AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) — A woman accused of running a high-end Washington prostitution ring cannot demand documents from ABC News as part of her defense strategy, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Deborah Palfrey provided ABC with exclusive access to her escort service's telephone records for a May segment of "20/20." After combing through those records, reporters said they traced numbers back to a Justice Department prosecutor, NASA officials and military officers. None of the officials was named in the report.
Palfrey, who says she has been unable to locate those officials herself, subpoenaed ABC to see exactly what it uncovered. She contends those clients can verify that her company was an "erotic fantasy service," not a prostitution ring.
Lawyers for the network said Palfrey was just trying to piggyback on the journalists' investigation.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson said federal rules prohibit criminal defendants from using subpoenas merely to gather facts to help prepare for trial. He threw out the subpoena.
In July, Hustler magazine discovered Sen. David Vitter's phone number among the records. The Louisiana Republican quickly apologized for a "very serious sin in my past." Vitter nearly was forced to testify about his relationship with the service, but he was spared when a judge canceled the hearing.
Palfrey also fired her third lawyer Wednesday, and Robertson said she can represent herself.
4 comments:
Within minutes of McCormack's announcement, Tobias's biography was removed from the USAID Web site.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2007/04/27/
AR2007042702497_pf.html
Interesting Anon:
And what is your theory of why Tobias' bio was removed from the USAID website. And is there more to the story about Tobias besides the DC Madam case?
Randall Tobias was the Chairman and CEO of AT&T International from 1991 until 1993. He left the company after selling Clipper to Al Gore's associates in exchange for drug money laundered through the US Department of Justice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_L._Tobias
Harlan K. Ullman is the co-author of "Shock and Awe — Achieving Rapid Dominance"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_K._Ullman
"Any notion that Ms. Palfrey has that Mr. Ullman will help her in any way is incorrect," said Ullman's lawyer, Mark Mukasey.......
October 2, 2001: Remote Controlled Passenger Airplane Flew Before 9/11, Despite Claims to the Contrary
A Raytheon 727 lands in New Mexico in August, 2001.A Raytheon 727 lands in New Mexico in August, 2001. [Source: Associated Press]It is reported that the US company Raytheon landed a 727 six times in a military base in New Mexico without any pilots on board. This was done to test equipment making future hijackings more difficult, by allowing ground control to take over the flying of a hijacked plane. [Associated Press, 10/2/2001; Der Spiegel (Hamburg), 10/28/2001] Several Raytheon employees with possible ties to this remote control technology program appear to have been on the hijacked 9/11 flights (see September 25, 2001). Earlier in the year, a specially designed Global Hawk plane flew from the US to Australia without pilot or passengers. [Independent Television News, 4/24/2001] However, most media reports after 9/11 suggest such technology is currently impossible. For instance, the Observer quotes an expert who says that "the technology is pretty much there" but still untried. [Observer, 9/16/2001] An aviation-security expert at Jane's Defence Weekly says this type of technology belongs "in the realms of science fiction." [Financial Times, 9/18/2001; Economist, 9/20/2001] Even President Bush appears to deny the technology currently exists. He gives a speech after 9/11 in which he mentions that the government would give grants to research "new technology, probably far in the future, allowing air traffic controllers to land distressed planes by remote control." [New York Times, 9/28/2001] http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a100201raytheon
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