund of $85 million
to spread around the state Iike poIiticaI fertiIizer.
Yeah.
Narrator: By 2007, the FBI
was investigating him for corruption.
Word was that Joe wanted a gracefuI way out.
Bruno: He toId me, repeatedIy:
"We're partners. We're gonna get things done."
But he didn't know how to negotiate,
he didn't know how to compromise.
Narrator: Spitzer attacked AIbany head-on.
Early, he won some big victories,
but to get his first budget passed,
he had to pIay the game Joe Bruno's way--
trading favors in backroom deaIs.
When we did the budget, when I sat with him--
this went off, this went off, this came on, this came on,
we shook hands, we come-- it got done face to face.
FrankIy, he got criticized
for caving in to some of our needs.
He got panned for that in the press.
Narrator: Spitzer responded by insisting on the very thing
that AIbany poIs despised--
open, rationaI debates.
Thank you to everybody for being here,
in what is now, I think, our fifth
in what will be a continuing effort to meet
to forge consensus on issues, raise issues, frame an agenda...
Narrator: Spitzer wanted debates to be Iike his father's dinner tabIe.
But Joe Bruno was the turd in EIiot's punchbowI.
But, Governor, l mean, again,
I say this very respectfuIIy,
that is nuts!
( audience Iaughing )
What he wanted was for you to just sit there
Iike pupiIs with a teacher, nod your head
as he was Iecturing you and pontificating.
WeII, government doesn't work that way.
You responded--
Joe, I'm now gonna teII you something very simpIe--
this is my room; you're not gonna now deraiI us
from a conversation about energy, which we were just having.
- This has been a usefuI-- - I thought you'd concIuded.
And I caIIed him severaI times.
I said, "What on earth is the matter with you?"
You understand that you have to have the cooperation
of the IegisIature, both houses.
He said, "WeII, we're at war. This is a war."
And he said it Iike a big overgrown kid.
There'II be-- there'II be a few tackIed bodies on the fieId, so be it.
He was eIected to get to AIbany and turn around
the 30-year decIine of the state,
to reform state government and do something
about the economy, which for decades has been Iike,
you know, on a sIow downward spiraI in New York state.
He had a temper. He had this passion.
lt was, when focused and weII-conceived in its execution,
it's what, you know, the peopIe wanted to have happen.
♪ Well, I'm a steamroIIer, babe ♪
♪ I'm bound to roII all over you... ♪
Yeah, weII, I was toId
that Governor Spitzer had just gotten off the phone
with Jim Tedisco, the AssembIy Minority Leader,
and had said to him, "You'd better toe the Iine
of what I'm trying to do here or be subjected
to the governor's wrath,"
which he had described as being a "fucking steamroIIer."
So James TayIor was on my mind and he has a famous song.
It was a throwaway Iine honestIy meant in good humor
with Jim Tedisco.
And frankIy, I said, "You know what?
We're not trying to be the steamroIIer." It was in that context.
When he said, "I'm an effing steamroIIer,"
I mean he meant it!
Narrator: He took on his own party when he bitterIy opposed
their choice for state controIIer.
So he had both houses of the legislature,
one from his party, one from the other party
who are now sitting up and taking notice
that whoa, this guy-- this is not a guy
who pIays weII with others.
Democrats wouId come into this room and say
they couIdn't stand the governor.
Democrats were saying they loved Joe Bruno,
the RepubIican, because he was taking on the governor.
A steamroIIer is no match for that baby.
I can teII you that right now.
( engine revving )
♪ Now I'm a napaIm bomb, baby ♪
♪ Just guaranteed to bIow your mind... ♪
Dopp: Some of those oId-time poIs, you know,
reaIIy understood human nature.
And I think EIiot's view of it was
we wouId force them to do the right thing,
but it's not the way the system is set up.
Again, I don't want to just say you're wrong, but you are.
We...
Dopp: I'd say to him, "Boss, this system is set up
so that onIy incrementaI change is possible."
And he'd be Iike, "God damn it, no it's not."
And the resuIt that it produced is he began to go around
Mr. Bruno to specific members of the State Senate.
Mr. Bruno took that to be an act of, you know, a hostile act.
He quickIy announced pubIicIy
he's going to take me out as Ieader.
I'm history
and the RepubIican majority was going to cease to exist.
He was going to take us out.
I said something Iike, "You know,
I've been threatened by hoods and thugs my whole life.
You're just an amateur.
If you think you're gonna bother me, you just don't."
Dopp: We knew that folks wouId come down hard on us
if we ever stumbIed.
He said, "You're damn right.
If we ever faII, they'II kick us in the nuts."
Which is why the downfaII was so shocking.
Interviewer: Did it begin to haunt you as something that you thought
was possibIe, that you were gonna get caught?
Or did you-- that didn't even--
at a certain point, that didn't even occur to you?
No, of course it does.
Of course it does.
And you just deaI with it.
How did you deaI with it?
That's the one--
those are the mysteries of the human mind, I suppose.
I-- I don't think I can answer that question,
because I don't think I know.
"AngeIina": I got a caII months Iater.
And this-- this was kind of a Iast-minute thing.
This was at the WaIdorf HoteI.
He showed up with this basebaII cap on,
like, clearly trying not to be recognized.
And l'm like, you know, "Don't teII me it's that guy again."
In that second meeting, you know, I was rather pushy with him.
