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What I'm most proud of as attorney general

is that we were willing to walk into the buzz saw

of some very powerful interests and never back down.

Look, I had a simple rule:

I never asked if a case was popular or unpopular,

never asked if it was big or small,

hard or easy;

I simply asked if it was right or wrong.

Man: I will never forget that moment.

Woman: I was dumbfounded.

Man: I can't say I was sorry.

♪ Start spreading the news... ♪

Man: It was like, "You've gotta be kidding."

♪ I want to be a part of it... ♪

( siren blares )

♪ New York, New York... ♪

Man: He was going to be our first Jewish president.

♪ These vagabond shoes... ♪

Woman: There was corporate corruption;

greed had seemed to hit its peak;

and he was fighting all of that.

♪ Right through the very heart of it ♪

♪ New York, New York ♪

♪ I want to wake up in a city ♪

♪ That doesn't sleep ♪

♪ To find I'm cream of the crop ♪

♪ On top of the heap ♪

♪ These little town blues ♪

♪ Are melting away ♪

♪ I'll make a brand-new ♪

♪ Start of it... ♪

Narrator: On the face of it, the fall of Governor Spitzer

was just another sex scandal.

Was it a private matter?

Or a public reckoning?

♪ Oh New York... ♪

Narrator: And what of the timing?

A few months after his resignation,

the reckless banks Spitzer had policed

brought the economic system close to failure.

♪ I'll make it anywhere ♪

♪ New York... ♪

Everyone agreed on one thing:

no one expected him to go down like he did.

♪ New York. ♪

It is to a certain extent a very classic tale, perhaps,

of an individual who from the exterior

appears to have been captured by hubris;

a sense of standing for virtues

and, I think, working very hard

to articulate and work

towards establishing rules and boundaries,

but then, himself, slipping and failing.

And this goes back to the days of Greek mythology.

This is not... It's not a new story.

Hulbert Waldroup: In New York, everyone...

Everyone's like some sort of an animal, you know?

They're some sort of an animal.

They're hungry to make more money,

hungry to get more sex,

to date a prettier girl or a richer guy.

Just... just hungry, just greedy,

just animals.

This Chinese philosopher said that

human beings are a hybrid

between animals and angels,

that we're capable of animalistic behavior.

Consider sex and war.

But we're capable of doing beautiful things too, like art,

music or making love, you know?

What... I was just contemplating that.

I was like, "Wow, I kinda dig that.

We're half angel, half animal."

Good afternoon.

Over the past nine years... Eight years as attorney general

and one as governor... I have tried to uphold

a vision of progressive politics that would

rebuild New York and create opportunity for all.

We sought to bring real change to New York,

and that will continue.

Today, I want to briefly address a private matter.

I have acted in a way that violates my obligations

to my family, and that violates my, or any,

sense of right and wrong.

Narrator: Spitzer's wrong turn surprised everyone,

because he had a reputation as Mr. Right.

As Attorney General of New York

he was known as the Sheriff of Wall Street,

someone determined to take on powerful interests

on behalf of those who couldn't afford to.

Lloyd Constantine: This was a guy who understood

that he had been a member of the lucky-sperm club.

He was really smart. He was wealthy.

So he had gotten a lot of breaks in life,

and he wanted to-to... To use that,

you know, to better the world.

Narrator: Spitzer's father Bernard was a self-made real-estate tycoon

who sent his son to an elite prep school,

Princeton and Harvard Law School,

where he met his wife-to-be Silda Wall.

His father had pushed him to succeed.

We debated issues around the dining-room table.

And so I guess it was more of a symposium

than a touchy-feely environment.

We were taught not to embrace

a notion, a principle, a fact

merely because somebody had asserted it.

Challenge them, push back...

That was part of the conversation.

Narrator: For a real-estate family,

Monopoly takes on a special edge.

Sure, it's a game.

But it's also a way for a father to teach his son

some lessons about money and power.

Look, I don't want the impression to be that he wasn't...

He was devoid of compassion, but it is true

he foreclosed on me in a Monopoly game.

Narrator: Bernard Spitzer tricked his son into selling

Boardwalk and Park Place for cheap,

then wiped him out when he landed on a built-up Boardwalk.

The lesson: don't trust anyone.

But I think really what he was trying to do

was teach me how the market worked.

And Monopoly's a fun game, but I had overbuilt

and overextended and he said, "I'm sorry, that's it.

There are consequences and you've learned a lesson."

Interviewer: What was your response at the time?

Oh, I cried. I think I was about 10.

I mean, I was a kid.

It was... it was... it was no fun.

I wanted to... I wanted to be bailed out.

Constantine: Bernie is a guy who judges people.

That's a tough thing for a kid.

I do remember him watching Eliot and me play tennis.

And after one particular serve and volley of mine, which I won,

he gave me that victory sign, and he said,

"Yeah, that's exactly what to do to him."

Eliot's strategy is to stick with his core game:

hard shots, serve and volley.

Spitzer: But my reflexes are good.

Yeah!

I love to get in to net.

Good shot.

As I say, the game I used to have keeps getting better.

Narrator: Eliot Spitzer's notion

of public service was like his tennis game:

attack attack attack.

Good morning, and thank you for coming.

Narrator: As attorney general, Spitzer saw an opportunity

to do more than enforce the law.

He wanted to use the law to change the way society worked.

He sued coal-fire plants in Ohio

for causing pollution in New York.

He sued General Electric for dumping

poisonous waste into the Hudson River.

He uncovered fraud in the pharmaceutical industry,

where pill makers hid the damage done by their drugs,

fought for minimum wage for deliverymen

and forced upscale restaurants to hire more women.

He would take them all on, because no one else would.

Peter Elkind: There's a reason why Eliot Spitzer

became famous as New York's attorney general.

The job had been a second-tier position.

It had been focused on regulating crooked car dealers.

And Eliot Spitzer focused on Wall Street,

on the biggest guys around.

And Spitzer's premise, which was right,

was that Wall Street can't be left to regulate itself

or terrible things will happen.

When I assumed office, which was January of 1999,

we were in a period where Wall Street

and investment bankers were, to use Tom Wolfe's

great phrase, masters of the universe.

Narrator: To protect the average citizen,

Spitzer was willing to prosecute bankers and CEOs

like any other lawbreakers.

Spitzer: In the course of this investigation,

my office developed evidence indicating that analysts

gave misleading advice

that helped the brokerage's investment banking clients,

but harmed individual investors.

When we first got into this, everybody said,

"Well, what's the state attorney general's office

in New York doing going after this problem?

Shouldn't this be the SEC?"

And my response was, "Yes, but they haven't.

And if they haven't,

and there are investors being ripped off, we will do it."

Narrator: Wall Street analysts advise buyers

on what stocks look good or bad.

With the rise of the Internet, analysts became superstars,

because only they seemed to understand

how to value Internet companies.

As stocks soared, so did the value

of analysts who knew how to pick them.

The more money they made,

the more potential there was for abuse.

Henry Blodget was a failed writer

who stumbled into being a top research analyst

when, as a young stock picker,

he predicted the rise of Amazon.com.

By 2001 he was working for Merrill Lynch,

making $12 million a year.

When one of Merrill's customers sued Blodget for phony research,

Spitzer's team investigated him,

using an arcane law called the Martin Act

to subpoena thousands of documents and emails

in search of fraud.

As Spitzer's team pored through Blodget's emails,

they kept coming across the term POS.

They thought POS was short for "positive,"

for stocks Blodget wanted customers to buy.

But then they stumbled upon Blodget's keyword chart.

Blodget's emails were honest and brutally downbeat.

Meanwhile his official stock ratings were mostly upbeat,

urging customers to buy buy buy.

Spitzer: Mr. and Mrs. Smith,

whose IRA or 401(k) is being invested,

they are the sacrificial lambs

and being used to prop up the stock

so that the Merrill Lynches of the world can then

go to the companies and say, "See what we're doing for you?

Bring us your investment banking business."

It was fundamentally corrupt.

Narrator: It was insider's Monopoly,

guided by a basic fundamental principle.

You don't go south of 14th Street

except for one reason: to make money.

( R&B music playing )

The guys on the floor, all they cared about was makin' money.

That's what... that's... That's the American way.

Narrator: Jack Grubman was a highly respected

telecommunications analyst for Salomon Smith Barney.

♪ Close shooting don't kill no birds... ♪

He became famous for pumping up AT&T's stock

to please his boss Sandy Weill.

Then Weill helped Grubman get his twins

into an exclusive preschool.

Grubman's payday for research?

$20 million a year,

enough to buy a palace on the Upper East Side.

♪ Take food from my family's mouth ♪

♪ Before the money came... ♪

Narrator: Grubman's career ended

when he relentlessly pumped up the stock

of a company called WorldCom,

just before it went bankrupt.

Do you regret, in hindsight,

staying so bullish on the company for so long?

Nothing... look, why are you harassing me

- like this? - I'm not harassing you.

I'm just asking you questions about the company that you cover.

This caught you completely by surprise, you say.

Yes.

Yes.

- Thank you. - Yeah.

♪ Before the money ♪

♪ Started rollin' in. ♪

There was always this...

Internally we called it the come-to-Jesus moment,

where we went to whoever it was we were prepared to sue

and/or, you know, go after, you know, for doing something wrong

and we'd say to 'em in no uncertain terms,

"Tell us why, given this fact pattern,

we would be wrong to sue your ass."

Spitzer: Early on in the investigation,

the Merrill Lynch lawyers, they came into my office.

They looked at me and they said, "You're right,

but we're not as bad as our competitors."

I was a prosecutor for a lot of years.

I never, you know, heard a defendant

stand up in court and say, "Yeah, I robbed three people,

but somebody over there robbed five, so therefore I'm not bad."

I said to Merrill Lynch... they wanted to settle the case and pay some money

and said, "We will pay a big sum of money

if you promise to keep the information secret."

