Another Scandal With Ties to Pentagon City Ritz
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WHAT IS IT with the Ritz Carlton at Pentagon City? Another top Washington scandal has ties to the luxury hotel that's adjacent to Nordstrom's, Best Buy, Chevy's Fresh Mex restaurant and Costco — a place where sex and/or money intersect with political shenanigans.
According to The Post's Carol D. Leonnig, an as-of-now unidentified client of alleged "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey is suing to keep his name out of a report that's supposed to air on ABC's "20/20" newsmagazine program on Friday. The client is set to be a witness for the prosecution and as Leonnig writes, the man's lawyer argues that "[i]dentifying him would violate a court order barring harassment of potential witnesses." (The Examiner writes this morning that the "D.C. Madam" scandal isn't all that huge with no big names expected to be tied to Palfrey's little black book.)
While the nitty-gritty details about the case against Palfrey are still under wraps, The Post reviewed Palfrey's 1996 Sprint phone bill which shows she "often called the Pentagon and the Ritz-Carlton at Pentagon City." Palfrey's lawyer says that it was at the Ritz was a regular location for escort "dates." It's not a total surprise as the Ritz has a storied history of scandal. Let's take a trip down memory lane ...
You might remember that the Pentagon City Ritz is where Monica Lewinsky was secretly recorded by Linda Tripp with a hidden FBI microphone on Jan 13, 1998, as part of Kenneth Starr's independent counsel investigation into then-President Bill Clinton. Later, on Jan. 16, Lewinsky had a tense meeting with deputy prosecutors from Starr's team. Lewinsky had been lured to Pentagon City's mall for lunch with Linda Tripp at the lower-level food court.
More recently, it was at the Ritz where the FBI secretly recorded Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., accepting $90,000 in cash that would be eventually discovered wrapped in tin foil in the freezer of the congressman's Capitol Hill home.
So now with the D.C. Madam case, there's even more reason for Arlington County officials to erect a historical marker noting the hotel's significance.
» "Ex-Client of Alleged Madam Tries to Stop ABC From Airing His Name" [WaPo]
» "ABC's 'Madam' Story a Likely Bust" [Examiner]
» "What Happened to Lewinsky on January 16, 1998" [UMKC]
» "Clinton Accused: Timeline" [WaPo]
Photo by James M. Thresher/The Washington Post
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Deborah Palfrey deserves the Pemberton Award for Good Governance.
Palfrey list is like the black book of 1918.
That trial of the century is deleted from all books.
The list there had 47000 names.
The list here is 46000 phone records.
The listed are not womenisers or machos or ordinary sinners.
They are power brokers, gay, lutheran agitators of all wars.
These wretches are only the dirty cover for the real pimps deep underground.
A curse on kingpins, Justice Charles Darling then and judge Adolph Kessler now.
Noel Pemberton-Billing
By Billing , Posted October 6, 2007 5:05 AMTrial of the Century 1918