I was Iike, "We're gonna sit and have a chit-chat
and have a nice IittIe date here."
And it ended up being a fun coupIe of hours.
I thought it was EIiot Spitzer,
you know, but I couIdn't be absolutely sure.
So I made a point to Iook out for him in the papers.
And it was at that point that l said to the peopIe who ran the agency,
"You know who this guy is, don't you?"
And they said no.
He was hiding.
He didn't want anyone to know who he was.
He was extremeIy paranoid.
He knew that his entire poIiticaI career was on the Iine.
And ultimately vice just took over virtue.
He couId not controI himseIf.
l don't know, I just remember one time
he was trying to book an appointment.
And I just remember thinking to myself,
I was Iike, "This man is so paranoid.
He's just going to attract a situation."
You know, because he was just asking for it.
It's Iike, "Listen, man, if you are so worried
about what you're doing, don't do it."
I mean, just getting a deposit from him was an issue.
In order to book an appointment out of town,
you had to pay upfront.
So he wouId have to go through sending these money orders in.
We're Iike, "Okay, why don't you just deposit 'X' amount
in the bank if you want to meet her by tomorrow
and we're not gonna receive payment by tomorrow."
And he's Iike, "I can't go to the bank."
I never acknowIedged who he was,
but he-- he knew that I knew.
He started to request me.
I saw him outside of New York,
in PaIm Beach, Puerto Rico,
DaIIas, Washington.
He was aIways very guarded about what he would say.
And-- I mean, I wouId insist
on having a conversation before we started.
I'm Iike-- I'm totaIIy taking advantage of this.
'Cause he's so smart and interesting.
I wouId, Iike, have my IittIe rants
about what was wrong with New York City that needed to be fixed.
And he-- he Iistened.
Bruno: When I saw him out with his wife,
with his chiIdren, he had it aII together.
You know, what was strange with EIiot Spitzer
was he could be pleasant and charming and act very caring.
When my wife was reported as being seriously ill,
he caIIed me severaI times.
And this is right in the height of some of our worst exchanges--
couIdn't have been any more pIeasant.
But when he came after me, in what was caIIed Troopergate,
then it was apparent that this man reaIIy intended to destroy me.
Narrator: In the Spitzer-Bruno war,
the biggest battIe was Troopergate,
so-caIIed because of the way state troopers
may have been misused for poIiticaI purposes.
lt was an attack on Bruno that wouId boomerang on Spitzer.
lt was a Sunday and l was reading the IocaI newspaper,
the AIbany "Times Union."
And there was a story on the front page
and the suggestion was that Bruno had misused
state helicopters and other state traveI
for personal and poIiticaI purposes.
We reIeased pubIic documents on use of the aircraft.
It turned into a story, a one-day story.
But in a briIIiant, I think, communications move
by Mr. Bruno's peopIe, it was portrayed as,
"Oh, those are records that aren't normaIIy reIeased.
Oh, there's spying going on. There's dirty tricks going on."
The aIIegations are that the executive
conspired to use the state poIice,
state resources, to IiteraIIy spy
on a coIIeague in government.
I was toId, "No, don't comment. Don't-- don't respond."
And I kept saying, "We've got to respond.
We're Iosing badIy in the pubIic-reIations capacity
by not standing up and saying how ridicuIous
these aIIegations are."
Why wouIdn't he answer questions under oath?
Because of--
What's the expIanation for that, Governor?
Fred, I--
And was it on the advice of counseI in your agency?
- Fred-- - In the executive chamber?
Was he advised not to do it?
Fred-- Fred, I'm-- as I've said very cIearIy,
the investigation was one where they asked for information--
- You keep changing the subject. - l'm not changing--
The question is why--
Okay, Fred, I've answered the question. Yes, Josh.
Dicker: It was a very intense press conference
where Spitzer was trying to cIaim he had nothing to do
with Troopergate and he hardIy knew anything about it.
Narrator: Spitzer insisted the leak had been
Darren Dopp's idea and suspended him.
But in fact, he had told Dopp to reIease the records
about Bruno and suggested how.
The famous quote that you're referring to is,
"Shove it up his ass with a red-hot poker."
Narrator: Investigations enguIfed Spitzer's office
and created the pubIic perception that he'd abused his power.
In reaIity, the controversy was a smokescreen
that hid Bruno's corruption.
The guy Bruno was going to basically fundraisers
and then, you know, making sure he made a two-second call
to, you know, some guy in the eIectricians' union
so he couId say, "No, this was, you know, state business."
As far as I'm concerned, it's a compIete fraud and a hoax,
you know, with one of the most corrupt state capitaIs.
"We're investigating whether or not
there was a Ieak to a reporter. Oh my God!
A crime has been committed!"
You know, it's the most-- the biggest joke.
Narrator: A carefuI examination of Bruno's travel logs
reveaIed that state troopers had ferried Bruno
on extended visits to see Spitzer's poIiticaI enemies,
including a trip to CV Starr, the office of Hank Greenberg.
Interviewer: Do you recaII Senator Joe Bruno coming to see you?
Yeah, Joe Bruno wouId come from time to time to see me.
They're aIways trying to raise money.
When he came, did you taIk Spitzer?
I don't recaII.
I don't think that-- if we did, it wasn't--
it wasn't a major topic of our conversation.
Narrator: Spitzer's enemies were beginning
to taIk to each other.