And I said no.

Because my job as attorney general

is to change the system

so that it's fair and will be honest.

And if we seal the evidence and you pay a check

and we don't change the system, I'm basically being bought off.

My office has reached an agreement that will help

ensure the integrity of investment advice

on which investors often depend.

Narrator: Blodget and Grubman paid million-dollar fines

and were banned from the securities industry for life.

But their firms bought their permanent silence

with handsome severance packages.

In exchange for Grubman's silence on the details

of his firm's behavior, Salomon Smith Barney

paid Grubman $30 million.

The nation's best and brightest were lured to Wall Street

in search of fast fortunes.

The money they made flowed everywhere...

Penthouses, yachts, golf clubs...

And to the oldest sector of the global economy

ready for a new cash infusion.

I have rich lovers.

♪ Love for sale... ♪

I don't go out with poor men.

I've got no reason to do so.

♪ Appetizing young love ♪

♪ For sale... ♪

I don't call prostitution

and escorting selling your body.

♪ Love for sale. ♪

You don't sell, you rent.

I love my bank account full.

It's better than empty.

♪ Sex for sugar, sugar for sex ♪

♪ Sex for sugar, sugar for sex ♪

♪ Sex for sugar, sugar for sex ♪

♪ Sex for sugar, sugar for sex ♪

♪ What you got, girl, it's so unfair ♪

♪ I like the way you move so keep it right there ♪

♪ Or you can do what you wanna do ♪

♪ I'm just glad I am in front with you ♪

♪ But I don't mind being butt high ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm-a touch you where the sun don't shine... ♪

Waldroup: There's a street in SoHo where a lot of artists set up.

I was selling my paintings one day.

And this charismatic fellow comes along

and he's got a beautiful girl with him...

This girlfriend at the time, Natalia.

Said, "This is the number-one escort in New York City.

I run New York's number-one escort agency."

I've never seen you naked. You think your body's good enough?

Waldroup: "I want to buy the biggest,

most expensive painting you've ever done."

He gives me his business card.

I still have an old souvenir.

♪ Electricity was definitely there ♪

♪ I got shocked when I touched your hair... ♪

"New York Confidential, rocket fuel for winners."

That's all it says.

Narrator: In 2004, New York Confidential was at its height,

making millions by offering clients "the girlfriend experience,"

a few hours with naughty playmates

who looked like college cheerleaders.

I had $1500 in $100 bills in my purse.

- Oh God. - I pulled it out.

- Only 15? - ( laughing )

We started hanging out even after I did the painting.

And one day we're in the back of a Town Car,

and he says, "Hey, grab the phone," you know.

"Just talk to the guy, and try to help him out.

You know, he's probably looking for a girl

to spend the night with."

I'm on the cell phone and...

you know, my adrenaline is going.

And I'm like, okay, you know,

"We have a brunette, a blonde or do you like ethnic girls?"

You know, I do a deal for, I don't know, 3,000, 4,000.

He says, "Great, you just made 400 bucks

from a five-minute phone call.

I'll give you 10%.

Why don't you just come to work for me for a little while, you know?"

Man: That Craigslist ad pulled well, huh?

Waldroup: That's where it all began, where I started working for Jason.

How do you know she's a no?

We don't get that many calls for Asians.

One hot Asian is... is plenty.

We need more blondes, hot blondes.

They might look good in person,

but they got a shitty photographer, you know?

Hot blondes. She's a definite yes.

Waldroup: When a businessman spends,

say, $2,000 an hour,

he wants to read the reviews,

just like if you were to buy a car.

You want to read the reviews. How much mileage does it get?

Does it have air conditioning, four-wheel drive?

What... what's the difference between

paying $1,000 an hour for this young lady,

when I can open up the "Village Voice"

or go on Craigslist and I can pay $200

for another young lady?

You know.

And I'd say, "Well, sir, sure, you can...

You can have a cheeseburger or you can have lobster."

You're gonna have such a good time

with one of New York Confidential's girls

that you're gonna go to work Monday morning

with a smile on your face.

You're gonna make more money for you and your family,

and then you're gonna call me up next week

and you're gonna say, 'Herb, who can you send me out today?"'

Natalia: You can make the assumption

that they're not being sexually satisfied in their marriage

or there's baggage or whatever's going on there.

And then... you know, what's their option?

Do they get divorced? Do they split up their family?

Or do they seek, you know... Do they go see an escort?

Waldroup: One young lady was a schoolteacher;

another girl was a...

She was an athlete trying to make it to the Olympics.

Actresses, singers, models.

Natalia: Jason would give his business card

to every girl that he met.

And half of them would call and then

a quarter of them would start working.

Some girls would offer me cash... tips.

Some girls offered me sex.

I don't think I ever got a tip or sex with Ashley, yeah.

Narrator: Ashley was Ashley Youmans,

later Ashley Dupré, who would become famous

for having sex with Eliot Spitzer.

As an escort, she got her start at New York Confidential,

where her working name was Victoria.

It was through one of those straight pitches

that Jason found Ashley.

Waldroup: Jason recruited her from the Gansevoort Hotel.

Narrator: At the Gansevoort, Ashley was a bottle girl

trying to break into the music business.

She was just light. She was just happiness.

She was like a great bubbly 19-year-old girl.

♪ Oh it's something to see ♪

♪ That's so pretty... ♪

Waldroup: She was a good American,

New Jersey Italian girl.

Natalia: Guys loved her.

She had great pheromones or something, you know?

Waldroup: Within three or four weeks, you know,

her rate was going up there to 2,000 an hour...

With a two-hour minimum.

Natalia: Her reviews were awesome as well.

I think she got a... She got something like

12 consecutive 10/10 reviews.

After we did our first appointment together,

I told Jason, I'm like, "You gotta book this girl."

First of all, she's great,

but she also has a perfect coochie.

Narrator: Ashley's reign ended when New York Confidential

was raided by local police.

No customers were arrested,

but Hulbert was convicted of promoting prostitution

and sent to jail for eight months.

Ashley would move on to work for another escort service.

For every New Yorker who's been ignored, left out,

who's been told "You can't fight City Hall"

so many times they've come to believe it,

for every New Yorker without a voice, listen:

there's one strong enough for all of us.

( applause )

Spitzer: For most of our history

we have turned a blind eye

to the violations of duty

on the part of white-collar criminals.

We can understand it.

There is something viscerally terrifying about street crime.

And until you are safe in your home,

you worry a bit less about what is often

a bit more amorphous, which is the nature

of white-collar crime, which is more subtle theft.

Elkind: Spitzer broke the mold

of how you prosecute a white-collar case.

He went after it fast and hard,

and he got things done in a period of weeks or months

that would take the federal regulators years.

He wanted to change the system.

So he'd get the goods on a company or on people

and use it as leverage to institute reform,

to force the industry to change the way it did business.

A lot of people thought that was outrageous.

Narrator: Spitzer hired a team of dedicated lawyers

who were drawn to his mission.

Eliot just wasn't afraid to stand up to corporate bad guys.

And, you know, I think there was some appreciation

for the fact that, you know, he'd punch 'em in the nose

if that's what was appropriate.

The first day I came in, Eliot said, "What's next?"

And I said, "Well, mutual funds, I think."

Boy: How much will I grow?

How strong will I be in five years?

In 10 years?

Where does my future start?

Shh.

Narrator: Mutual funds were supposed to be a safe place

for working people to put their money.

But there were rumors that sophisticated investors

were playing games with those funds.

Brown: I went off and I started studying them,

trying to figure out how to get at this issue.

While I was immersed in this, we got a tip.

( phone ringing )

Noreen Harrington: I left very pathetic voicemail messages.

( phone beeps )

You know, reporting a crime is hard.

You have to earn your credibility.

You have... it feels like you're being interrogated.

Narrator: Noreen Harrington had a strong financial background.

After 11 years at Goldman Sachs,

she ran the global fixed income department at Barclays.

Then she went to work for Eddie Stern,

the son of a well-known pet-food billionaire.

Eddie Stern's hedge fund, Canary Capital,

was producing spectacular results

at a time when the stock market was tanking.

The big profits, said Harrington,

came from manipulating mutual funds.

They were doing something really egregious,

which is late trading.

( bell ringing )

Narrator: At the track,

customers bet on horse races before the race starts.

But what if there were a special club

that allowed you to bet on races after they were over?

There was a club like that on Wall Street

for trading mutual funds.

Brown: Mutual funds are only priced once a day,

- right at 4:00. - ( bell ringing )

So during the day, you call in and you buy a mutual fund,

they'll say, "Fine, "we're gonna fill your order at today's 4:00 price."

If you call in at 4:05, they're supposed to say,

"Fine, we'll fill your order at tomorrow's 4:00 price."

Narrator: But what if something happened at, say, 4:05

to make the fund more valuable?

Brown: If you could go in as an investor

and call at 4:10, having heard that news,

go back and buy it at the 4:00 price, you could just buy it,

wait for it to go up the next day and sell it

and take some money out of it.

In one case, they went to a bank

and the bank put a computer back-office terminal

into Canary Capital, Eddie Stern's fund.

Eddie might enter 40 trades

prior to 4:00.

Now let's say it's 10:00 at night;

they cancel the 30 that lost money

and keep the 10 that made money.

And so this was a bank,

completely, you know, working with one client

to destroy the profits

owed to all the people in those funds.

Narrator: The name of the bank was Bank of America.

We spent a lot of time saying this... this can't be happening.

I mean, no one would be so, you know, so sleazy.

Harrington: I remember it was like 9:00 at night.

And somebody said,

"Wow, we just picked these people off for 10 million."

I'm thinking, "How do you trade mutual funds at 9:00?"

I mean, you know, you're a 20-year veteran,

but all of a sudden you feel like a rookie.

