D.C. Madam Seeking Subpoenas for ABC News' Brian Ross and Others

September 12, 2007 2:07 PM

Justin Rood and Maddy Sauer Report:

The D.C. Madam wants a date with ABC News reporter Brian Ross -- in court.

Facing racketeering charges related to allegations of running a prostitution ring, a lawyer for Deborah Jeane Palfrey has asked a federal judge to issue a subpoena to compel Ross and other prominent figures to testify at her trial.

Earlier this year, Ross and his investigative team were the first to review a portion of phone records from Palfrey's "sexual fantasy service," Pamela Martin and Associates.

In a new filing, Palfrey's lawyer Montgomery Blair Sibley also requested subpoenas for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Cindy Adams, the renowned New York Post gossip columnist.

In an e-mail to reporters Wednesday, Sibley explained he believes Palfrey is the victim of a politically motivated prosecution.

He would like Ross to testify, he wrote, because "the very real specter exists that political pressure was placed on ABC News to 'bury'" names of prominent individuals it found among her phone records.

ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross dismissed the allegations.

"Our decisions regarding what we reported were based solely on what we considered to be newsworthy," said Ross.

Leahy should testify, Sibley said, so he can explain his statements that the Justice Department under President Bush has "allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence." Leahy is chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department.

"As chairman, he gets some awfully wacky requests, but this one might make it into the top ten," said a spokesperson for the senator late Wednesday.

Earlier this year, ABC News received a portion of Palfrey's phone records showing more than 30,000 calls made from her business phone number from 2002 through 2006. Ross aired his report on Palfrey in May, identifying former U.S. Agency for International Development chief Randall Tobias as a client of Palfrey's firm. Tobias resigned prior to the story's airing.

Since then, Palfrey has made available to the public phone records covering what she says is her entire period of operation, from 1993 to late 2006. To date, a number belonging to one more prominent American, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., has been identified among her records. In response, Vitter issued a public apology for having "sinned."

A spokesperson for Cindy Adams did not immediately return calls requesting a comment.

This post has been updated.

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September 12, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (7)

'Hustler' Call May Have Prompted Vitter Admission

July 10, 2007 1:26 PM

Justin Rood Reports:

A call from Hustler magazine may have prompted a Louisiana Republican senator to expose his past with an escort service run by the so-called "D.C. Madam," the Blotter on ABCNews.com has learned.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., sent a statement to the New Orleans bureau of the Associated Press late yesterday confirming that he had used the now-defunct Washington, D.C. escort service Pamela Martin and Associates, whose former proprietress, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, has come to be known as the D.C. Madam, thanks to her high-profile federal prosecution.

Last week, immediately following a judge's order, Palfrey turned over phone records for her service from 1993 to 2006 to Washington, D.C. investigative reporter and author Dan Moldea, with whom she is writing a book, Moldea told ABCNews.com.

According to Palfrey's lawyer, Vitter's number appeared on a February 2001 phone record, which his client had not previously shared with other news outlets, including ABC News.

Photos D.C. Madam Affair Unfolds

The next day, Moldea told ABCNews.com, he discovered a phone number connected to Vitter in the records.

Moldea, who also works as an investigator for Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, contacted Flynt with the information, he said.  Flynt did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABCNews.com.

Yesterday afternoon, a Hustler editor contacted Vitter's office to ask his connection to Palfrey's service.

Soon after, Vitter's office released its statement.

Vitter's office did not respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this year ABC News received and analyzed a portion of Palfrey's phone records that included calls between 2002 and 2006 but found no indication of Vitter having used the service.  A new search of the records previously provided to ABC News against several numbers that have belonged to Vitter returned no matches.

Palfrey could not immediately be reached for comment.

The revelation of Hustler's involvement is not without irony. Vitter joined Congress by winning a House seat vacated by former Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., in 1999. Livingston, a chief accuser of former President Bill Clinton during his Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, was forced to step down after Hustler magazine threatened to publish evidence of his own marital infidelity, which he admitted upon his resignation.

Flynt has announced he will hold a press conference Wednesday.  According to a Flynt spokeswoman, the publisher is not planning to release any more names of former Palfrey clients, but she promised "more stuff" would come out then.

Z. Byron Wolf contributed to this report.

This post has been updated.

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July 10, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (72)

Dismiss All Charges, D.C. Madam Argues

June 18, 2007 10:55 AM

Justin Rood Reports:

The D.C. Madam has asked a federal judge to dismiss all charges against her.

In a flurry of pleadings Friday, the court-appointed counsel to Deborah Jeane Palfrey argued  the government had misapplied prostitution laws, unfairly singled out his client for prosecution, and its charges against her were unconstitutionally vague.

From 1993 to August 2006, Palfrey ran a high-end escort service in the nation's capital. Pamela Martin and Associates, as the firm was known, charged a flat fee for 90-minute "dates" with women between the ages of 23 and 55, whom Palfrey termed as independent contractors.

In one of eight separate motions filed, Palfrey's lawyer Preston Burton argued to Judge Gladys Kessler that the government prosecutors were misusing local prostitution laws to justify their charges against Palfrey.

Federal prosecutors have not charged Palfrey with prostitution, which is not a federal crime, but with racketeering and conspiracy charges which assume Palfrey's business violated local laws against the sale of sex.

But whatever sexual activity took place between the women and clients of Palfrey's service was "private conduct between consenting adults" within private homes or hotel rooms, Burton wrote, and protected from unwarranted government intrusion.