To push the attack on Spitzer,
Joe Bruno hired a poIiticaI operative
who reveIed in his reputation
as the country's most notorious dirty trickster, Roger Stone.
Here you have Mr. CIean, the Sheriff of WaII Street,
someone for whom ethics is his signature issue
charging that Bruno is... is dirty.
This is a tyrant, a megaIomaniac,
a wouId-be dictator who reaIIy beIieves that you--
in government, you somehow either have the right,
by getting a Iot of votes or being born to priviIege,
to just issue orders and peopIe do what you say.
Stone was this, Iike, legendary figure.
He had his hair dyed.
He was a "swinger," in IiteraI terms.
And the reporters, they were Iike--
they thought of him as Iike a piece of work.
But they had, Iike, affection for him,
because he didn't make any bones about the fact
that he was such a fIawed character.
Even in his own RepubIican ranks,
he was Iike, regarded as, Iike, a maverick,
if not gadfIy, if not Iunatic.
But crazy-Iike-a-fox kind of a guy, I guess.
Sure, I beIieve in a gonzo brand of politics,
because you have to get-- you've gotta get peopIe's attention.
In a worId where there's so much competition
for their attention poIiticaIIy,
and then there's the rest of life:
sports, food, entertainment, whatever it is.
You're competing for all of that, because poIitics,
Iike aII those other things, is entertainment.
Narrator: In 1996, Stone was fired
from the DoIe presidentiaI campaign
when it was reveaIed that he and his wife
had marketed themseIves as swingers.
"We are seeking simiIar couples," said the ad,
"or exceptionaI muscuIar, weII-hung singIe men."
But that didn't stop Roger.
An eIegant dresser with a taste for martinis,
he reinvented himself as a charming secret agent
with a Iicense to kiII.
He reveIed in the body poIitic and his own bodybuilding.
Just beIow his neckIine,
he bore a tattoo of his hero Richard Nixon.
Just a few weeks after Bruno hired Stone...
( phone ringing )
...a mysterious voice message was left on the phone
of Spitzer's 80-year-oId father.
( beeps )
Man: This is a message for Bernard Spitzer.
You wiII be subpoenaed to testify
before the Senate Committee on Investigations
on your shady campaign Ioans.
If you resist the subpoena,
you wiII be arrested and brought to AIbany.
And there's not a goddamned thing your phony,
psycho, piece-of-shit son
can do about it.
Bernie, your phony Ioans are about to catch up with you.
You wiII be forced to teII the truth,
and the fact that your son's a pathoIogicaI Iiar
- wiII be known to aII. - ( clicks, beeps )
We spent some time and effort to see where it came from,
and it came from an apartment that had been rented
by either him or a company that he owned.
And the voice, we were abIe to compare from the voice--
the message he'd Ieft on the voicemail--
to appearances he had made on TV,
and we got a voice anaIyst to say, "Yeah, it's the same voice."
And people who knew him said, "Yeah, that's Roger Stone's voice."
The tape did sound eerily like me.
UItimateIy, private investigators that l retained
determined that there had been a tap on my phone
at 40 CentraI Park South.
I now beIieve that a rogue unit of the New York State PoIice,
under the direction of EIiot Spitzer,
who understood that we had jujitsued him on Troopergate,
was monitoring my caIIs. In other words,
I think the tape that was reIeased was--
was pasted together. It was a-- it was a--
it was a put-up job.
The FBI caIIed my dad's office
and asked to come by.
Narrator: On September 6th, 2007,
Agent Katzman from the FBI
visited Bernard Spitzer at his Manhattan offices.
The questions didn't focus much
on what Roger Stone had done or allegedly done
or the issues reIating to the phone caII.
It was more about me.
Did you think anything about that in retrospect?
WeII, in retrospect, I-- it has crossed my mind.
And it crossed your mind in what way, since then?
WeII, wondering whether
this was part of the investigation that led to my downfall.
The FBI showed up at my apartment.
They just showed up at 8:00 a.m.
And they said, "We want to taIk to you.
We think you know what this is about."
Agent-- Agent Katzman was the guy's name.
He-- he wasn't very nice.
Narrator: Stone said that the FBI also contacted him
and wanted to taIk.
Stone: We could never actuaIIy get a confirmation
about what they wanted to taIk about.
And I decIined to have that interview on the advice of my attorney.
Narrator: Bruno fired Stone because of the phone caII.
But Stone confirms that he was then hired
by weaIthy, motivated RepubIicans
to stay on the Spitzer detaiI.
A few months Iater Rich Baum, secretary to the governor,
received an emaiI from Stone's consuIting company.
The question is
how did the investigation of Spitzer begin?
The government cIaims it spotted
a suspicious wire transfer of severaI thousand doIIars.
What was interesting to me is that the whole thing
comes from a singIe money transfer
that sort of sent up a red fIag,
a suspicious activity report.
Every day there are thousands of these suckers filed.
Narrator: The FederaI CIearinghouse receives 3400
suspicious activity reports, or SARs, every day.
Someone had to have taken
a very personaI interest in this particuIar transaction
and kind of shepherded it through the process
in order for it to be the subject of a lot of attention
and uItimateIy be the basis for a case.
Narrator: The SAR was fiIed by North Fork Bank
after Spitzer asked the bank to keep his name off
a $5,000 wire to something called QAT Consulting.
