Eliot Spitzer Aides Caught Playing Dirty Tricks

Aides and close advisers of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer have been caught trying to plant dirt on a political rival, state senate leader Joseph Bruno.

While New York’s attorney general, Spitzer was featured as #3 on CEI’s list of The Nation’s Top Ten Worst State Attorneys General. Supporting that list was a portrait of each of the ten worst state attorneys general, including their ethical lapses and misuse of their offices to enrich trial lawyers and political cronies.

Spitzer made the list for reasons such as his supporting a $625 million lawyer’s fee for politically-connected trial lawyers who brought New York State’s copycat lawsuit against the tobacco companies. That worked out to $13,000 per hour, even though the case wasn’t risky for the trial lawyers to handle (they were hired to work on the state’s lawsuit only after the tobacco companies had already agreed to pay off two other states), and the trial lawyers’ services weren’t essential (they were hired after New York State’s lawsuit had already been pending for months, and New York’s attorney general has hundreds of state attorneys working for him).