In public statements about her case, Palfrey has maintained that if any of the women who were working for her had sex with the firm's clients, they did so in violation of her rules and without her knowledge.

"[E]ven assuming that the escorts breached their contractual agreement with Ms. Palfrey's business and negotiated arrangements of sexual intercourse in exchange for compensation, [that] occurred in private settings," beyond the government's right to regulate personal behavior, Burton argued.

In separate filings, Burton said Judge Kessler should dismiss the racketeering and conspiracy charges against Palfrey because they failed to include enough details of the crimes they allege.

"'[B]etween, in, or about' time periods spanning up to five years in length, Ms. Palfrey, aided and abetted by unnamed individuals, utilized the United States mails and unnamed facilities in interstate commerce to carry on a business enterprise involving prostitution offenses," Burton paraphrased the indictment against Palfrey, arguing it was too vague to allow Palfrey to defend herself.

In yet another filing requesting dismissal of the case, Burton noted the government filed its indictment against Palfrey just days after another of her lawyers had requested an independent prosecutor handle her case, citing his belief that Justice Department prosecutors were compromised because their colleagues may have used Palfrey's service.

"If the indictment was indeed sought as a response to Ms. Palfrey's petition, this action would...constitute selective prosecution," Burton argued, and justify dismissing the case.  If the judge thinks otherwise, Burton asked if the government would turn over documents showing why they chose to prosecute Palfrey.

Burton noted that "Ms. Palfrey owns and operates merely one of hundreds of escort services operating within the District of Columbia." Palfrey has said she shut down the business in August 2006, two months before she says she learned of the federal investigation into her operation.

In still another filing, Burton requested the government reform its use of so-called aliases when referring to Palfrey. The indictment against Palfrey "suggests falsely the use of criminal aliases," he wrote, by referring to his client as "'Deborah Jeane Palfrey,'...also known as 'Jeane Palfrey,' also known as 'Julia,' also known as 'Pamela Martin.'"

"'Jeane Palfrey' is simply the use of a middle name from Ms. Palfrey's given name," argued Burton. "'Julia' was simply a nickname that Ms. Palfrey used as part of her escort service... 'Pamela Martin' was the name of Ms. Palfrey's escort service and not a nickname or alias of any kind."

The U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia, which is prosecuting Palfrey, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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June 18, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (28)

Despite Madam Scandal, Tobias Honored as 'Living Legend'

June 06, 2007 11:38 AM

Justin Rood Reports:

Randall Tobias may have become the butt of late-night comics' jokes after admitting to ABC News he was a client of the so-called "D.C. Madam" and resigning his top State Department post in April. But his home state of Indiana is celebrating him as a "legend."

Tobias, the one-time Bush administration AIDS czar and chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development, is slated to be honored as a "Living Legend" by the Indiana Historical Society at a special awards dinner next month, according to the Indianapolis Star newspaper.

On April 26, Tobias confirmed to ABC News' Brian Ross he had several times called the "Pamela Martin and Associates" escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage."

Palfrey, who is facing federal prosecution on charges stemming from her alleged prostitution service, contends her company was a "sexual fantasy" firm and did not provide sex for hire. 
Tobias, who is married, said there had been "no sex," and that recently he had been using another service "with Central Americans" to provide massages.

The State Department announced Tobias' resignation for "personal reasons" one day after his interview with Ross.

As a top official overseeing global AIDS funding to other countries, Tobias was responsible for enforcing a U.S. policy, enacted during the Bush administration, that requires recipients to swear they oppose prostitution and sex trafficking. USAID adopted a similar policy in 2004.

In May, Tobias withdrew from a scheduled commencement ceremony at which he was scheduled to speak, telling the school he did not want to be a "distraction."

Other nominees slated to receive the historical society's "Living Legend" award this year are musician/producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, contemporary Christian singer Sandi Patty and Tony George, CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the annual Indianapolis 500 race, the Star reported.

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June 6, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (4)

D.C. Madam Finding New Limelight

May 07, 2007 1:04 PM

Justin Rood Reports:

The woman accused of running a Washington, D.C., prostitution ring, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, is expanding her efforts to take her case public.

The week after appearing on ABC News' "20/20," the so-called D.C. Madam has arrived in New York for more interviews and an appearance on a TV pilot being produced by Time Warner.

Palfrey told ABC News she is going to tape a pilot episode for a new talk show hosted by Jeanine Pirro. Pirro, the former district attorney in Westchester County, N.Y., lost a bid for state attorney general last year following a scandal involving her husband's alleged extramarital affairs. She could not be reached immediately for comment.

Palfrey also says she is getting calls from book agents eager to buy her story.

Federal prosecutors have charged Palfrey with several counts of racketeering in connection with the business, which they say was illegal.  Palfrey maintains her firm was lawful and provided only "sexual fantasy services" that did not include intercourse or oral sex.

Magazines have also contacted Palfrey, said the woman whose client list once included a deputy secretary of state, a military advisor, an Air Force intelligence officer and a now-deceased Justice Department lawyer. Palfrey said Vanity Fair magazine was considering putting her on the cover.

"I'm on a ride here I really have no control over," said Palfrey, who noted she had 10 meetings scheduled for her New York visit.  "But what little control I have, I want to use to do it in as classy and responsible a way as I can."