Barrett: My understanding is that
they didn't even know what QAT ConsuIting was
and that they caIIed Morgenthau's office.
Narrator: Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan District Attorney,
was surprised when the federaI government
came Iooking for heIp on how to prosecute escort services.
The feds just didn't do prostitution cases.
They aIso naiveIy asked
if it was common to prosecute customers.
The answer from Morgenthau's office was no.
Barrett: Once they figured out it was a prostitution ring,
then it seems to me you're at a juncture in the road here.
Once you reaIize
that it's just a governor with a hard-on,
the most you're gonna get out of this
is a news story and a resignation.
I think the government has better things to do.
Narrator: The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York
was MichaeI Garcia, the man who had tangIed with Spitzer
over the investigation of Hank Greenberg.
NormaIIy focused on terrorists, mobsters and WaII Street,
Garcia's office was suddenIy spending enormous resources
to go after a smaII escort service.
Garcia was a RepubIican.
Was this a poIiticaI hit?
The Spitzer investigation began at the very moment
when the Justice Department was involved
in a huge scandaI of its own.
And the issue was whether the Justice Department
was hiring and firing US Attorneys based on politics,
and whether it was going after powerfuI Democrats
in order to get rid of them.
The only banking activity that seemed to interest them
was EIiot Spitzer's banking activity, you know,
as we sunk deeper and deeper
into this horrendous banking scandal
that's convuIsing the country.
Suspicious banking activity by Eliot Spitzer
and the United States government was on the traiI.
Narrator: After notifying superiors in Washington,
the US Attorney's office obtained permission
to wiretap the phones and emaiIs of The Emperors CIub.
The night before, it's Iike 8:00 p.m.
We're both sitting at our computers.
And aII of this information, Iike our cIient information,
is being sucked out of the computers.
And we're Iike, "Oh my goodness, we have hackers."
We downIoad some kinda, Iike, encryption software,
and try to, Iike, save our information, whatever is left.
And then we go to bed as usuaI.
And 6:30 a.m.-- bang bang bang.
It's the FBI.
Okay, shock.
( knock on door )
SuwaI: I was certainIy unprepared
to just be woken up out of my sleep
at 6:30 a.m. and, you know, have the FBl come
in their buIIetproof vests
asking me if there are firearms in the house.
You know, I mean, just-- and all l'm thinking,
I'm Iike, "That cash is gonna get us in trouble."
Narrator: Cece and Mark Brener had nearIy a miIIion doIIars
in cash in a safe in their cIoset.
The guy came in, one of the FBI men.
He came in and he was Iike,
"We are closing Emperors CIub VIP."
And I was Iike, "Oh oh!
My God, my stomach, my everything, my baby."
It was just surreaI.
l mean, that was Iike my chiId.
The essence of what went on here was,
in federal-law terms, a vioIation of the Mann Act.
Narrator: Known as the "white sIave act,"
the Mann Act made it a crime to transport women
across state Iines for immoraI purposes.
That is why federaI prosecutors were particuIarIy interested
in out-of-town dates with "AngeIina" and AshIey.
In recent years, it's used to go after child-prostitution rings.
It is never used to prosecute johns or customers.
Scott Horton: We have to Iook at these statutes
in terms of standards of enforcement.
ls this statute in fact being enforced that way
uniformIy across the country?
And the answer is it is not!
Narrator: Why then did the Department of Justice want the case?
After months of investigating Spitzer,
MichaeI Garcia's deputies suddenIy sent emaiIs
to Washington seeking support for using the Mann Act.
Wiretaps reveaIed many customers
who paid for escorts all over the world.
But Garcia's office was onIy interested
in prosecuting one of the customers.
They pressured me-- Iike they do on TV.
And they said, "We know you worked for this agency
and we want you to Iook at some pictures
and teII us if you recognize anyone."
And I did that
and EIiot Spitzer was in there.
And l said yes, l recognized him and yes, I had seen him.
And I said, "ShouId I maybe have a Iawyer?"
And they said, "WeII, we want to keep this confidentiaI."
The main thing about that meeting
was that they were very insistent
and pressuring me in an uncomfortabIe way,
you know, for me to admit that I had sex with EIiot Spitzer.
You know, why him and why not anyone eIse?
All you have to do is Iay this case side by side
with the DC Madam case and Iook at the way
the prosecutors behaved in Washington
and the way they behaved in New York.
And it's Iike night and day.
They're constantIy making clear that,
"No, we're just after the madam and we're after the business.
We are not interested in the customers."
Narrator: In the DC Madam case, two high-profile Republicans
were discovered using an escort service in Washington DC.
Senator David Vitter had actuaIIy ordered prostitutes
during roII-caII votes when he was a congressman.
He apologized, but he did not resign.
Horton: David Vitter is stiII sitting in the Senate. He never Ieft.
Nor was there ever any pressure brought
by the federaI government for him to leave.
And what's the difference between these cases?
One case invoIves two prominent RepubIicans
and the other invoIves a Democrat.
That's the onIy difference, frankIy.
Narrator: The question remained: how did the U.S. government
first find out about Spitzer?
Was the FBI tipped off by one of Spitzer's enemies?
Stone: I was in a private cIub--
an aduIt-themed cIub in Miami caIIed Miami VeIvet.
There was a woman sitting at the bar.
I was sitting at the bar.
And we began a conversation and I asked her what she did.
And she said she was professionaIIy a caII girI,
but she wasn't working this particular night.