Narrator: When Stern was confronted with the evidence against him,

he cut a deal to cooperate with Spitzer's investigation,

which laid open the predatory nature of Wall Street.

Brown: You have some expectation as an investor

in the stock market, that there are big big boys

out there who probably have better information than you,

and it's precisely to get out of that that you would go to mutual funds.

And the idea that there were some sharks

in the tank with you, with all these thousands of minnows,

was really sort of... Just really surprising.

I sent out the first subpoena at the end of June of '03.

And on September 4th, we announced a settlement.

And what I'd like you to do now...

Harrington: Three months after I finished speaking to them,

for Eliot Spitzer and his staff to have indictments,

settlements, was astounding to me.

Today's announcement is merely step one.

One of the questions I get asked a lot was,

"Did you believe you would never work again?"

And I think about that question a lot,

because what you're saying by asking that question is:

by doing public service and helping 95 million people

and stopping a crime, this industry wouldn't want you?

( siren blaring )

Narrator: While Spitzer stirred popular rage at Wall Street,

there were a few people who were delighted

to see the bankers take home big paydays,

as revealed in the actual cell phone of one of the bookers

of the escort service called The Emperors Club.

Woman: "I keep hearing about all the raises on Wall Street.

And usually that would be good for us.

Hmm, maybe things will pick up. Take care, hon!"

The lawyer-banker thing is true.

There are quite a lot of them.

But there are lots of stereotypes, you know,

that it's this crazy drug-fueled sort of party scene.

But generally, you know, people are respectful.

They just want to have a nice time with someone.

Many of my clients are nicer to me

than many many of the dates I've been on.

In fact,

I've stopped dating in the real world, you know?

Partly because it would be complicated

and partly because my standards lifted.

Honestly, you know. ( laughs )

Natalia: The pictures of Ashley didn't surface right away.

The Eliot Spitzer story broke, and then all these media outlets

were calling me to do interviews.

And so I did a few interviews without even knowing that Ashley was...

My Ashley was our Victoria was Kristen

was all these... You know, who she was.

Tonight Eliot Spitzer resigns as Governor of New York.

Where will he find comfort in this difficult time?

I was shocked when it all happened.

But then when I saw Ashley's picture

flashed on the news,

I was like, wait a second, you know?

I was like, "Oh my gosh!"

I couldn't believe it.

She fit the bill.

♪ My fist to the sky... ♪

Man: "The New York Times" website identifies

Governor Spitzer's mystery call girl as Ashley Alexandra Dupré.

Narrator: All over papers and television

she was called "Spitzer's Girl."

Known as "Kristen" at The Emperors Club,

Ashley Dupré was determined to take advantage

of her sudden opportunity.

Natalia: Clearly Ashley was trying to make a name for herself.

Narrator: After the scandal broke, Ashley's MySpace page,

with one of her songs available for streaming,

got over seven million hits.

To help package her career, she brought onboard

two lawyers, a publicist, and a management team.

- ? So you better hurry up...? - Narrator: Ashley's manager arranged

for an interview with Diane Sawyer.

Everyone played their part.

Ashley dressed up as the good girl gone wrong,

and Diane Sawyer played the role of the scolding mom.

You say "the work,"

but you haven't said the words.

- The work? - Prostitution.

Escort.

Escort. What's the difference?

- Escort. - What's the difference?

She catered to the stereotypes of hookers,

which are, you know, "Poor me. I had a troubled childhood.

I made a mistake," which is such a load of crap.

It's... I can't change the past.

I can only try to take what I've learned and...

And apply that to my future.

We are being paid ridiculous amounts of money.

None of these women are forced to do this and they're not stupid.

Many of the professional prostitutes that I know

are very smart women who weren't abused.

You know, don't have a mental disorder.

They just happen to believe in this kind of work.

Narrator: So do their customers.

The cell phone of the Booker from The Emperors Club

offered a glimpse of the club's well-heeled client list:

an Oscar winner, CEOs

and high-powered investment bankers.

The club treated them like emperors. And why not?

They made more money than kings.

They enjoyed having their way with women and the world.

So it came as no surprise that they resented it

when the New York Attorney General started to cramp their style.

Reporter: "The Economist" magazine calls him

"Wall Street's scourger-in-chief."

Reporter #2: He's gone from complete anonymity

to what "Fortune" magazine calls "the most feared man on Wall Street."

Spitzer has deputized himself as the Sheriff of Wall Street

and is leading the posse for retribution,

restitution and reform.

Narrator: Spitzer appealed to Democrats and Republicans.

He was a law-and-order liberal who wasn't afraid to punch back.

When you go down to Wall Street,

like when you walk into a building on Wall Street,

is it like turning the light on in the kitchen

and the roaches just scatter everywhere you go?

- Well, y'know... - Are you a beam of light...

It is... there was a day that I had to walk into a hedge fund...

Ken Langone: What I was intrigued by...

The number of people that were terrified by him.

I mean, they literally were terrified

at this guy coming after them.

Spitzer: The issue of CEO comp was something I had been trying

to get people to take a look at.

It was off the rails.

♪ I'll take what I want ♪

♪ I'm a bad go-getter, yeah ♪

♪ Ha! Yes I am ♪

♪ I'm never a loser ♪

♪ And I'm never a quitter, yeah... ♪

Spitzer: The ratio of CEO comp to the average worker's comp

had gone from about 40 to 1 to about 550 to 1.

CEOs began to just take everything they could

and ultimately that was going to destroy our economy.

Because instead of running the companies to create

long-term wealth and long-term investment,

all the games we've seen...

Everything from backdating of stock options

to maximizing short-term profits

without sufficient investment for the long term...

These are things that are cancers inside the economy.

♪ 'Cause I'll take what I want, yeah, baby. ♪

Narrator: One of the flashiest executives was head

of the New York Stock Exchange: Dick Grasso,

who boasted owning 10 cars and three homes.

He traveled on private jets, often flanked by armed bodyguards.

His job was to regulate and market the New York Stock Exchange.

Nicknamed "Punky,"

Grasso was a scrappy college dropout

who started on the floor and worked his way up.

There's a job opening at the New York Stock Exchange.

Chairman Dick Grasso resigned yesterday

over the fury raised by his massive pay package.

Narrator: Not only was Grasso paid an average annual salary

of $20 million,

his retirement package totaled nearly $140 million.

After Grasso stepped down, the new head of the Exchange

brought the matter to the attorney general.

Spitzer: There's a statute in New York that says the value

of the paycheck that the head of a not-for-profit receives

must be commensurate with the value of the services provided.

I like Dick. He's a decent guy.

He didn't provide services worth $139 million.

Perhaps more perversely,

the compensation had been determined

by the very people he was supposed to be regulating.

I had the most respected group of directors

from the corporate and financial world.

They exercised their business judgment.

They paid me what they believed to be fair and reasonable,

which I... I agree with.

Narrator: Spitzer decided not to go after

the blue-chip international board.

Instead, he sued Grasso and the head

of the board's compensation committee,

Ken Langone.

Langone would prove to be a formidable foe.

I've been rich and I've been poor.

Rich is better, I can tell ya right now.

Narrator: The son of a Long Island plumber,

Ken Langone had cofounded Home Depot

and amassed a fortune of well over a billion dollars.

A dedicated philanthropist, Langone was not shy

about paying people well.

Langone: At the time we awarded Dick these pay packages,

I truly believed that Dick earned every single penny,

and more!

Narrator: Spitzer demanded that Grasso return $100 million.

At the time, Langone told "Fortune" magazine:

"If Grasso gives back a fucking nickel,

I'll never talk to him again."

Spitzer: He, as anybody in that position would,

took umbrage at it. And he developed

a rather strong animus towards me.

The day that I sat in this room

and he went on television

with that farce press conference he had,

announcing that he was going after Dick Grasso and me

and all kinds of bad things about me and...

Eliot's theatrics.

You can't pay the head of a not-for-profit

that much money... Close to $200 million.

It's simply too much. It's not reasonable.

It's not right. It violates the law.

Langone: It was headlines, it was glorious headlines!

All these captains of industry!

Hey, this is big game.

This is going after elephants.

Spitzer: He became a very vociferous critic of mine.

And that's all fair game.

In my view we were right and he was wrong.

But again it was something he felt deeply about.

Narrator: In 2004 at the Democratic National Convention

Spitzer took up the issue with Jack Welch,

the former CEO of General Electric.

Langone: Jack and I are very good friends.

Spitzer came up to him with froth

coming out of the sides of his mouth, spitting,

I mean, so exercised, and pointing at Jack:

"You tell your buddy

I'm gonna put a spike through his heart!"

This is not something the Attorney General

of New York State says.

So when Jack told me, I said, "Jack, do me a favor."

I said, "If you see him, tell him one thing:

make sure it's steel, because wood'll break."

Narrator: The case dragged on for years.

In 2008, the New York State Court of Appeals

dismissed the case for a bizarre reason:

since the suit had been brought, the New York Stock Exchange

had abandoned its not-for-profit status.

Dick Grasso kept all his money.

But Eliot Spitzer had engaged an enemy

with virtually unlimited resources,

one who was watching and waiting for any misstep.

I'd like to think

I'm not a vindictive person.

And a basic tenet of my faith is forgiveness.

The most harm that Eliot Spitzer has done to me

is I am defying my faith.

I can't forgive him

and I should, but I can't.

Narrator: In Ken Langone, Spitzer had created a mighty enemy.

And then he added another one when he took on Hank Greenberg,

the head of the world's largest insurance company, AIG.

At the age of 79, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg

was the most powerful businessman on the planet.

Under his command AIG had grown

to be worth $157 billion

with 92,000 employees.

Admired for his spectacular results,

Greenberg ruled his empire with an iron fist.

I think he was Louis XIV to everybody else's,

you know, being a mere baron.