Palfrey said she is donating 10 percent of the revenue she gets from doing a series of Internet radio interviews to help wrongly convicted prisoners re-establish life outside of incarceration. The program, the Life After Exoneration Program (LAEP), helps exonerated former prisoners find homes, jobs and other support.

Heather Weigand, director of client services for the group, confirmed Palfrey's pledge and said the money would pay for psychological therapy and vocational training for exonerated former prisoners.

"This is not going to be for naught," Palfrey said. "We've all settled down. Let's go do some good."

May 7, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (14)

Decoding the Madam's Phone Records: How We Did It

May 04, 2007 10:00 PM

Brian Ross, Justin Rood & Lisa Schwartz Report:

The numbers in the "D.C. Madam's" phone records ultimately led ABC News to a number of powerful Washington men, including a deputy secretary of state, military officials, CEOs, academics, lobbyists, lawyers and others.

But it wasn't a simple path that led us there.

In mid-March, so-called "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey provided ABC News with several hundred pages of phone records detailing calls from the telephone Palfrey used to run Pamela Martin and Associates. The records included approximately 30,000 phone calls from 2002 to late 2006.

The phone records reflected the pattern of business at the service, as Palfrey described it to ABC News. A prospective customer would call in -- a call that was not reflected in the phone records, which only showed outgoing calls. Palfrey then called an escort or escorts to assign the "appointment." Then she called the client back -- in a call that was captured in the phone records -- to confirm the time and location of the appointment and the escort who would arrive.

After matching identities to many numbers, the phone records looked less like a torrent of random digits and more like a coherent record of a functioning business.

Of course, that's easier said than done; many of the identities proved difficult to match. For example, calls to hotels frustrated the effort. Many men arranged "appointments" with Palfrey from a hotel room telephone, which made those clients nearly impossible to identify from the phone records.

Complicating matters further, Palfrey sometimes used the phone for personal calls -- to talk with friends and family as well as to make personal travel arrangements and for other purposes.

Despite such complications, ABC News successfully determined the owners of most phone numbers and weighed their importance to the story.  The results are reflected in the "20/20" report Friday night.

But getting those results from the pages of the records to the final script was another challenge. With stakes understandably high, accuracy was vital to the story.

As the team positively identified names of potential clients (or, in the case of business numbers, the names of potential clients' employers), researchers combed the Internet and various directories to determine their biographies and positions.

Palfrey herself wasn't much help with this aspect.  Although she says she personally arranged the vast majority of "appointments" between her "gals" and paying customers during the firm's 13-year run, she said she had gained precious little knowledge of her clients' true identities. The men generally did not use their real names on the phone, she said, they paid in cash, and she never saw them in person.

Some of her escorts told her of clients they thought were prominent. One customer in particular had told them he worked in the White House. In dramatic tones, he told the story of evacuating the presidential residence during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Using details gleaned from the phone records, researchers matched the identity of the storyteller: no dice. The man worked near the White House, not in it.  He had apparently exaggerated his importance.

That wasn't the only false lead. Another number in Palfrey's records traced back to a phone number belonging to the head of a recognized educational institution.  A closer study revealed his number was the same as one linked to a popular escort with the service, although the area code was different.  When ABC News called, the man denied he had ever contacted the service but noted that he had for years been plagued with numerous hang-up calls to his phone, often late at night. Now, he said, he thinks he knows why.

Of course, not all leads were false, and those which resulted in news were vetted by the team. When researchers identified former Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias' number in the phone records, for example, they carefully noted the frequency of the calls, the times and duration of each call and the calls to escorts immediately following or preceding each call to Tobias.

Jonathan Gaither contributed to this report.

May 4, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (35)

'D.C. Madam' Client Ready to Testify About Sex

May 04, 2007 2:04 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

One of the prominent Washington men named as an escort service customer of the so-called "D.C. Madam" is apparently ready to testify he had sex with a woman or women from the madam's now-infamous Pamela Martin and Associates.

A lawyer for Harlan Ullman, a renowned military analyst and Washington Times columnist, says his client won't back down if he is called to testify by Jeane Palfrey, who prosecutors say ran an illegal prostitution ring for 13 years.

Palfrey maintains her service did nothing illegal and only provided "fantasy, legal sex," which does not include intercourse of any kind or oral sex.

"Any notion that Ms. Palfrey has that Mr. Ullman will help her in any way is incorrect," said Ullman's lawyer, Mark Mukasey, in a statement to the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

Previously, Ullman had told reporters that the allegation he used Palfrey's service was "beneath the dignity of comment."

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

When informed of Ullman's new stance, Palfrey told ABC News the former Rumsfeld colleague could be prosecuted along with her.

"If Mr. Ullman committed illegal acts, he can be charged with racketeering as well, since he would be a part of the overall conspiracy the government is alleging," Palfrey said. "It takes two to tango."

Ullman was named by Palfrey in court papers and in public statements outside the courthouse earlier this week.

Phone records provided to ABC News by Palfrey show Ullman was a repeat customer, who Palfrey says was known by her women as "Mr. U" and is well-remembered.

"He was a disagreeable character," Palfrey says, "and there were some complaints about him." She said some of the women refused to service him a second time "because he was an unpleasant person."

Palfrey has rejected an offer from federal prosecutors to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for a four-month prison term.

"I told them to go to hell with their deal," Palfrey said, "and instead will call my clients to testify in my defense."