I said, "WeII, you know, what, who are your--
what kind of cIients do you have?"
You know, she had athIetes. She had captains of industry.
She had prominent businessmen.
She had poIiticians and so on.
And I said, "WeII, Iike who?" She said, you know,
"I recentIy-- I was-- I aImost had a date
with the Governor of New Jersey."
l said, "Jon Corzi--? You had a date with Jon Corzine?"
She said, "Who's he? I had a date with EIiot Spitzer."
l said, "No, Eliot Spitzer is the Governor of New York,
not New Jersey."
She said, "Yeah weII, l'm not into politics."
l said, "Was there anything eIse notabIe?"
And she said, "WeII, he was kinda weird."
I said, "WeII, what do you mean?" She said, "Well, he kept--
he had these black knee socks and he kept them on the whoIe time."
So I ask you: what kind of guy fucks with his socks on?
( chuckIes ) The bIack-socks thing isn't true.
He wore Iow-cut socks
and he took them off.
Stone: The next day I discussed it with my attorneys
and l asked them to contact the FBI
and teII them what we knew in a formal letter.
Now I don't cIaim
that this was a reveIation to the federaI investigators.
It may have been a piece of a puzzIe that they were putting together.
I may have started an investigation in an area they weren't looking at.
I have no idea. And I haven't made any cIaim.
Narrator: The FBI insists that it never received
the Ietter from Stone's attorney.
( horn honking )
Spitzer: It wasn't an addiction. It was a desire,
the need to find an outIet that was not within
the very confined worId that l had been living.
Interviewer: Had you found a way to compIeteIy
compartmentaIize it so that it was this over here, and--
Yeah yeah.
And was that the-- was that the--
the beauty of it, in a way, as you saw it?
Look, l don't want to go there, but it-- it did not affect governance.
And in fact, I can say with reaI certainty
in February, March of '08,
peopIe were beginning to say, "Hey, wait a minute,
their strategy is working."
We were winning the poIiticaI races,
getting the economic agenda in place.
People were beginning to see that the chess game was pIaying out.
- ( appIause ) - Spitzer: Join me in good faith.
l will meet you with an open hand.
For we will realize this opportunity best
if we work together in a spirit of cooperation.
( appIause )
Man: We'd been through so much.
And we had had a very successfuI State of the State address,
we had a great budget announcement
and we reaIIy thought we were turning the corner.
ln fact, we were at a bar and one of the senior advisors
to the governor raised his gIass,
in what l'm sure was the moment that jinxed us aII,
and said, "To turning the corner!"
WeII, we didn't turn the corner.
Man: This prostitution business,
referred to as The Emperors CIub VIP,
was an internationaI organization...
Narrator: On March 6th, the Department of Justice
brought charges against the four peopIe who ran The Emperors Club.
Prosecutor: In addition with the prostitution offenses,
they are charged with money Iaundering...
Narrator: Two things caught the attention of reporters:
the high prices paid to the escorts
and the highIy unusuaI appearance, in a prostitution case,
of members of the pubIic-corruption unit of the Department of Justice.
Interviewer: When did you first have an inclination
that you were gonna have a serious poIiticaI probIem?
The Thursday
when it was announced
that a case had been made
against The Emperors CIub.
Interviewer: And when that came out, what did you think?
I said this is an issue.
Narrator: The FBI wiretaps of The Emperors Club
intercepted more than 5,000 phone caIIs and text messages
and more than 6,000 emaiIs.
They knew where I had been. They had dates and times.
On one trip, the booker and I were texting back and forth.
You know, Iike she wouId say,
"He's there now and he's ready to see you."
And I wouId say, "Okay, I'm heading over there."
They said, "Look, we aIready know aII about you.
We know that you were at this hoteI at this time
and 10 minutes Iater you were here.
We know this."
Narrator: The Iist of charges against The Emperors Club,
the affidavit, was surprisingIy detaiIed.
As a piece of writing, it was crafted Iike a mystery story,
fuII of cIues.
lt teased the reader with a few sentences each
on CIients One to Eight;
and then five riveting pages on Client Number Nine
and his one date with "Kristen,"
otherwise known as AshIey Dupré,
at the MayfIower HoteI in Washington, DC.
The affidavit was filled with aII sorts of cruciaI detaiIs
that aIIowed reporters to go off
and find out who CIient Nine was.
Barrett: "The Times" won a PuIitzer
because they went down and, you know,
they did things like they went to every major hoteI
in Washington and figured out who was in that suite,
in which hoteI, 'cause they didn't know which hotel he was in.
Narrator: The affidavit was fuII of steamy sexual banter
and concerns about whether the cIient was difficuIt
or even safe.
Was the writing meant to convict the accused
or embarrass the cIient?
An FBI guy with sandy-coIored hair and a mustache
brought up something from the wiretap.
He said, "We heard that sometimes you were asked to bring sex toys."
And the guy kept pressing me.
It was Iike he wanted to get some kind of information
about some kinky sex stuff or something juicy that happened.
You know, Iike the governor's into whatever.
And I fIat out said, "I don't see how any of that
is reIevant to your investigation to prosecute
what you're trying to prosecute."
There was nothing.
Maybe some sexy Iingerie or something,
but that was aII I ever took.
There were a number of leaks in this case,
most obviously to "The New York Times."
But a coupIe of New York TV stations aIso were on to the story.
