DC Madam scandal reemerges
After ABC News ran a 20/20 segment on the DC Madam phone list that offered no new revelations, it appeared the scandal was mostly done with. Reporter Brian Ross, whose team had been given a portion of the records, had said no one else on his list was prominent enough to reveal. But now it turns out that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) was also reportedly a client.
With the recent lifting of an injunction against the public release of the records, the story has clearly gained new life. The attorney for Deborah Jeanne Palfrey, who is accused of running a prostitution ring but says her business was only a high-end “fantasy service,” initially said she would be providing the records to “qualified individuals or organizations.”
But the Big Head DC blog yesterday reported that the records will be posted on Palfrey’s Web site, www.deborahjeannepalfrey.com, which at the time of this posting was not functioning due to “maintenance downtime or capacity problems.” Expect numerous self-styled “citizen journalists” to investigate the records with glee.
Given the traditional lull in politics that occurs in August, this new development may be coming at just the right time for news producers looking for air time to fill.