May 4, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (265)

Caught Up in D.C. Madam Scandal, Former Top Official Bows Out of Commencement Ceremony

May 04, 2007 11:15 AM

Anna Schecter Reports:

Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias withdrew yesterday as the commencement speaker for the Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis, telling the school's interim dean he did not want his presence to be a "distraction."

Tobias resigned last Friday from the State Department after he confirmed he had been a customer of the escort service run by the so-called D.C. Madam, Jeane Palfrey, who is charged by federal prosecutors with running a large-scale prostitution ring in Washington.

Tobias told ABC News he used the service for massages but did not engage in sexual activities with the women.

Law school students were notified yesterday about Tobias' withdrawal in an e-mail obtained by ABC News from IUPUI interim dean Susanah Mead.

In the three-paragraph message, Mead told students that Tobias "called me yesterday to discuss his thoughts about whether his participation could be a distraction, given current events."

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

Mead said Tobias "indicated that he did not want anything to detract from this very important day for you and your families and therefore he has decided that it would be best if he did not participate in the day's activities."

Tobias' withdrawal as the law school's commencement speaker was first reported by the Indianapolis Star.

Last Thursday Tobias told ABC News he had several times called the Pamela Martin and Associates escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage."   

Tobias, who is married, said there had been "no sex" and that recently he had been using another service "with Central Americans" to provide massages.   

Tobias' private cell number was among thousands of numbers listed in the telephone records provided to ABC News by Palfrey. 

Palfrey maintains she ran a sexual fantasy business that was legal and that if any of the women who were working for her had sex, they did so in violation of her rules and without her knowledge.

Tobias is a former head of Eli Lilly and Co. Before he was appointed by Bush last year to a newly created job at the State Department to oversee most U.S. foreign assistance, Tobias served as Bush's first AIDS czar. In that post, he promoted abstinence and faithfulness to help prevent the global spread of AIDS.

Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard instead will speak to the graduating students on May 13, according to Mead's e-mail.

May 4, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (11)

'John School' for Scandal

May 04, 2007 10:44 AM

Asa Eslocker and Dana Hughes Report:

As part of a crackdown on prostitution, the Justice Department is spending $25 million on "John Schools," allowing men caught in prostitution investigations to avoid criminal charges and public exposure. 

Wives and girlfriends never need to know.

Instead in at least six major cities around the country, the men attend a three to six-hour course, where they are instructed on the dangers and harms of prostitution by former prostitutes, prosecutors and health officials.

Photos A Day in the Life of a 'John'

"This program is offered to help keep your record clean," prosecutor Marisa Mercandetti told a group of men this week at a John school called "Project Respect" run by the District Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The men pay a $250 fee, and the arrest is stricken from their record if they are not caught soliciting a prostitute again within six months. 

In Brooklyn, prostitutes are also offered a six-week rehabilitative program to help get them off the streets.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

But in many parts of the United States, programs for women arrested on prostitution charges don't exist, a discrepancy in punishment that is all too common, says Dr. Melissa Farley, the director of the Prostitution Research and Education Center in San Francisco.

"What usually happens in prostitution stings is that the women are arrested. The women are incarcerated. The women are taken out in handcuffs," says Farley. "The men who buy and use women in prostitution slowly and quietly slink off."

Dr. Farley says that while "John schools" could be considered a form of punishment, they still perpetuate the idea the crime is worse for the women selling than for the men buying. "It's too minor a penalty for an act that I consider a human rights violation," she says. Dr. Farley says that usually a John will receive the same treatment as a jaywalker.

But in Brooklyn, prosecutors say they are equally as tough on the Johns as they are on the prostitutes. They say the John schools help curb the demand side of the prostitution business.

"The DA believes that an effective way to deal with the ever growing problem of prostitution was to focus on the demand: the men paying for sex, the 'Johns,' which is all of you here tonight," prosecutor Mercandetti told the men attending class this week.

During the five-hour presentation, the men listen to former prostitutes tell their stories of abuse and degradation, watch slide shows with graphic examples of sexually transmitted diseases and are reminded that solicitation of prostitution, while a misdemeanor, is still against the law.

"No one here is your lawyer. We have not been retained to help you with any legal matters," warned Assistant District Attorney Mercandetti. "You only have one opportunity to take this program.  You only have one chance. The next time you're arrested for patronizing a prostitute, there will be no program offered. You only have one chance from removing this charge from your record, and if you should commit this crime again, you will go to trial, and it will be a public trial."

We want to teach you "respect for women, respect for the law, respect for the communities in which you were arrested and respect for yourselves and your family,"  she told them.

The Kings County Sex Crimes Unit Chief Rhonnie Jaus says that in Brooklyn there is a very low recidivism rate for offenders who attend the school. Out of 2,000 participants, only nine have returned. "The Johns program is an alternative to incarceration," she says.

Dr. Farley says it is important to establish that prostitution is not a "victimless crime" as is often the perception. "Prostitution usually involves the appearance of consent. For the woman who's being bought, it's an acting job," she says. "You don't go into prostitution and risk HIV, rape and sexual assault just in order to go to a spa or get your nails done. There are more compelling factors, like economic need and a history of sexual abuse, that lead women into escort, or any other prostitution."

May 4, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (14)

'Miz Julia' Speaks: Inside D.C.'s Most Notorious Escort Service

May 04, 2007 9:18 AM

Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz & Justin Rood Report:

Some of the most in-demand women working for the "D.C. Madam" were in their 50s, according to the woman at the center of the scandal.