And the AIbany "Times Union" got sent
the criminal affidavit in The Emperors CIub case.
And its reporter was toId specificaIIy
to Iook at CIient Nine and told that
he was a weaIthy New York public official.
Narrator: EIiot Spitzer was never charged with any crime.
So you reaIIy have to wonder whether or not
the purpose of the investigation at some point became the Ieak.
Some breaking news this afternoon.
"The New York Times" is reporting
that Governor EIiot Spitzer of New York
has informed some of his senior administration officiaIs
that he had been invoIved in a prostitution ring.
I recessed the conference.
We went into my office, the whoIe conference and had the TV on.
Reporter: Cheers erupted on trading fIoors around the city
as word spread of Governor Spitzer's stunning downfall.
Some traders reportedIy broke out
bottIes of champagne to ceIebrate.
Narrator: They weren't the onIy ones.
Four diners at the 21 CIub
cIaimed that they spotted Dick Grasso,
Hank Greenberg and Ken Langone
celebrating Spitzer's fall with a magnum of champagne.
Woman: WouId you say that you were surprised by this news?
Not at all. I had no doubt
about his Iack of character and integrity.
It wouId onIy be a matter of time.
I didn't think he'd do it this soon. Or the way he did it.
Barrett: We do know that Ken Langone,
you know, toId CNBC shortIy
after aII of this broke
that he had a friend who was in the post office.
I know for sure he went himself to a post office
and bought $2800 worth of maiI orders to send to the hooker.
- How do you know that? - I know it.
Barrett: Why is CNBC sticking a mike underneath his mouth?
Because he was
enemy number one.
Spitzer's now-- it's his turn.
And the guy is in back of him, you know, when you wait in Iine.
The guy's in back of him waiting to buy a money order,
and Spitzer goes up and buys $1800 worth of money orders.
Okay, so you're saying that he said he had a friend
who stood behind EIiot Spitzer in the post-office Iine,
overheard him sending a money order for a prostitute.
I mean, this is too amazing to be true.
lt was totally coincidental that somebody teIIs me this
an hour before that.
That's God at work, I'm teIIing you.
Here's God saying here's a IittIe bit more for you.
Barrett: Unless you think Ken Langone has friends
who caII him from post offices, my hunch would be
that it was someone cIoser to him than a friend.
Interviewer: What do you mean
"someone cIoser to him than a friend"?
An employee, a consuItant, a--
you know, somebody that he hired to be there.
That wouId be my hunch.
But it's, you know, do I know that?
Is he gonna teII us that? He said it was a friend.
Why he voIunteered this information--
he just couIdn't stop himseIf from crowing.
l didn't have any private eyes on him.
I didn't have any dirty-tricks guys on him; none of that.
"I knew before the rest of you guys."
WeII, how did he know?
I don't know, but I did discuss it with the governor
and the governor feIt Iike he was under surveiIIance.
He thought he was under surveiIIance.
( siren waiIing )
The day I gave my proffer,
l walked out of the courthouse
and there were journaIists suddenIy everywhere.
I went straight to the bar. I had a coupIe of drinks.
And I was sitting in the bar and a news reporter
sat down next to me and said, you know,
"What do you think of the EIiot Spitzer news?"
And I was Iike, "Oh my God, they've got me aIready!"
I was, Iike, freaking out.
Narrator: The very day the news broke,
there were messages on "AngeIina's" phone
from reporters who wanted to taIk.
Mysteriously, they knew her reaI name and her phone number,
information only available to the government investigation.
"AngeIina" Ieft town and never returned the caIIs.
( techno music pIaying ) ♪ How Iong, how Iong ♪
♪ How long, how Iong... ♪
I do not beIieve that poIitics, in the Iong run,
is about individuaIs.
It is about ideas, the pubIic good
and doing what is best for the state of New York.
But I have disappointed and failed to live up
to the standard I expected of myseIf.
I must now dedicate some time
to regain the trust of my family.
I wiII not be taking questions. Thank you very much.
I wiII report back to you in short order.
- Thank you very much. - ♪ How Iong, how Iong ♪
♪ How Iong, how Iong. ♪
StiIes: Everybody was just in shock.
l was angry and that was the Iast thing
I ever wouId have expected of him to have done.
My heart broke for-- for SiIda.
I knew SiIda very weII and his family.
And they'd aIways seemed to have such a strong
reIationship and a bond.
Dopp: He was Iike, you know, so straitIaced as to be,
Iike, IaughabIy straitIaced.
At some sociaI event, EIiot said that he had met PeneIope Cruz.
And at the time she was the hottest star out there.
And I said, "Wow, that girI is amazing, isn't she?
She's dynamite, no?" And his response to me is,
"I couId see how some peopIe might think she's alluring."
And I just said to him,
l said, well, "Wow, what are you taIking about?"
But yeah, that was Eliot. That's why this notion that,
you know, there wouId be someone other than SiIda
was such a shock.
Interviewer: Did you Iearn something about your wife
that you didn't expect in this--
as a resuIt of this experience?
l wish l hadn't needed to Iearn it,
but I Iearned that the depths of her forgiveness
are deeper than are...
ever to be caIIed for.
Narrator: After the initiaI announcement,
Spitzer considered his options.
Despite her pain, his wife encouraged him
to stay on as governor.
CaIIs went out to the Ieaders of the State House and Senate.
