“Eliot Spitzer snuck me into his apartment in a suitcase: ex-mistress” (New York Post):
The former escort, who got paid up to $5,000 a night, also griped that Spitzer could be a slacker about payments — sometimes writing a check for $10,000, other times paying her in $300 installments.
“We were seeing each other four times a week’’ for sex, said Zakharova, who has previously described leading Spitzer around on a black leash during their bedroom games.
Zakharova said she is now working on book and movie deals about her time with Spitzer.
So the young lady earned up to $20,000 per week ($1 million per year) as a vendor of sexual services, but is potentially able to earn more by writing about the former New York governor‘s preferences in the bedroom.
Could a confidentiality contract between a prostitute and a client be enforced right now? Does the fact that prostitution is illegal in New York render such a contract void?
Suppose that the U.S. legalized prostitution (to go with recreational marijuana?). Would we then also put in default confidentiality provisions? What public interest is served by having sex workers write about their customers? (and how could the truth ever be established, absent video evidence?)
[Instead of working for $5,000 per night, why wouldn’t the young lady have arranged to get pregnant and then sold the abortion or harvested 21 years of potentially unlimited child support revenue offered under New York family law? The Post article explains:
At one point, the gal pal “wanted him to reverse his vasectomy. He told her he would, but he didn’t.”
]
Finally, what does the IRS make of all this? The U.S. resident is on record as saying that she earned $5,000 per night. If she did not declare this as income, does the IRS now go after her on behalf of the U.S. Treasury?
Related:
Voters should mildly consider allowing themselves the same access to women that their political leaders have. The mane issue in the last 20 years has turned from STD’s to human trafficking, but it’s not clear why prostitution in particular causes human trafficking instead of engineering or grad school. The internet quietly accepts that most male politicians are banging prostitutes, but still passes laws against private individuals doing the same.
https://pagesix.com/2014/04/28/silda-spitzer-scores-millions-in-divorce-deal/
First sow to the trough got $7.5 million, a free apartment, $240,000/year tax-free for life, plus “health care and medical insurance, an accountant, housekeeper and part-time assistant.”
Of course, Dork Money will be protected, same as always.
An agreement to keep a criminal act confidential would likely be unenforceable. Might be interesting to see how Nevada deals with this issue, thought presumably anyone who would want to keep the arrangement confidential would be reluctant to sue if the agreement were breached thereby ensuring that it would be news — witness the confidentiality between Trump and Stormy, where she is now claiming, preposterously it seems, that she was damaged by the confidentiality. About the IRS and Zakharova, might not be a good case because what is the evidence of the 5K if she the Gov paid her in cash. He can’t be forced to testify and it may not be worth the Gov’t efforts to immunize him to try to collect money from her, when her money may be long gone or squirreled away in BVI. Also the 5K figure may be fabricated because it is in her interest to market herself as a luxury good. Also may be statute of limitations issues by now since this all happened it seems a long time ago.
Prostitution, like the selling of organs, should always be illegal because it is immoral to commoditize human bodies. I have the utmost sympathy for the many girls and women who are trafficked into the sex trade, but none for johns or the supposedly empowered women who enter it voluntarily to make money. Find another profession.
I know Phil has complained about “moralists” in the past trying to enforce their scruples on everybody. I’m curious what he thinks laws should be based on, however, if not morality. The will of the strongest guy in the room? The dominant religion in an area? Clear and objective moral principles should be the foundation of any legal system. This is one area where I think the hardline “puritanical” Christian right has a clearer vision than the alt-right or leftist movements–the latter groups apparently think there should be laws, but I have no idea what fundamental principles they think those laws should be based on, since “moralism” is such a dirty word to them.