"There was never an age limit. I hired women well into their 50s," Deborah Jeane Palfrey told ABC News. "They were some of the most popular women on staff."

During its 13 years of operation, women who worked for Palfrey's firm, Pamela Martin and Associates, were generally part-timers, Palfrey said, not professional escorts. "I made sure they either worked or went to school in the daytime," Palfrey told ABC News. Women took around three shifts a week, which ended at 11 p.m. every night, she said. "Everybody had to get up at 6:00 and 7:00 the next morning to go to work."

Palfrey recruited women by placing ads featuring her telephone number in local alternative newspapers and campus publications, including the University of Maryland school newspaper, according to both Palfrey and federal prosecutors.

The government has charged Palfrey with crimes associated with running a prostitution ring. Palfrey says she ran a legal "sexual fantasy service" and that women who worked for her agreed not to engage in illegal sexual activity with clients, intercourse or oral sex.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

From career professionals to graduate students, most women who came to Palfrey to work did so because they needed money -- to pay off credit card debt, cover school loans or pay tuition fees, according to Palfrey. "I had a gal, for example, who was at Georgetown Medical," she said. At different times Palfrey employed a college professor, a medical researcher, a Navy officer, a legal secretary and a suburban realtor.

When a woman responded to one of her ads, Palfrey said she counseled them to think seriously before signing up. "Many of these girls had never done this kind of work before," Palfrey said, explaining why she encouraged them to "think about it overnight."

If the woman was still interested, Palfrey asked her to send a photograph of herself, a resume and a driver's license to Palfrey in California, where she lives, Palfrey said. Later, she accepted applications via e-mail.

Palfrey said that if she liked what she saw, she sent the woman on an "appointment" to a client known to her.  Prosecutors call those men "testers" and say Palfrey required women to have sex with them, in order to "determine the ability of those women to perform the appropriate prostitution activities."

Palfrey says they "were not supposed to have sex."

"I needed somebody to eyeball them," Palfrey said, because "they didn't look exactly the way they portrayed themselves," adding that she also wanted to "make sure they were sincere."

"Many of these girls were a lot of talk and no action -- as most people seem to be from time to time," Palfrey said.  Many applicants would initially be very willing, but when they went on their first appointment "they just freeze and they think, 'I don't know if I can do this.'"

If the girls were hired, Palfrey had them sign a contract agreeing not to engage in illegal sexual behavior or drug use or buy alcohol for minors. They were instructed on the basics of the business: how to send Palfrey her cut of each appointment fee (mail a money order to a California P.O. box), how to let her know when you can work (submit a schedule by Sunday evening showing your availability for the following week) and what was expected of them (at least three shifts a week, well-groomed appearance and no complaining about far-flung appointments).

Palfrey generated business for her women by advertising in telephone books and alternative newspapers throughout the Baltimore-Washington area.  "The ads were very benign," Palfrey said. "No girlie pictures, no nudie pictures. Nothing salacious."

Calls from prospective clients were routed to her home in California. For seven days a week, 345 days a year, Palfrey answered the calls, arranged 90-minute "appointments," kept schedules, even sent out employee newsletters. The business was routine, interrupted only for snow days and a handful of holidays. 

"It was very boring, mostly," Palfrey told ABC News. "Very 'Groundhog Day,' the same thing over and over and over and over, and over. For me, anyway."

For others, it might not seem so routine.  For instance, Palfrey and all of her women used "play names." Palfrey was "Miss Julia," while her girls chose their own pseudonyms, including "Jennifer" or "Angela," or "Miss Jennifer" and "Miss Angela," as Palfrey said she addressed them.

Clients were often particular, Palfrey recalled. "The men would ask for a specific girl or a specific type...'I am looking for someone who is 50,' for example. 'I am looking for someone who is petite,' 'I am looking for someone who is like Mary,' if he had seen Mary before.

"And I would say, 'Well, there is no one quite like Mary, of course, because there is only one Mary.  But I do have someone who is also very polite and very nice and friendly.'"

For their part, the clients were typically decent to Palfrey's women, she said. "I had many gals tell me that their boyfriends treated them, oh, just purely awful. And they would go to many of these appointments, and the man would have roses waiting for them.  And nobody had ever given them roses before."

Although Palfrey abhorred paper records, she says she religiously filed tax returns for herself and the women who worked for her, operating as independent contractors. "I reported every year, 13 years, with H&R Block," Palfrey told ABC News. "The girls received their 1099s [tax forms] in January." Her preparer mailed the forms to the women, Palfrey said.

"I think I ran a very nice operation," Palfrey said of Pamela Martin and Associates, which she closed for good in August 2006, two months before federal agents raided her California home, and the criminal allegations against her surfaced.

"I think I empowered a lot of women. I got a lot of women through graduate school.  I think the people that used the service were by and large quite pleased."

May 4, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (181)

D.C. Law Firm Suspends Woman Who Worked as Escort

May 03, 2007 1:16 PM

Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz & Justin Rood Report:

A legal secretary at one of Washington's most prominent and well-connected law firms, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, has been suspended after telling her bosses she secretly worked at night for the escort service run by the so-called D.C. Madam, Jeane Palfrey.

The woman both serviced clients and, at times, helped to run the business, Palfrey told ABC News in an interview to be broadcast on "20/20" Friday.

The firm said it would not make her name public.