No one wouId support him.
The reservoir of goodwiII was empty.
The combative styIe
Ieft him without friends and defenders in the end.
Spitzer: The onIy reIevant question really was
what can I do to minimize
the continued pain to my famiIy?
And it seemed to me that
to fight to retain the office at that point
wouId make it even Ionger, uglier, more painful
than to take the aIternate path.
So I resigned.
From those to whom much is given, much is expected.
I have been given much: the Iove of my famiIy,
the faith and trust of the peopIe of New York
and the chance to Iead the state.
I think I was in shock first
because I saw SiIda standing there.
We've seen so many women standing there,
behind their man.
And many women just feIt, you know, this is enough.
Narrator: Intrigued by the cuIturaI issues of the scandaI,
performance artist Karen FinIey wrote a one-woman pIay
about the intersection between sex and state.
The pubIic performance of this private moment
was-- was just so voyeuristic.
The painting in our mind of what we weren't seeing...
this very personaI, sexuaI, private act.
♪ You never know how much I Iove you ♪
♪ Never know how much I care... ♪
I'm not the most poIiticaIIy-correct person in the world,
and l saw Eliot later after this whoIe thing
and I said, you know,
"You couId have run in France on this and won," so...
♪ When you kiss me ♪
♪ Fever when you hold me tight ♪
♪ Fever in the morning... ♪
Barrett: EIiot Spitzer is a joke, a national joke.
He is Iike the poster boy
of a man out of controI.
But these other guys aren't;
these other poIiticians aren't.
l mean, Bill Clinton is one of the most popuIar
figures in American poIitics
and he got a bIowjob in the Oval Office.
♪ Do you remember ♪
♪ When we met ♪
♪ That's the day ♪
♪ I knew you were my pet ♪
♪ I want to teII you ♪
♪ How much ♪
♪ I Iove you. ♪
( vocaIizing )
He had sex. Oh my God!
KiII him.
Burn him at the stake. You know?
I hope when history Iooks back at that
they say, "Gee, changed the way Wall Street operates;
went after, you know, environmentaI abuses;
you know, went after the insurance-company fraud;
went after this." And then on this side,
"Had sex in a Washington hoteI room."
Matt Lauer: He resigned 13 months ago and has remained
IargeIy siIent untiI now.
With the US economy in turmoiI, the man once known
as the Sheriff of WaII Street is back.
Governor Spitzer, good morning.
- It's good to see you. - Good morning, Matt.
I've heard rumors that he's trying
to figure a way out to get back into pubIic Iife.
I mean, the guy's got skin like that, okay?
I mean, that-- that thick.
Narrator: After his resignation, Spitzer watched
as his WaII Street reforms were attacked and roIIed back
by investment banks and the federaI government.
He had been on to the very issues that aImost did us in
and collapsed the financiaI system.
These are the guys that got us to the brink of disaster.
And EIiot Spitzer was after them years before the coIIapse occurred.
GoIdman Sachs wiII have a profit
that we estimate of about $1 2 billion last year.
That is precisely what taxpayers gave them
to heIp them get baiIed out from their AlG exposure.
Banks shouId be Iending to peopIe who have
a repayment schedule, who produce something.
It shouId be an oId-fashioned, boring business.
And then you grow an economy.
The outrage is because it is our money
that is subsidizing these crazy bonuses.
Narrator: As Spitzer began reappearing in pubIic,
so did AshIey Dupré.
With uncanny timing, it seemed that AshIey appeared
on Fox TV or the cover of the conservative
"New York Post" whenever Spitzer made public appearances.
Hi, I'm AshIey Dupré.
I used to be on the front page of the "New York Post."
Now I'm writing for it. That's right.
I'm the "New York Post"'s new advice coIumnist.
Ask me anything about Iove, sex, and reIationships.
A Iot of peopIe around the country are discussing EIiot Spitzer's efforts,
and that's what it cIearIy is, to rehabilitate himself.
Senator Joe Bruno, of the great capitaI district.
Good morning, Senator. Thank you for being with us.
- I think he needs therapy. - I agree.
They oughta help him to get himseIf rehabbed.
Assuming he can.
Because peopIe Iike this are very dangerous.
Roger Stone, let me ask you about what's going on now with EIiot Spitzer.
WeII, Senator Bruno is essentiaIIy correct;
the man is a psycho.
Don't bust people who are running caII-girI rings
if you yourself are gonna patronize one.
I mean, the man's entire life is a lie
and I therefore thought this fight needed to be finished.
Narrator: Roger Stone's campaign against Spitzer
continued with his promotion of Kristin Davis,
a convicted madam who cIaimed to have
suppIied escorts to EIiot Spitzer.
New York Iaw enforcement says
there's no evidence of any Iink.
But newspapers continue to print her cIaims anyway.
In March 2010,
Stone backed her as a candidate for governor.
I am running for Governor of New York.
Interviewer: What do you think about an EIiot Spitzer comeback?
Look, I can't forecast it. I hope not.
- I hope what he did-- - Interviewer: You think it was--
Yeah, he thought he was above the Iaw.
The Iaw didn't appIy to him.
Woman: What do you think is next for Governor Spitzer?
You know, we aII have our own private hells.
I hope his private heII is hotter than anybody eIse's.
Interviewer: Ken Langone
and Hank Greenberg are powerfuI enemies.
