(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-15 00:43

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer announces his resignation at his office in New York, March 12, 2008. [Agencies]

In a startlingly swift fall from grace, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned Wednesday after getting caught in a call-girl scandal that made a mockery of his straight-arrow image and left him facing the prospect of criminal charges and perhaps disbarment.

"I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work," Spitzer said, his weary-looking wife, Silda, standing at his side, again, as the corruption-fighting politician once known as Mr. Clean answered for his actions for the second time in three days.

The scandal erupted Monday after federal law enforcement officials disclosed that a wiretap had caught the 48-year-old father of three teenage daughters spending thousands of dollars on a call girl at a fancy Washington hotel on the night before Valentine's Day.

Investigators said he had arranged for a prostitute named Kristen to take the train down from New York while he was in the nation's capital to testify before a congressional subcommittee about the bond industry.

With every development, it became increasingly clear that Spitzer, politically, was finished. Continue Reading  View Slide Show

Can Spitzer Call Girl Cash In?

The collateral consequence of scandal often is newfound celebrity, and for the 22-year-old call girl involved in the Eliot Spitzer scandal, prospects are rising.

The prostitute identified in court papers as Kristen is an aspiring musician named Ashley Alexandra Dupre. Her identity was only first reported Wednesday, but already her fame is skyrocketing.

This undated photo of Ashley Alexandra Dupre is from a myspace.com web page. [Agencies]  See More Photos

Try Ashley Alexandra Dupre's new single "What We Want"

Curious about the woman so integral in the New York governor's downfall, many have flocked to MySpace to view her photos, music and biographical information. That material was removed Thursday after over more than 5 million visited her page.

Dupre's page had portrayed her as a New Jersey native who left a broken home to pursue a music career in New York. Court papers allege that Spitzer paid thousands of dollars for her services with the Emperor's Club VIP.

"I have been alone," she wrote. "I have abused drugs. I have been broke and homeless. But, I survived, on my own. I am here, in NY because of my music.". Continue Reading

NY First Lady's Charmed Life Slips Away

Silda Wall Spitzer appeared to have it all.

The Harvard Law School graduate succeeded as a hard-charging corporate lawyer, then raised three daughters and supported the ambitions of her husband, Eliot, as he became New York's attorney general and then governor.

On Monday, she stood wordlessly by his side as he admitted to acting "in a way that violates my obligations to my family."

This photo from the Winter 2007 magazine article titled 'Power Couples' and provided by 02138, a publication that focuses on Harvard University alumni, shows Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his wife Silda. [Agencies] See More Photos

Fourteen months after Spitzer rode his reputation for clean politics into New York's highest office, he was linked to a federal investigation of a high-priced call-girl ring. He has not been charged, and prosecutors would not comment on the case.

The couple remained holed up in their Manhattan apartment Tuesday as calls mounted for Spitzer to resign.

While Spitzer accumulated enemies over his career as a prosecutor and politician, virtually no one has had a bad word to say about his wife, whose blond good looks and elegant style helped make them one of New York's premier power couples. Continue Reading

Spitzer Defense Lawyers Worked in Prosecutor's Office

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer may have made a smart move when choosing lawyers to help him avoid criminal charges for soliciting prostitutes. Two were top attorneys in the same office handling his case.

Michele Hirshman, now a defense lawyer, ran the unit in the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan that's investigating whether the governor broke the law by allegedly paying thousands of dollars to an international call-girl operation. Mark Pomerantz headed the office's criminal division and was once the boss of Michael Garcia, now the top federal prosecutor in New York.

In private talks with the government, the two white-collar defense partners at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York may know precisely how to tailor arguments to sway prosecutors, citing past instances when law enforcement officials chose not to press charges. Continue Reading