According to e-mails the woman sent to Palfrey on her Akin Gump account, she "enjoyed and even missed" the work she did at night for Palfrey, who has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a large scale prostitution ring.

"Perhaps not the weekly grind, but was thinking that a day a week would be fun and spa money," the legal secretary wrote to Palfrey last year, after Palfrey had closed her business and was considering whether to re-open it.

Palfrey said the Akin Gump secretary would at times "answer the phones" and assign women on nights when Palfrey was unavailable.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

Palfrey has pled not guilty to the charges against her, maintaining her escort service, Pamela Martin and Associates, provided "legal, fantasy sex" and nothing more. 

The Akin Gump secretary was described by Palfrey as an "absolutely lovely gal," who was working as an escort "to go back to school and get her education, to finish her college degree."

"We had no inkling until she informed us this Monday morning," said R. Bruce  McLean, the chairman of Akin Gump.

The woman, who worked directly for one of the firm's many prominent lawyers, has been placed on administrative leave.

The firm has a policy prohibiting full-time employees from holding any other jobs. "She did not seek approval for that particular job and would not have been given it," McLean said.

McLean said the woman told the firm she was a government witness in the D.C. Madam case, and the firm was hesitant to dismiss her because of that.

According to the e-mails provided to ABC News by Palfrey, the Akin Gump woman was interested in helping to restart the escort service after Palfrey had closed it, suggesting it could be done from the Akin Gump offices.

"It is a shame to basically throw away over a decade of hard work and contacts," she wrote last October, just before federal agents raided Palfrey's operation.

"I think that handling the phones 4 to 5 nights a week is a very fair offer and would be something that I could easily do, even with my paralegal duties as they could pretty much be done simultaneously in front of a computer," she wrote.

A lawyer for the woman, Athan Tsimpedes, said his client "never took over the business." He said his client "does not want the publicity that Ms. Palfrey desperate seeks."

Considered one of the most powerful firms in Washington, Akin Gump partners make up a who's who of Washington insiders, including Vernon Jordan, former Speaker of the House Tom Foley, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and co-founder Robert Strauss, an adviser to numerous presidents.

May 3, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (102)

D.C. Lawyer Demands ABC News Keep His Client Secret

May 02, 2007 12:44 PM

Brian Ross Reports:

The lawyer for a "government witness" in the federal prosecution of Jeane Palfrey, the accused D.C. Madam, is demanding his client's name not be broadcast by ABC News.

In a letter to ABC News, Steven Salky of Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington, D.C., said he has "reason to believe" that his client might be named in this Friday's "20/20" report about the alleged prostitution ring.

But Salky did not identify who his client is.

ABC News has made contact with an extensive list of men traced to phone records of Palfrey's escort service business.

In his letter to ABC News, Salky claimed broadcasting his client's name would violate a court order preventing "Ms. Palfrey from engaging in acts or actions against Government witnesses."

The court order, issued March 22 by Federal District Judge Gladys Kessler, ordered Palfrey to stop her lawsuit against a number of former employees of her escort service.  She alleged they had breached their employment agreement by having sex with customers.  Palfrey says her service only provided "legal, fantasy sex" and not any actual sexual intercourse.

Judge Kessler said Palfrey's lawsuit was "harassment" of a government witness and ordered her not to engage in any "similar acts." 

Prior to the court order, Palfrey provided four years' worth of phone records to ABC News. She said she wanted to "stand up to the government" and "show the hypocrisy of the situation that's going on."

ABC News did not pay for the records or agree to provide research to Palfrey or her legal team.

One customer, Randall Tobias, resigned last week as deputy secretary of state after confirming to ABC News he had placed calls to the escort service to have "some gals come over to the condo for a massage." Tobias denied there was any sex involved.

He resigned prior to any public mention of his name. 

May 2, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (262)

In Newsletters, 'D.C. Madam' Gave Advice, Scorn

May 01, 2007 9:31 AM

Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz & Justin Rood Report:

Even call girls get performance reviews, at least the ones who worked for Jeane Palfrey's Washington, D.C., escort service.

"Without being overtly vulgar, a pair of tits and an ass, without accompanying brains, sophistication, LOOKS and carriage, just won't cut it in this business or at least, not with this particular agency!!"  wrote Palfrey in a monthly newsletter sent to the women who worked for her. 

Calling herself "Miz Julia"  or "the management,"  she regularly offered criticism, beauty advice and warnings about undercover police during the 13 years her business, Pamela Martin and Associates, was in operation.

D.C. Madam Affair Unfolds in Pictures.

In a January 1994 newsletter, she wrote, "Congress is back in session. This always helps to boost business."

In another edition, she complained, "That damn Monday night football...ruines [sic] business every single Monday night!"

Not all were racy. In several dozen issues reviewed by ABC News, much of the content would almost be recognizable to anyone who's pulled shifts in cubicle land: exhortations to improve organization and efficiency; handy tips for improving employee performance; updates on company policies.

"Nail color is to match the lipstick color. The lipstick color is to compliment a person's natural coloring," she advises, along with passing on details of a "fat cream for the thighs" and retin-A so "a gal of 40 can shave off 4-6 years realistically. Mgt. encourages such."

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

Palfrey was a stickler for punctuality.

"Organization and efficiency need to be, No, must be the bedrock from which the on-call escort service operates," reads one passage from 1993. In that particular article, Palfrey encouraged her employees ("girls," as she called them) to invest in cellular phones.