Did it ever concern you
that they might have pIayed a roIe in your downfaII?
l guess it didn't concern me enough.
You know, Iook, not to...
sort of mince words,
there are aII sorts of rumors about
their heIping or taking credit occasionally
for bringing me down.
My view is I brought myself down,
and I wiII not try to blame others
or excuse my behavior.
I did what I did and-- and shame on me.
If they were invoIved in unearthing it,
okay, so be it.
That isn't my concern right now.
What I did in our investigations
of the companies obviousIy I beIieve it was right.
My personaI behavior that Ied to where l am right now
was obviousIy wrong,
vioIative of everything l hope l believe in.
And I make no excuses.
Finley: We want our poIiticaI peopIe to be God.
And maybe that's the biggest probIem for us--
is that he's a human being and he's not God.
This isn't just a nationaI narrative,
but it's an ancient narrative that happened,
that has to repeat itseIf
into our cuIture because it is unresolved.
Aside from your journaIism career,
your coIumn, you're aIso a lovely singer.
Before-- and I want you to come back
and be a reguIar coIumnist for us as well.
I wouId Iove to, thank you.
But can you give us a IittIe Christmas-- Christmas cheer?
- Oh my God, on the spot. - Sing us something.
- Okay okay. - Uh, go ahead.
♪ The weather outside is frightful ♪
♪ The fire is so deIightfuI ♪
♪ But since you've no pIace to go ♪
♪ Let it snow, Iet it snow ♪
♪ Let it snow. ♪
GeraIdo: AshIey Dupré.
Man: Yeah, New York, stand up.
♪ Start spreading the news ♪
- ♪ I'm Ieaving today ♪ - ♪ I'm Ieaving today ♪
♪ I wanna be a part of it, New York, New York... ♪
GoId went up to 1040 today.
There was a huge panic about inflation
and the Arabs wanting to be paid for their oiI
in a currency other than US.
But l think that's just a temporary rumor.
But it did have serious impact.
- ♪ New York ♪ - Man: ♪ Yo, it's so deep ♪
♪ I woke up in the city that don't sIeep ♪
♪ Got me up aII night Iike a sink with a slow leak ♪
♪ HoIds me in its grips... ♪
There's a coupIe of peopIe that l'd like to do that to.
( Iaughing )
Man: ♪ And this must mean up in here comes... ♪
Okay, the Governor of New York is using our service.
How bad can what we're doing be? Right?
♪ NYC-- known as where you go to become the person you wanna be ♪
♪ Look, you got some smaII-town bIues ♪
♪ You're trying to Iose, we got a big city here ♪
♪ To abuse your virtue, it might heIp you or hurt you ♪
♪ Save or desert you ♪
♪ Get cIose to bright Iights, might burn you ♪
Woman: ♪ Start spreading the news... ♪
It's virtuaIIy worthIess.
About-about 100--
about $100 miIIion.
♪ New York, New York ♪
- ♪ These vagabond shoes ♪ - ♪ These vagabond shoes ♪
♪ Are Ionging to stray ♪
♪ The very heart of it ♪
♪ New York, New York ♪
♪ FeeI me ♪
♪ New York, big city of dreams, big schemes ♪
♪ Petty hustles on the corner cIaim they're doing big things ♪
♪ Winning battIes, never wars, doing dirtIike chores ♪
♪ Never know who's teIIing Iies but the city keeps score ♪
♪ Good pIace to watch your back and back-watch your front too ♪
♪ Jump too high, someone is quick to bump you ♪
♪ Stuff you in a trunk with a Iump when you come to ♪
♪ And then everyone's committing crime to steal enough food ♪
♪ Trudge through the urban jungIe and you'II see some things ♪
♪ New York eats its young and defeats its kings ♪
♪ Projects to penthouses, Park Ave to the hood ♪
♪ Win or lose you can't choose ♪
♪ You take the bad with the good ♪
♪ And the upside is higher than the sky above the 'scrapers ♪
♪ If you're Iooking for fame, power, influence or paper ♪
♪ Make your move but don't think your little lunch comes free ♪
♪ It's granted by the higher power known as NYC ♪
- ♪ These IittIe-town bIues ♪ - ♪ These IittIe-town bIues ♪
- ♪ Are meIting away ♪ - ♪ Are meIting away ♪
♪ I'II make a brand-new start of it ♪
- ♪ New York, New York ♪ - ♪ New York, New York ♪
♪ If I can make it there ♪
♪ lf l can make it there ♪
♪ I'II make it anywhere ♪
♪ It's up to you New York ♪
♪ New York ♪
♪ New York, New York ♪
♪ New York City ♪
♪ New York, New York ♪
♪ New York City is the place ♪
♪ New York, New York ♪
♪ New York City is the pIace to be ♪
♪ New York, New York ♪
♪ New York City is the pIace to be ♪
♪ Ba-ba-da ba-ba-ba-da ♪
- ♪ Start spreading the news ♪ - ♪ Start spreading the news ♪
- ♪ I'm Ieaving today ♪ - ♪ I'm Ieaving today ♪
♪ I wanna be a part of it, New York, New York ♪
- ♪ These vagabond shoes ♪ - ♪ These vagabond shoes ♪
- ♪ Are Ionging to stray ♪ - ♪ Are Ionging to stray ♪
♪ Right through the very heart of it ♪
♪ New York, New York. ♪
( vocaIizing )
( music fading )