I think Hank Greenberg epitomized

the power of corporate CEOs, and in my view,

he was the most powerful person in corporate America.

Narrator: Greenberg's measure of his own worth

was the stock price at AIG.

The normal cycle of business is that sometimes your profits go up

and sometimes your profits go down.

But Wall Street didn't like companies to perform that way.

They wanted to see steadily rising profits.

If you delivered steadily rising profits,

they'd give you a higher stock price.

So Hank Greenberg came up with a new type of insurance

that would create the illusion of steadily rising earnings.

Narrator: Greenberg's AIG was fined over $100 million

by federal authorities

for helping other companies cook their books.

In 2005 it appeared that AIG might be

using similar tricks to pump up its own stock.

Spitzer: The more we dug into AIG,

the more problematic

the company itself appeared to me to be.

And the disconcerting aspect of it

was that it did appear to come from the very top.

Interviewer: When did you first hear about

Spitzer's investigation of AIG?

When I got a subpoena.

Narrator: One deal generated by Greenberg

caught the eye of Spitzer and federal investigators.

It was a suspicious contract between AIG and Gen Re,

a company owned by billionaire Warren Buffett.

One of the most startling moments in this case

was when tapes emerged

that were dispositive, overwhelming proof

of exactly what these transactions had been.

As this was unfolding, Dick Beattie called me

one Saturday morning at home and said let's talk about this.

The board wanted me to find out what I could

about the Gen Re investigation.

Eliot was jogging on a Saturday morning or something.

I met him in the park.

The only thing of significance he told me, as I recall,

was that they had Hank...

Hank's name on tapes.

Narrator: To boost his stock price, Hank Greenberg wanted

to make it look like AIG had $500 million more than it did.

The original phone call was to see if we could get

a lost portfolio from Ron Ferguson.

What happened afterwards, I don't know.

I... I didn't... I wasn't involved in the details of the transaction.

Narrator: A handwritten deal memo laid out the terms:

Gen Re would pretend to pay AIG $500 million

in two installments

for a phony insurance policy.

There was no risk of paying a claim.

For doing the phony deal, AIG would pay Gen Re

a $5-million fee.

Houldsworth: No risk. No risk for 5 million bucks.

Narrator: Hank Greenberg's initials, MRG,

were all over the document.

Monrad: The two people at AIG who are involved

are Hank Greenberg and Chris Milton.

AIG was a big company.

I didn't... I didn't stay focused

on-on... on the Gen Re transaction.

Man: Yes. ( laughs )

Graham: That sorta gives you somethin'...

Man: Yeah, that tells you somethin', doesn't it? Yeah.

Narrator: What was an unfair advantage to Greenberg

was seen as cooking the books to AIG's accountants,

Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

The firm refused to accept AIG's financial statements

as long as Greenberg was the CEO.

Hank wasn't pushed out by... by Eliot.

What happened was the investigation that followed

and the accountants, at the end of the day,

said, "We're not taking that certification anymore."

So you're sitting here as a board of directors,

saying, "My God, what does that mean?"

That's what drove the board

deciding that Hank had to go. And one other issue.

Narrator: Spitzer demanded

that Hank Greenberg testify under oath.

However Greenberg's lawyers advised him

to plead the Fifth, despite AIG's policy

to fire employees who didn't cooperate with regulators.

That troubled a lot of people on the board.

They wanted him to say, you know, "Absolutely not.

I'm not gonna take the Fifth. I'm gonna testify."

I think Frank Zarb and I called Hank

and told him that the board had made the decision

that he had to step down.

These are very serious offenses,

over a billion dollars of accounting frauds

that AIG has already acknowledged.

That company was a black box run with an iron fist

by a CEO who did not tell the public the truth.

That is the problem.

So does that mean you're moving toward an indictment?

No, I didn't say that. It depends what we will prove,

or can prove that Mr. Greenberg knew at the time.

We have powerful evidence. We will proceed with it.

It's too bad that the attorney general

doesn't come out from behind his office,

where he's protected against libel.

I wish he'd come out and say these things as a citizen.

Spitzer attacked Greenberg,

and I saw him on television one night

saying that Hank Greenberg was a crook.

Narrator: John Whitehead had been a war hero,

a Deputy Secretary of State

and the chairman of Goldman Sachs.

And his office continued to leak information

about why he was a crook

without ever any charges being brought against Hank.

So I said this is something I have to do something about.

So that's what caused me to write that first article.

"Something has gone seriously awry

when a state attorney general can go on television

and charge one of America's best CEOs

and most generous philanthropists

with fraud before any charges have been brought,

before the possible defendant has even had a chance

to know what he personally is alleged to have done

and while the investigation is still underway."

That was the thing that set me off.

I had heard of an incident involving

former Goldman Sachs chairman John Whitehead.

Mr. Whitehead had come out publicly

supporting Mr. Greenberg.

After that op-ed was published,

he received a threatening phone call from Eliot Spitzer.

He asked me a couple of questions about my article.

And then he came right to the point.

He said, "Mr. Whitehead," he said,

"You and I are now at war."

You know, look, he had... He had written an op.

I don't know if I said those words or not.

If that's the worst I said, you know, okay, that's...

People are at war with me all the time.

Interviewer: "You have fired the first bullet."

"You have fired the first bullet.

But believe me, by the end of this war,

I will fire the last one and you will be dead."

Well, I don't think I said that. I mean, John White...

I wouldn't say... I... I... Look, I hope I didn't say that.

He was screaming into the phone.

He and I had a heated conversation.

I will leave it at that. It was a private conversation.

As I've said, I've never denied

that I have heated conversations in private.

It's... it was me, it is me, so be it.

And I think sometimes it's how you get things done.

He said, "I will destroy you."

And those are... Those are strong words.

I had never heard words like that before from anybody.

I couldn't quite believe it.

Narrator: Spitzer's outbursts became legendary to his staff.

When he exploded, his staff would remark

that Spitzer's evil twin "Irwin"

had dropped in for an unexpected visit.

In fact, a very prominent lawyer

of a very fine company had a meeting with him.

And this man said to me,

"When I came out of his office, I swore I saw the words E-V-I-L

across his forehead."

I have no doubt if Hank Greenberg were still running AIG,

AIG would not be in the fix it's in today.

Today the federal government announced it has once again

reworked the bailout of insurance giant AIG.

Reporter: Now the bailout needs a bailout.

Two months after AIG was given

that first emergency government loan,

it's getting another lifeline.

Narrator: In 2008 AIG was at the center

of a global economic meltdown.

Before and after Greenberg's fall,

AIG had been selling billions of dollars of insurance

to the world's biggest banks

to hide their risky gambles on home mortgages.

When housing prices collapsed, AIG couldn't pay the claims,

and US taxpayers paid $183 billion

in an effort to save the global economy from collapse.

According to Greenberg, the blame for AIG's fall

and the global meltdown rested with one regulator...

Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer wanted me out.

When politicians involve themselves

in who is going to run a company and who is not,

we're on dangerous ground in this country.

Spitzer: It is the big lie writ large.

The books were being cooked at his company.

Hank Greenberg was removed as CEO by his own board

when they saw the underlying facts

of what was then one of the largest financial frauds in history.

I didn't do anything improper.

Neither did any of the senior team do anything improper.

Interviewer: You say to people, if Hank Greenberg had

still been there, this would never have happened?

It would not have happened.

Spitzer: The very trading practices that led to these

gargantuan obligations

that taxpayers are now bailing out

all began while he was there:

Very significant accounting frauds,

reinsurance contracts which he participated in structuring

that were deemed by a federal jury

in Connecticut to be illegal.

Four people went to jail.

He was called an unindicted co-conspirator

by the prosecutor in that case.

So his maintaining uninvolvement

in the structural issues is simply wrong.

Narrator: Spitzer wanted to prosecute Greenberg

for financial manipulation, but was called off the case

by the US Attorney Michael Garcia.

Spitzer: Michael Garcia sent me an over-the-top letter

when we were going to include

significant allegations

relating to Hank Greenberg in our AIG complaint,

telling us to back off.

And it was a moment of...

I don't want to say there was anything improper

about the letter that Garcia sent,

but he basically said, "Don't you dare go near this.

We're doing this," relating to Hank Greenberg.

Narrator: Michael Garcia never pursued charges against Greenberg.

Instead he would lead the prosecution

that led to Spitzer's downfall.

Both Greenberg and Langone

hired PR firms to go after Spitzer.

And Langone hired a private investigator

to find out what he could.

Interviewer: I want to move on to the... To The Emperors Club.

When did that start, approximately?

- Sometime in '06. - Early '06?

Thereabouts, yeah.

You were flying about as high as you could possibly be flying.

- Mm-hmm. - And this is prior to...

At that point in time, you were pretty certain

you were gonna be Governor of New York,

- wouldn't you say? - Right. Well, really, look.

If your point is things were

as good as they could get,

from a political perspective, I suppose that's right.

And the only metaphor

I can think of perhaps is Icarus.

Those whom the gods would destroy,

they make all-powerful.

A friend of mine recently gave me a T-shirt

that he claimed he had had printed

for investment banker friends of his.

But he thought I would enjoy it,

and maybe I could maybe even learn from it.

The T-shirt said on its front, "Hubris is terminal."

♪ If I ruled the world ♪

( laughing )

♪ I'd love all the girls ♪

♪ I love 'em, love 'em, baby. ♪

I'm not a kingmaker.

But I'm gonna call it... You're gonna win.

- Well, thank you. - I'll tell you why.

- I'm glad I came tonight. - Well, absolutely, it's done.

Narrator: In early 2006

Spitzer's approval ratings were over 60%.

He had announced his run for governor

and was predicted to win in a landslide.

You could do anything. You could punch a toddler and still win.

Narrator: His career was every politician's dream.

No, I was the enforcer.