"Searching for pay phones in strange places and driving in circles when lost are extraordinarily exasperating and frustrating experiences, which need not be," Palfrey counseled.

Palfrey used her newsletters to instruct women in her employ to destroy all records or notes connected to the business, complaining about one of her girls arrested in a police sting in Alexandria, Va., "The bimbo kept records."  "Destroy the data immeidately [sic]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she wrote, while repeatedly demanding the women save all newsletters and adhere to the policies and procedures they dictated.

Prosecutors obtained a number of the communiqués and used them to build their case against Palfrey.  In one court filing, prosecutors used passages like "INTENSE SCRUTINY OF ANY DWELLING SPACE (HOME, OFFICE, HOTEL), VISITED BY PAMELA MARTIN, IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY ON-CALL!" to bolster their argument she was running a prostitution ring.

Palfrey maintains she ran a sexual fantasy business that was legal and that if any of the women who were working for her had sex, they did so in violation of her rules and without her knowledge.

In one newsletter,  she explains "adult service or fantasy escorts" command $200 an hour "because of the risky and sexual nature of these appointments. Obviously, the more liberal the booking or act, the more $ one makes." 

But she warned the girls they are "damned fools" if they think they can go on calls, "collect the $200 and 'just talk.'" "We do not sell social appointments, but adult fantasy ones here at Pamela Martin.  Anyone who believes otherwise, will find themselves unemployed."

In a clucking, sometimes sharply remonstrative third-person voice, Palfrey also issued directives on how to be a better escort.  Don't smoke before an "appointment" because "clients" complain. It's permissible to leave an appointment early if your "routine" ends before the allotted time, but try to stay for at least half of a 90-minute appointment. You can stay the entire time, if you like, but "there should be no feeling of obligation on your part to do so!" Palfrey counseled.

Employees' unfamiliarity with the Washington, D.C., area was a source of serious exasperation for Palfrey, the newsletters show. "The Agency recently hired a gal, who doesn't seem to have a clue in hell, as to how to navigate the roadways and streets of the metropolitan D.C. area," read one entry from 1994.

Partially blaming the girl's "poor sense of direction," Palfrey used the opportunity to chastise any of her women who had trouble answering the following questions:

"The streets of Washington, D.C. run 3 ways, i.e., east-west, north-south and diagonally. Which streets are designated alphabetically(?); numerically(?); have state names?" (In Washington, lettered streets run east to west; numbered streets run north to south; and streets named after states typically run diagonally.)

"North, South, East Capitol Streets and the Mall divide Washington, D.C. into 4 sections. (True or False.)" (True.)

"Of the streets designated by a letter, all letters are used except 3.  What 3 letters of the alphabet are not utilized, here?" (Trick question: Four letters never got their own streets. While Palfrey may have been recalling there are no X, Y or Z Streets in Washington, there is also no J.)

When Palfrey was in more charitable moods, she gave affirmative advice and tips. In another issue from 1994, she told her employees how to clean up their credit reports by asking credit agencies to remove negative information from their record.  In yet another, she tipped her girls off to the advantages of being a model at a hairstyle show ("free colorings and cuts").

In one issue, Palfrey even gave a product endorsement. "Victoria's Secret," she wrote, "is the only place a Pamela Martin girl shops."

May 1, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (109)

D.C. Madam Wants Washington Clients to Testify

April 30, 2007 9:36 AM

Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz & Justin Rood Report:

The woman charged in a federal indictment with running a high-class Washington, D.C. call girl service says she plans to call her prominent clients to testify at her trial.

Jeane Palfrey, dubbed the D.C. Madam, says among those she will call to testify are Randall Tobias, who resigned Friday as deputy secretary of state after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of Palfrey's escort service.

Tobias said he "had some gals come over to the condo for a massage" but denied any sex was involved.

D.C. Madam Affair Unfolds in Pictures.

Tobias is the second prominent man to be identified as a customer of the Palfrey's "sexual fantasy service."  Two weeks ago, Palfrey alleged that military strategist Harlan K. Ullman, creator of the "shock and awe" combat theory and now a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was also a customer.  Ullman has said that the claim was "beneath the dignity of comment."

Also on Palfrey's list of customers who could be potential witnesses are a Bush administration economist, the head of a conservative think tank, a prominent CEO, several lobbyists and a handful of military officials.

"I'm sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, four to eight years, because I'm shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever," Palfrey told ABC News correspondent Brian Ross in an interview to be broadcast Friday on "20/20." "I'll bring in every last one of them in if necessary," she said.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

Palfrey is due in federal court Monday morning to ask the judge to replace her current lawyer, a public defender, with a lawyer who she says "will be more aggressive in fighting the government."   

The indictment of Palfrey alleges she used more than 100 women over a period of 13 years "for the purpose of engaging in prostitution activity with male clients, including sexual intercourse and oral sex in exchange for money." She made more than $2 million running the operation, known as Pamela Martin and Associates, according to the federal indictment.

Palfrey, who ran the service by phone from her home in Solano County, Calif., is the only person charged. None of her male customers is named by the government.

"That's very hypocritical," she says. "Why aren't these people under arrest? Why just me?"

Palfrey claims she ran a legal operation that offered sexual fantasy but not "illegal sex" of the kind described in the indictment.

She says she hopes her prominent clients will testify they did not engage in actual sex when they hired her escorts.