I mean, I was the kid who played left fullback,

not because I had real talent, but I took people out.

You play hard, you play rough and hopefully you don't get caught.

( laughs )

Narrator: Right around this time, Cecil Suwal,

the 22-year-old CEO of The Emperors Club,

took a phone call from a new customer.

Though he used the name "George Fox,"

it was actually Eliot Spitzer.

The very first time that he called,

I answered the phone.

And he called and he was whispering.

So I thought it was a prank.

And so the other Booker called and said,

"Okay, I'm ready to start answering the phones."

So we transferred the phone to her, and I said,

"Oh, I just spoke with someone.

You know, I'm gonna let you handle that."

And apparently, he saw, I think, three people in a row,

just back to back that evening.

So I guess it wasn't a prank.

Narrator: Reading "New York" magazine,

George Fox, AKA Eliot Spitzer,

claims he was drawn to websites in the classified ads,

and while surfing the web, found The Emperors Club.

♪ Secret heart ♪

♪ What are you made of? ♪

♪ What are you so afraid of? ♪

♪ Could it be ♪

♪ Three simple words? ♪

Suwal: When you're sending a girl on a trip to Chicago

for $30,000 overnight,

it doesn't necessarily feel like you're running "prostitution."

It feels different.

And so that's where I think we got a little bit lost,

as far as the whole legality of the situation.

♪ This buried secret that you'll try... ♪

Narrator: Cecil Suwal dropped out of the University of Miami

when she fell in love with 60-year-old Mark Brener,

who owned The Emperors Club.

Soon they were running it together.

The night that they arrested us,

we were just sleeping together in our...

You know, holding each other.

We really just loved each other.

Not only were we lovers,

but we also had the business,

so everything was all wrapped up into one.

And I love him, so... I still do.

♪ Come out and share it. ♪

Narrator: "Cece," as she was called,

decided to take The Emperors Club

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 girls,

who... the kind who, you know, are well-educated

and come from good families.

The number of diamonds that the model had

indicated not only her hourly and daily rate,

but also just the general quality of companionship

you could expect from her.

So if she was three diamonds,

her daily rate would be 10,000

and her hourly rate would be 1,000.

It went 1000, 1200, 1500,

2100, 3100.

And then the day rates, you would just add a zero.

( laughs ) I did that.

With mathematical precision, right?

Tsss! Whatever!

Just add a zero, that should work.

We had our core girls that we immensely valued,

that really could, you know, bring home the bacon

and then we had the sort of spiral effect.

Ashley went for 1,000.

She certainly wasn't the core.

She was definitely one of the girls, like, on the edges,

the sort of peripheries.

We had people working with us in LA,

Miami, New York, London, Paris.

They were just all over the world.

( bagpipes playing )

Narrator: The club's richest client in London

was the Duke of Westminster.

One of his dates was Zana Brazdek.

Suwal: She drank an entire bottle of champagne

and he doesn't drink alcohol.

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 will.

Narrator: Zana had violated the employment standards

of the club and had to be terminated.

♪ Very secret... ♪

Suwal: I began seeking out fashion models

and the absolute highest financial elite as clients

and sort of putting them together and then charging a fee.

Interviewer: So I get it. So that was the rationale then.

In other words so long as you presented it

as a get-together service,

then you weren't doing anything illegal.

Yeah.

Narrator: The man known as George Fox became a regular client.

Interviewer: How often did he meet with Ashley, or "Kristen"?

Well, he met her one time

and that was the big Mayflower experience for him, I guess.

Interviewer: But it was just that one time?

One time.

Sawyer: How often did you see Governor Spitzer?

Legally, I am... I'm not able to answer that question.

Sawyer: Court documents say they may have had previous encounters.

Narrator: The court documents didn't say that.

Ashley Dupré let the world believe that she was the "Luv Gov's" girl.

But she was only a one-night stand,

caught on a wiretap at the Mayflower Hotel

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 intelligent girl,

and not a... not a fashion model.

She had her own career.

And he liked to meet with her frequently.

And she was actually 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 I did not disclose her real name,

her face or reveal her voice.

So I transcribed her interview and hired this actress

to perform her words.

"Angelina": He used the name George Fox

and he booked an hour at a New York hotel, Upper East Side.

Um...

that first time it was very businesslike.

Interviewer: You said he wasn't that interested in the companionship.

( laughing )

Right.

- You're laughing. - It's funny.

'Cause he wasn't at all interested in the companionship?

I'm not... from what I... From what I heard.

I remember thinking he was like...

I hate to put this crudely, um...

A trying-to-get-his- money's-worth type client.

I said to the agency, you know, I don't...

I don't want to see that person again.

Interviewer: In what seems to be a kind of epidemic

of, you know, political figures and sex scandals,

one question is, why...

you know, why hookers?

I mean, why, particularly when that's, you know, illegal?

Again, I don't want to delve into...

Certainly don't want to speak for others,

and even in my own case,

don't really 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, less damaging.

Interviewer: Less damaging how?

Than having affairs or relationships

that take on a different tenor.

That have... I'm sorry, that have what?

Relationships that take on a different tenor.

You mean that have some sort of emotional...

Perhaps, yeah.

Narrator: Eliot Spitzer had taken the first step

into his double life.

He had just entered a world which formerly

he had seen only from the outside, as a prosecutor.

In April 2004, after wiretapping

a social club in Staten Island,

Spitzer helped the FBI and NYPD bring down

a sophisticated prostitution ring.

He knew how it was done.

He also knew his life was about to become

more public than it had ever been.

Announcer: If we're ever going to reform Albany,

it's gonna start on November 7th,

Election Day.

Because if one man can stand up to the powerful, so can you.

He'll ask and you'll answer.

And with one collective roar,

we'll wake the state government right out of its long sleep.

And on that day, government will stop being

that thing we complain about

and start being that thing we can do something about.

Jimmy Siegel: When I started doing Eliot's campaign ads,

everyone was very enthusiastic because we all felt like

we were working for a candidate that comes along once every,

I don't know, 20 years, you know, 30 years.

I came in with a line which was

"Bring some passion back to Albany."

New Yorkers don't like anger,

but every New Yorker likes passion.

( upbeat music playing )

Narrator: Silda Wall Spitzer persuaded her husband

to hire Jimmy Siegel.

She sensed that Siegel had the ability

to frame Spitzer's severe combative style

in an emotional populist campaign.

Siegel: I don't think she signed up to be a political wife,

the wife of a politician.

But I think she ended up really enjoying the campaign.

She was amazing to work with,

and one of the nicest people.

And she really cared.

She really believed in him and believed in this cause.

Pre-Barack Obama, you could make the case

that Eliot was the preeminent Democratic politician

in America at that point.

In the political world, it was kind of like working for a rock star.

( crowd cheering )

- ( fanfare ) - Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen,

I present to you the Governor-Elect of the State of New York,

the Honorable Eliot Spitzer.

( audience applauding )

Narrator: Taking a record 69% of the vote,

Eliot Spitzer had a popular mandate to make big changes.

Together let's build that one New York,

let's walk toward that better day.

Thank you, and God bless the great state of New York.

Constantine: Here he was, he's Governor of New York,

he's king of the world,

he's the future President of the United States.

Eliot 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: People had said to me before I won,

"Do to Albany what you did to Wall Street."

And we tried. We went at it

with a determination that was alien to the culture of Albany.

Narrator: The Capitol building in Albany was a monument to corruption.

America's most expensive government building

was like the legislature...

A bog of waste, double-dealing and graft.

The gargoyles on the walls haunted the place.

The maze of grand stairways navigated by special interests

robbed lawmakers of any sense of perspective.

Spitzer: It's like an Escher.

You don't know if you're going up or down, left or right.

The mind gets turned upside down inside that building.

Fred Dicker: I think over the years that some people have appropriately

seen it as a metaphor for the labyrinthian nature

of New York politics.

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 Albany.

Well, this is Fred Dicker live at the state capitol.

Welcome. What a beautiful day...

Narrator: Deeply conservative, Dicker was proud

of calling himself "an equal-opportunity prick,"

attacking whomever came into office.

Dicker: Eliot Spitzer, who didn't suffer fools lightly,

was treating a separate branch of government,

the legislature that could block him at every turn,

as if he could just push 'em around

like they were Wall Street executives.

Well, they pushed back and they pushed back hard.

Narrator: The man who pushed back hardest

was Republican Senate Leader Joe Bruno.

A charming old-school dealmaker,

he wasn't much interested in Spitzer's reforms.

Bruno: He thought that he really 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 dictatorially

almost, you know, in his own mind.

It wasn't a cakewalk.

It was not going to be as easy as building a legal case,

presenting it to a fact-finder and then you get a resolution.

This is a political process, which is much more complicated.

It's three-dimensional chess.

( folk music playing )

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 like political fertilizer.

Yeah.

Narrator: By 2007, the FBI

was investigating him for corruption.

Word was that Joe wanted a graceful way out.

Bruno: He told me, repeatedly:

"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 Albany head-on.

Early, he won some big victories,

but to get his first budget passed,

he had to play the game Joe Bruno's way...

Trading favors in backroom deals.

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.

Frankly, 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 Albany pols despised...

Open, rational 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 like his father's dinner table.

But Joe Bruno was the turd in Eliot's punch bowl.

But, Governor, I mean, again,

I say this very respectfully,

that is nuts!

( audience laughing )

What he wanted was for you to just sit there

like pupils with a teacher, nod your head

as he was lecturing you and pontificating.

Well, government doesn't work that way.

You responded...

Joe, I'm now gonna tell you something very simple...

This is my room; you're not gonna now derail us

from a conversation about energy, which we were just having.

- This has been a useful... - I thought you'd concluded.

And I called him several times.

I said, "What on earth is the matter with you?"

You understand that you have to have the cooperation

of the legislature, both houses.

He said, "Well, we're at war. This is a war."

And he said it like a big overgrown kid.

There'll be... there'll be a few tackled bodies on the field, so be it.

He was elected to get to Albany and turn around

the 30-year decline of the state,

to reform state government and do something

about the economy, which for decades has been like,

you know, on a slow downward spiral in New York state.

He had a temper. He had this passion.

It was, when focused and well-conceived in its execution,

it's what, you know, the people wanted to have happen.

♪ Well, I'm a steamroller, babe ♪

♪ I'm bound to roll all over you... ♪

Yeah, well, I was told

that Governor Spitzer had just gotten off the phone

with Jim Tedisco, the Assembly Minority Leader,

and had said to him, "You'd better toe the line

of what I'm trying to do here or be subjected

to the governor's wrath,"

which he had described as being a "fucking steamroller."

So James Taylor was on my mind and he has a famous song.

It was a throwaway line honestly meant in good humor

with Jim Tedisco.

And frankly, I said, "You know what?

We're not trying to be the steamroller." It was in that context.

When he said, "I'm an effing steamroller,"

I mean he meant it!

Narrator: He took on his own party when he bitterly opposed

their choice for state controller.

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 plays well with others.

Democrats would come into this room and say

they couldn't stand the governor.

Democrats were saying they loved Joe Bruno,

the Republican, because he was taking on the governor.

A steamroller is no match for that baby.

I can tell you that right now.

( engine revving )

♪ Now I'm a napalm bomb, baby ♪

♪ Just guaranteed to blow your mind... ♪

Dopp: Some of those old-time pols, you know,

really understood human nature.

And I think Eliot's view of it was

we would 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 only incremental change is possible."

And he'd be like, "God damn it, no it's not."

And the result 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 quickly announced publicly

he's going to take me out as leader.

I'm history

and the Republican majority was going to cease to exist.

He was going to take us out.

I said something like, "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 would come down hard on us

if we ever stumbled.

He said, "You're damn right.

If we ever fall, they'll kick us in the nuts."

Which is why the downfall was so shocking.

Interviewer: Did it begin to haunt you as something that you thought

was possible, 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 deal with it.

How did you deal 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.

"Angelina": I got a call months later.

And this... this was kind of a last-minute thing.

This was at the Waldorf Hotel.

He showed up with this baseball cap on,

like, clearly trying not to be recognized.

And I'm like, you know, "Don't tell me it's that guy again."

In that second meeting, you know, I was rather pushy with him.

I was like, "We're gonna sit and have a chit-chat

and have a nice little date here."

And it ended up being a fun couple of hours.

I thought it was Eliot Spitzer,

you know, but I couldn't be absolutely sure.

So I made a point to look out for him in the papers.

And it was at that point that I said to the people 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 extremely paranoid.

He knew that his entire political career was on the line.

And ultimately vice just took over virtue.

He could not control himself.

I don't know, I just remember one time

he was trying to book an appointment.

And I just remember thinking to myself,

I was like, "This man is so paranoid.

He's just going to attract a situation."

You know, because he was just asking for it.

It's like, "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 would have to go through sending these money orders in.

We're like, "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 like, "I can't go to the bank."

I never acknowledged who he was,

but he... he knew that I knew.

He started to request me.

I saw him outside of New York,

in Palm Beach, Puerto Rico,

Dallas, Washington.

He was always very guarded about what he would say.

And... I mean, I would insist

on having a conversation before we started.

I'm like... I'm totally taking advantage of this.

'Cause he's so smart and interesting.

I would, like, have my little rants

about what was wrong with New York City that needed to be fixed.

And he... he listened.

Bruno: When I saw him out with his wife,

with his children, he had it all together.

You know, what was strange with Eliot Spitzer

was he could be pleasant and charming and act very caring.

When my wife was reported as being seriously ill,

he called me several times.

And this is right in the height of some of our worst exchanges...

Couldn't have been any more pleasant.

But when he came after me, in what was called Troopergate,

then it was apparent that this man really intended to destroy me.

Narrator: In the Spitzer-Bruno war,

the biggest battle was Troopergate,

so-called because of the way state troopers

may have been misused for political purposes.

It was an attack on Bruno that would boomerang on Spitzer.

It was a Sunday and I was reading the local newspaper,

the Albany "Times Union."

And there was a story on the front page

and the suggestion was that Bruno had misused

state helicopters and other state travel

for personal and political purposes.

We released public documents on use of the aircraft.

It turned into a story, a one-day story.

But in a brilliant, I think, communications move

by Mr. Bruno's people, it was portrayed as,

"Oh, those are records that aren't normally released.

Oh, there's spying going on. There's dirty tricks going on."

The allegations are that the executive

conspired to use the state police,

state resources, to literally spy

on a colleague in government.

I was told, "No, don't comment. Don't... don't respond."

And I kept saying, "We've got to respond.

We're losing badly in the public-relations capacity

by not standing up and saying how ridiculous

these allegations are."

Why wouldn't he answer questions under oath?

Because of...

What's the explanation for that, Governor?

Fred, I...

And was it on the advice of counsel in your agency?

- Fred... - In the executive chamber?

Was he advised not to do it?

Fred... Fred, I'm... As I've said very clearly,

the investigation was one where they asked for information...

- You keep changing the subject. - I'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 claim he had nothing to do

with Troopergate and he hardly 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 release 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 engulfed Spitzer's office

and created the public perception that he'd abused his power.

In reality, 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 electricians' union

so he could say, "No, this was, you know, state business."

As far as I'm concerned, it's a complete fraud and a hoax,

you know, with one of the most corrupt state capitals.

"We're investigating whether or not

there was a leak to a reporter. Oh my God!

A crime has been committed!"

You know, it's the most... The biggest joke.

Narrator: A careful examination of Bruno's travel logs

revealed that state troopers had ferried Bruno

on extended visits to see Spitzer's political enemies,

including a trip to CV Starr, the office of Hank Greenberg.

Interviewer: Do you recall Senator Joe Bruno coming to see you?

Yeah, Joe Bruno would come from time to time to see me.

They're always trying to raise money.

When he came, did you talk Spitzer?

I don't recall.

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 talk to each other.

To push the attack on Spitzer,

Joe Bruno hired a political operative

who reveled in his reputation

as the country's most notorious dirty trickster, Roger Stone.

Here you have Mr. Clean, the Sheriff of Wall Street,

someone for whom ethics is his signature issue

charging that Bruno is... is dirty.

This is a tyrant, a megalomaniac,

a would-be dictator who really believes that you...

In government, you somehow either have the right,

by getting a lot of votes or being born to privilege,

to just issue orders and people do what you say.

Stone was this, like, legendary figure.

He had his hair dyed.

He was a "swinger," in literal terms.

And the reporters, they were like...

They thought of him as like a piece of work.

But they had, like, affection for him,

because he didn't make any bones about the fact

that he was such a flawed character.

Even in his own Republican ranks,

he was like, regarded as, like, a maverick,

if not gadfly, if not lunatic.

But crazy-like-a-fox kind of a guy, I guess.

Sure, I believe in a gonzo brand of politics,

because you have to get... You've gotta get people's attention.

In a world where there's so much competition

for their attention politically,

and then there's the rest of life:

sports, food, entertainment, whatever it is.

You're competing for all of that, because politics,

like all those other things, is entertainment.

Narrator: In 1996, Stone was fired

from the Dole presidential campaign

when it was revealed that he and his wife

had marketed themselves as swingers.

"We are seeking similar couples," said the ad,

"or exceptional muscular, well-hung single men."

But that didn't stop Roger.

An elegant dresser with a taste for martinis,

he reinvented himself as a charming secret agent

with a license to kill.

He reveled in the body politic and his own bodybuilding.

Just below his neckline,

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-old father.

( beeps )

Man: This is a message for Bernard Spitzer.

You will be subpoenaed to testify

before the Senate Committee on Investigations

on your shady campaign loans.

If you resist the subpoena,

you will be arrested and brought to Albany.

And there's not a goddamned thing your phony,

psycho, piece-of-shit son

can do about it.

Bernie, your phony loans are about to catch up with you.

You will be forced to tell the truth,

and the fact that your son's a pathological liar

- will be known to all. - ( 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 able to compare from the voice...

The message he'd left on the voicemail...

To appearances he had made on TV,

and we got a voice analyst 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.

Ultimately, private investigators that I retained

determined that there had been a tap on my phone

at 40 Central Park South.

I now believe that a rogue unit of the New York State Police,

under the direction of Eliot Spitzer,

who understood that we had jujitsu-ed him on Troopergate,

was monitoring my calls. In other words,

I think the tape that was released was...

Was pasted together. It was a... it was a...

It was a put-up job.

The FBI called 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 relating to the phone call.

It was more about me.

Did you think anything about that in retrospect?

Well, in retrospect, I... it has crossed my mind.

And it crossed your mind in what way, since then?

Well, 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 talk 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 talk.

Stone: We could never actually get a confirmation

about what they wanted to talk about.

And I declined to have that interview on the advice of my attorney.

Narrator: Bruno fired Stone because of the phone call.

But Stone confirms that he was then hired

by wealthy, motivated Republicans

to stay on the Spitzer detail.

A few months later Rich Baum, secretary to the governor,

received an email from Stone's consulting company.

The question is

how did the investigation of Spitzer begin?

The government claims it spotted

a suspicious wire transfer of several thousand dollars.

What was interesting to me is that the whole thing

comes from a single money transfer

that sort of sent up a red flag,

a suspicious activity report.

Every day there are thousands of these suckers filed.

Narrator: The Federal Clearinghouse receives 3400

suspicious activity reports, or SARS, every day.

Someone had to have taken

a very personal interest in this particular transaction

and kind of shepherded it through the process

in order for it to be the subject of a lot of attention

and ultimately be the basis for a case.