"This was a sexual fantasy service," Palfrey told "20/20." "Occasionally a client would want to go to the Kennedy Center or go to dinner, but generally speaking they went straight to the homes, or they went straight to the hotels," she said.

Palfrey provided ABC News with phone records from her business going back four years.

April 30, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (285)

Senior Official Linked to Escort Service Resigns

April 27, 2007 8:58 PM

Brian Ross and Justin Rood Report:

Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation. 

Tobias, 65, director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), had previously served as the ambassador for the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.

A State Department press release late Friday afternoon said only he was leaving for "personal reasons."

Photos Tobias: A Powerbroker in the Capital

On Thursday, Tobias told ABC News he had several times called the "Pamela Martin and Associates" escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage."   

Tobias, who is married, said there had been "no sex," and that recently he had been using another service "with Central Americans" to provide massages. 

World News Video Senior Official Resigns After Admitting He Used an Escort Service.

Tobias' private cell number was among thousands of numbers listed in the telephone records provided to ABC News by Jeane Palfrey, the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," who is facing the federal charges.

In an interview to be broadcast on "20/20" next Friday, Palfrey says she intends to call Tobias and a number of her other prominent D.C. clients to testify at her trial.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

"I'm sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, four to eight years, because I'm shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever," Palfrey told ABC News.

Palfrey maintains she ran a sexual fantasy business that was legal and that if any of the women who were working for her had sex, they did so in violation of her rules and without her knowledge. She says there are a number of other prominent Washington, D.C. men who will be on her witness list.  "I'll bring every last one of them in if necessary," Palfrey said.

As the Bush administration's so-called "AIDS czar," Tobias was criticized by some for emphasizing faithfulness and abstinence over condom use to prevent the spread of AIDS.

In a 2004 interview, Tobias explained his approach as "A and B and C. . . Abstinence works. 'Be faithful' works. Condoms work. They all have a role. But it's not a multiple choice, where there is only one answer."

As a top official overseeing global AIDS funding to other countries, Tobias was responsible for enforcing a U.S. policy, enacted during the Bush administration, that requires recipients to swear they oppose prostitution and sex trafficking. USAID adopted a similar policy in 2004.

At an April 18 speech, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised Tobias' work. "Randy Tobias has indeed had many roles in his life, but none more important than the roles he's played in government, where he has been someone who has been most involved in organizing America's compassion to the world."

A biography of Tobias was removed from the USAID Web site, but an archived version shows that before joining the State Department, Tobias had been CEO of drug manufacturer Eli Lilly Co. and AT&T Communications and served on the board of trustees for Duke University, including three years as its chair.

In 2003, he co-wrote a book on leadership lessons with his son, Todd, entitled, "Put the Moose on the Table." Indiana University, whose publishing arm produced the volume, is also home to the Randall L. Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence.

Along with his wife, Marianne, Tobias donated over $100,000 to Republican candidates and political committees, according to the campaign finance Web site OpenSecrets.org.

Tobias is the second prominent man to be identified as a customer of the Palfrey's "sexual fantasy service."  Two weeks ago, Palfrey alleged that military strategist Harlan K. Ullman, creator of the "shock and awe" combat theory and now a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was also a customer.  Ullman has said that the claim was "beneath the dignity of comment."

Palfrey is expected to appear in court on Monday, to request permission to replace her criminal defense attorney, currently a federal public defender.

This post has been updated.

April 27, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (309)

'D.C. Madam' Speaks with ABC News

April 09, 2007 4:42 PM

Justin Rood Reports:

Alleged "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey has given an exclusive interview to ABC News.

ABC News investigative correspondent Brian Ross recently interviewed Palfrey, who for over a decade operated what she terms an "erotic fantasy service" in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, for an upcoming investigative report on "20/20" and on "The Blotter" on ABC News.com.

Last October, federal prosecutors charged Palfrey with racketeering offenses in connection with the business, which she contends was a legal operation.  From 1993 to August 2006, Palfrey ran a high-end escort service in the nation's capital, charging a flat fee for 90-minute "dates" with women between the ages of 23 and 55 whom she termed independent contractors.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

The women signed contracts agreeing not to engage in illegal activity, including having sex for money, Palfrey says, and were given guidelines on the difference between legal and illegal sexual behavior.  At least one woman, Dr. Paula Neble, is known to have told federal prosecutors that she had sex for money while working for Palfrey. Palfrey is suing her for breach of contract.

Palfrey has claimed that her service's clients were "upscale" and "came from the more refined walks of life."  In March, she made headlines by briefly offering to sell the phone records of her company, Pamela Martin and Associates, to the highest bidder. She withdrew the offer after a federal judge ruled the government could confiscate any proceeds. Shortly thereafter, Palfrey consented to be interviewed by ABC.

The network did not compensate Palfrey in any way for her interview or cooperation with Ross' 20/20 investigative report. "There was no consideration given or promised for Jean's cooperation with the story," said lawyer Montgomery Blair Sibley, who represents Palfrey in her effort to reclaim money and property seized by the government.

Palfrey recently dismissed the federal public defender representing her in the criminal case against her. She has asked the government to return $500,000 in her assets so she can pay for a new criminal lawyer; given that the government has unlimited resources with which to prosecute her, she has reasoned, the amount would be "fair play and due process."

This post has been revised.

April 9, 2007 in D.C. Madam Affair | Permalink | User Comments (88)