Narrator: The SAR was filed 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 Consulting was

and that they called Morgenthau's office.

Narrator: Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan District Attorney,

was surprised when the federal government

came looking for help on how to prosecute escort services.

The feds just didn't do prostitution cases.

They also naively 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 realize

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 Michael Garcia, the man who had tangled with Spitzer

over the investigation of Hank Greenberg.

Normally focused on terrorists, mobsters and Wall Street,

Garcia's office was suddenly spending enormous resources

to go after a small escort service.

Garcia was a Republican.

Was this a political hit?

The Spitzer investigation began at the very moment

when the Justice Department was involved

in a huge scandal 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 powerful Democrats

in order to get rid of them.

The only banking activity that seemed to interest them

was Eliot Spitzer's banking activity, you know,

as we sunk deeper and deeper

into this horrendous banking scandal

that's convulsing the country.

Suspicious banking activity by Eliot Spitzer

and the United States government was on the trail.

Narrator: After notifying superiors in Washington,

the US Attorney's office obtained permission

to wiretap the phones and emails of The Emperors Club.

The night before, it's like 8:00 p.m.

We're both sitting at our computers.

And all of this information, like our client information,

is being sucked out of the computers.

And we're like, "Oh my goodness, we have hackers."

We download some kinda, like, encryption software,

and try to, like, save our information, whatever is left.

And then we go to bed as usual.

And 6:30 a.m... Bang bang bang.

It's the FBI.

Okay, shock.

( knock on door )

Suwal: I was certainly unprepared

to just be woken up out of my sleep

at 6:30 a.m. and, you know, have the FBI come

in their bulletproof vests

asking me if there are firearms in the house.

You know, I mean, just... And all I'm thinking,

I'm like, "That cash is gonna get us in trouble."

Narrator: Cece and Mark Brener had nearly a million dollars

in cash in a safe in their closet.

The guy came in, one of the FBI men.

He came in and he was like,

"We are closing Emperors Club VIP."

And I was like, "Oh oh!

My God, my stomach, my everything, my baby."

It was just surreal.

I mean, that was like my child.

The essence of what went on here was,

in federal-law terms, a violation of the Mann Act.

Narrator: Known as the "white slave act,"

the Mann Act made it a crime to transport women

across state lines for immoral purposes.

That is why federal prosecutors were particularly interested

in out-of-town dates with "Angelina" and Ashley.

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 look at these statutes

in terms of standards of enforcement.

Is this statute in fact being enforced that way

uniformly 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,

Michael Garcia's deputies suddenly sent emails

to Washington seeking support for using the Mann Act.

Wiretaps revealed many customers

who paid for escorts all over the world.

But Garcia's office was only interested

in prosecuting one of the customers.

They pressured me... Like they do on TV.

And they said, "We know you worked for this agency

and we want you to look at some pictures

and tell us if you recognize anyone."

And I did that

and Eliot Spitzer was in there.

And I said yes, I recognized him and yes, I had seen him.

And I said, "Should I maybe have a lawyer?"

And they said, "Well, we want to keep this confidential."

The main thing about that meeting

was that they were very insistent

and pressuring me in an uncomfortable way,

you know, for me to admit that I had sex with Eliot Spitzer.

You know, why him and why not anyone else?

All you have to do is lay this case side by side

with the DC Madam case and look at the way

the prosecutors behaved in Washington

and the way they behaved in New York.

And it's like night and day.

They're constantly 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 actually ordered prostitutes

during roll-call votes when he was a congressman.

He apologized, but he did not resign.

Horton: David Vitter is still sitting in the Senate. He never left.

Nor was there ever any pressure brought

by the federal government for him to leave.

And what's the difference between these cases?

One case involves two prominent Republicans

and the other involves a Democrat.

That's the only difference, frankly.

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 club...

An adult-themed club in Miami called Miami Velvet.

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 professionally a call girl,

but she wasn't working this particular night.

I said, "Well, you know, what, who are your...

What kind of clients do you have?"

You know, she had athletes. She had captains of industry.

She had prominent businessmen.

She had politicians and so on.

And I said, "Well, like who?" She said, you know,

"I recently... I was... I almost had a date

with the Governor of New Jersey."

I said, "Jon Corzi...? You had a date with Jon Corzine?"

She said, "Who's he? I had a date with Eliot Spitzer."

I said, "No, Eliot Spitzer is the Governor of New York,

not New Jersey."

She said, "Yeah well, I'm not into politics."

I said, "Was there anything else notable?"

And she said, "Well, he was kinda weird."

I said, "Well, what do you mean?" She said, "Well, he kept...

He had these black knee socks and he kept them on the whole time."

So I ask you: what kind of guy fucks with his socks on?

( chuckles ) The black-socks thing isn't true.

He wore low-cut socks

and he took them off.

Stone: The next day I discussed it with my attorneys

and I asked them to contact the FBI

and tell them what we knew in a formal letter.

Now I don't claim

that this was a revelation to the federal investigators.

It may have been a piece of a puzzle 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 claim.

Narrator: The FBI insists that it never received

the letter from Stone's attorney.

( horn honking )

Spitzer: It wasn't an addiction. It was a desire,

the need to find an outlet that was not within

the very confined world that I had been living.

Interviewer: Had you found a way to completely

compartmentalize 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, I don't want to go there, but it... it did not affect governance.

And in fact, I can say with real certainty

in February, March of '08,

people were beginning to say, "Hey, wait a minute,

their strategy is working."

We were winning the political races,

getting the economic agenda in place.

People were beginning to see that the chess game was playing out.

- ( applause ) - Spitzer: Join me in good faith.

I will meet you with an open hand.

For we will realize this opportunity best

if we work together in a spirit of cooperation.

( applause )

Man: We'd been through so much.

And we had had a very successful State of the State address,

we had a great budget announcement

and we really thought we were turning the corner.

In fact, we were at a bar and one of the senior advisors

to the governor raised his glass,

in what I'm sure was the moment that jinxed us all,

and said, "To turning the corner!"

Well, we didn't turn the corner.

Man: This prostitution business,

referred to as The Emperors Club VIP,

was an international organization...

Narrator: On March 6th, the Department of Justice

brought charges against the four people who ran The Emperors Club.

Prosecutor: In addition with the prostitution offenses,

they are charged with money laundering...

Narrator: Two things caught the attention of reporters:

the high prices paid to the escorts

and the highly unusual appearance, in a prostitution case,

of members of the public-corruption unit of the Department of Justice.

Interviewer: When did you first have an inclination

that you were gonna have a serious political problem?

The Thursday

when it was announced

that a case had been made

against The Emperors Club.

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 calls and text messages

and more than 6,000 emails.

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, like she would say,

"He's there now and he's ready to see you."

And I would say, "Okay, I'm heading over there."

They said, "Look, we already know all about you.

We know that you were at this hotel at this time

and 10 minutes later you were here.

We know this."

Narrator: The list of charges against The Emperors Club,

the affidavit, was surprisingly detailed.

As a piece of writing, it was crafted like a mystery story,

full of clues.

It teased the reader with a few sentences each

on Clients One to Eight;

and then five riveting pages on Client Number Nine

and his one date with "Kristen,"

otherwise known as Ashley Dupré,

at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC.

The affidavit was filled with all sorts of crucial details

that allowed reporters to go off

and find out who Client Nine was.

Barrett: "The Times" won a Pulitzer

because they went down and, you know,

they did things like they went to every major hotel

in Washington and figured out who was in that suite,

in which hotel, 'cause they didn't know which hotel he was in.

Narrator: The affidavit was full of steamy sexual banter

and concerns about whether the client was difficult

or even safe.

Was the writing meant to convict the accused

or embarrass the client?

An FBI guy with sandy-colored 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 like he wanted to get some kind of information

about some kinky sex stuff or something juicy that happened.

You know, like the governor's into whatever.

And I flat out said, "I don't see how any of that

is relevant to your investigation to prosecute

what you're trying to prosecute."

There was nothing.

Maybe some sexy lingerie or something,

but that was all I ever took.

There were a number of leaks in this case,

most obviously to "The New York Times."

But a couple of New York TV stations also were on to the story.

And the Albany "Times Union" got sent

the criminal affidavit in The Emperors Club case.

And its reporter was told specifically

to look at Client Nine and told that

he was a wealthy New York public official.

Narrator: Eliot Spitzer was never charged with any crime.

So you really have to wonder whether or not

the purpose of the investigation at some point became the leak.

Some breaking news this afternoon.

"The New York Times" is reporting

that Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York

has informed some of his senior administration officials

that he had been involved in a prostitution ring.

I recessed the conference.

We went into my office, the whole conference and had the TV on.

Reporter: Cheers erupted on trading floors around the city

as word spread of Governor Spitzer's stunning downfall.

Some traders reportedly broke out

bottles of champagne to celebrate.

Narrator: They weren't the only ones.

Four diners at the 21 Club

claimed that they spotted Dick Grasso,

Hank Greenberg and Ken Langone

celebrating Spitzer's fall with a magnum of champagne.

Woman: Would you say that you were surprised by this news?

Not at all. I had no doubt

about his lack of character and integrity.

It would only 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, told CNBC shortly

after all 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 mail 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 line.

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 Eliot Spitzer in the post-office line,

overheard him sending a money order for a prostitute.

I mean, this is too amazing to be true.

It was totally coincidental that somebody tells me this

an hour before that.

That's God at work, I'm telling you.

Here's God saying here's a little bit more for you.

Barrett: Unless you think Ken Langone has friends

who call him from post offices, my hunch would be

that it was someone closer to him than a friend.

Interviewer: What do you mean

"someone closer to him than a friend"?

An employee, a consultant, a...

You know, somebody that he hired to be there.

That would be my hunch.

But it's, you know, do I know that?

Is he gonna tell us that? He said it was a friend.

Why he volunteered this information...

He just couldn't stop himself from crowing.

I 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."

Well, how did he know?

I don't know, but I did discuss it with the governor

and the governor felt like he was under surveillance.

He thought he was under surveillance.

( siren wailing )

The day I gave my proffer,

I walked out of the courthouse

and there were journalists suddenly everywhere.

I went straight to the bar. I had a couple 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 Eliot Spitzer news?"

And I was like, "Oh my God, they've got me already!"

I was, like, freaking out.

Narrator: The very day the news broke,

there were messages on "Angelina's" phone

from reporters who wanted to talk.

Mysteriously, they knew her real name and her phone number,

information only available to the government investigation.

"Angelina" left town and never returned the calls.

( techno music playing ) ? How long, how long?

♪ How long, how long... ♪

I do not believe that politics, in the long run,

is about individuals.

It is about ideas, the public 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 myself.

I must now dedicate some time

to regain the trust of my family.

I will not be taking questions. Thank you very much.

I will report back to you in short order.

- Thank you very much. - ? How long, how long?

♪ How long, how long. ♪

Stiles: Everybody was just in shock.

I was angry and that was the last thing

I ever would have expected of him to have done.

My heart broke for... for Silda.

I knew Silda very well and his family.

And they'd always seemed to have such a strong

relationship and a bond.

Dopp: He was like, you know, so straitlaced as to be,

like, laughably straitlaced.

At some social event, Eliot said that he had met Penelope Cruz.

And at the time she was the hottest star out there.

And I said, "Wow, that girl is amazing, isn't she?

She's dynamite, no?" And his response to me is,

"I could see how some people might think she's alluring."

And I just said to him,

I said, well, "Wow, what are you talking about?"

But yeah, that was Eliot. That's why this notion that,

you know, there would be someone other than Silda

was such a shock.

Interviewer: Did you learn something about your wife

that you didn't expect in this...

As a result of this experience?

I wish I hadn't needed to learn it,

but I learned that the depths of her forgiveness

are deeper than are...

ever to be called for.

Narrator: After the initial announcement,

Spitzer considered his options.

Despite her pain, his wife encouraged him

to stay on as governor.

Calls went out to the leaders of the State House and Senate.

No one would support him.

The reservoir of goodwill was empty.

The combative style

left him without friends and defenders in the end.

Spitzer: The only relevant question really was

what can I do to minimize

the continued pain to my family?

And it seemed to me that

to fight to retain the office at that point

would make it even longer, uglier, more painful

than to take the alternate path.

So I resigned.

From those to whom much is given, much is expected.

I have been given much: the love of my family,

the faith and trust of the people of New York

and the chance to lead the state.

I think I was in shock first

because I saw Silda standing there.

We've seen so many women standing there,

behind their man.

And many women just felt, you know, this is enough.

Narrator: Intrigued by the cultural issues of the scandal,

performance artist Karen Finley wrote a one-woman play

about the intersection between sex and state.

The public performance of this private moment

was... was just so voyeuristic.

The painting in our mind of what we weren't seeing...

this very personal, sexual, private act.

♪ You never know how much I love you ♪

♪ Never know how much I care... ♪

I'm not the most politically-correct person in the world,

and I saw Eliot later after this whole thing

and I said, you know,

"You could have run in France on this and won," so...

♪ When you kiss me ♪

♪ Fever when you hold me tight ♪

♪ Fever in the morning... ♪

Barrett: Eliot Spitzer is a joke, a national joke.

He is like the poster boy

of a man out of control.

But these other guys aren't;

these other politicians aren't.

I mean, Bill Clinton is one of the most popular

figures in American politics

and he got a blowjob in the Oval Office.

♪ Do you remember ♪

♪ When we met ♪

♪ That's the day ♪

♪ I knew you were my pet ♪

♪ I want to tell you ♪

♪ How much ♪

♪ I love you. ♪

( vocalizing )

He had sex. Oh my God!

Kill him.

Burn him at the stake. You know?

I hope when history looks back at that

they say, "Gee, changed the way Wall Street operates;

went after, you know, environmental abuses;

you know, went after the insurance-company fraud;

went after this." And then on this side,

"Had sex in a Washington hotel room."

Matt Lauer: He resigned 13 months ago and has remained

largely silent until now.

With the US economy in turmoil, the man once known

as the Sheriff of Wall 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 public life.

I mean, the guy's got skin like that, okay?

I mean, that... that thick.

Narrator: After his resignation, Spitzer watched

as his Wall Street reforms were attacked and rolled back

by investment banks and the federal government.

He had been on to the very issues that almost did us in

and collapsed the financial system.

These are the guys that got us to the brink of disaster.

And Eliot Spitzer was after them years before the collapse occurred.

Goldman Sachs will have a profit

that we estimate of about $12 billion last year.

That is precisely what taxpayers gave them

to help them get bailed out from their AIG exposure.

Banks should be lending to people who have

a repayment schedule, who produce something.

It should be an old-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 public,

so did Ashley Dupré.

With uncanny timing, it seemed that Ashley appeared

on Fox TV or the cover of the conservative

"New York Post" whenever Spitzer made public appearances.

Hi, I'm Ashley 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 columnist.

Ask me anything about love, sex, and relationships.

A lot of people around the country are discussing Eliot Spitzer's efforts,

and that's what it clearly is, to rehabilitate himself.

Senator Joe Bruno, of the great capital district.

Good morning, Senator. Thank you for being with us.

- I think he needs therapy. - I agree.

They oughta help him to get himself rehabbed.

Assuming he can.

Because people like this are very dangerous.

Roger Stone, let me ask you about what's going on now with Eliot Spitzer.

Well, Senator Bruno is essentially correct;

the man is a psycho.

Don't bust people who are running call-girl 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 claimed to have

supplied escorts to Eliot Spitzer.

New York law enforcement says

there's no evidence of any link.

But newspapers continue to print her claims 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 Eliot 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 law.

The law didn't apply to him.

Woman: What do you think is next for Governor Spitzer?

You know, we all have our own private hells.

I hope his private hell is hotter than anybody else's.

Interviewer: Ken Langone

and Hank Greenberg are powerful enemies.

Did it ever concern you

that they might have played a role in your downfall?

I guess it didn't concern me enough.

You know, look, not to...

sort of mince words,

there are all sorts of rumors about

their helping or taking credit occasionally

for bringing me down.

My view is I brought myself down,

and I will not try to blame others

or excuse my behavior.

I did what I did and... And shame on me.

If they were involved in unearthing it,

okay, so be it.

That isn't my concern right now.

What I did in our investigations

of the companies obviously I believe it was right.

My personal behavior that led to where I am right now

was obviously wrong,

violative of everything I hope I believe in.

And I make no excuses.

Finley: We want our political people to be God.

And maybe that's the biggest problem for us...

Is that he's a human being and he's not God.

This isn't just a national narrative,

but it's an ancient narrative that happened,

that has to repeat itself

into our culture because it is unresolved.

Aside from your journalism career,

your column, you're also a lovely singer.

Before... and I want you to come back

and be a regular columnist for us as well.

I would love to, thank you.

But can you give us a little 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 delightful ♪

♪ But since you've no place to go ♪

♪ Let it snow, let it snow ♪

♪ Let it snow. ♪

Geraldo: Ashley Dupré.

Man: Yeah, New York, stand up.

♪ Start spreading the news ♪

♪ Start spreading the news ♪

- ? I'm leaving today? - ? I'm leaving today?

♪ I wanna be a part of it, New York, New York... ♪

Gold went up to 1040 today.

There was a huge panic about inflation

and the Arabs wanting to be paid for their oil

in a currency other than US.

But I 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 sleep ♪

♪ Got me up all night like a sink with a slow leak ♪

♪ Holds me in its grips... ♪

There's a couple of people that I'd like to do that to.

( laughing )

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 small-town blues ♪

♪ You're trying to lose, we got a big city here ♪

♪ To abuse your virtue, it might help you or hurt you ♪

♪ Save or desert you ♪

♪ Get close to bright lights, might burn you ♪

Woman: ♪ Start spreading the news... ♪

It's virtually worthless.

About-about 100...

About $100 million.

♪ New York, New York ♪

♪ New York, New York ♪

- ? These vagabond shoes? - ? These vagabond shoes?

♪ Are longing to stray ♪

♪ The very heart of it ♪

♪ New York, New York ♪

♪ Feel me ♪

♪ New York, big city of dreams, big schemes ♪

♪ Petty hustles on the corner claim they're doing big things ♪

♪ Winning battles, never wars, doing dirt-like chores ♪

♪ Never know who's telling lies but the city keeps score ♪

♪ Good place 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 lump when you come to ♪

♪ And then everyone's committing crime to steal enough food ♪

♪ Trudge through the urban jungle and you'll 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 looking 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 little-town blues? - ? These little-town blues?

- ? Are melting away? - ? Are melting away?

♪ I'll make a brand-new start of it ♪

- ? New York, New York? - ? New York, New York?

♪ If I can make it there ♪

♪ If I can make it there ♪

♪ I'll make it anywhere ♪

♪ It's up to you New York ♪

♪ New York ♪

♪ 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 place to be ♪

♪ New York, New York ♪

♪ New York City is the place to be ♪

♪ Ba-Ba-da Ba-Ba-Ba-da ♪

♪ Ba-Ba-da Ba-Ba-Ba-da ♪

♪ Ba-Ba-da Ba-Ba-Ba-da ♪

- ? Start spreading the news? - ? Start spreading the news?

- ? I'm leaving today? - ? I'm leaving today?

♪ I wanna be a part of it, New York, New York ♪

- ? These vagabond shoes? - ? These vagabond shoes?

- ? Are longing to stray? - ? Are longing to stray?

♪ Right through the very heart of it ♪

♪ New York, New York. ♪

( vocalizing )

( music fading )