Who's sorry now?
Don't you just hope that Big Dick (Cheney)'s name is on that list? Or Scooter? Or one of the disgraced Attorney General's staff members? They'd be pretty sorry. We'll have to wait and see. Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the DC Madam, won her latest round in court and can distribute the names. Oooo, goody:
"As a result, Jeane has determined to release those records under certain conditions to qualified individuals or organizations," wrote her attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, in an e-mail.
Palfrey and her attorney have said the list contains up to 15,000 names and could shake up Washington by revealing high-profile individuals.
Prosecutors had won two temporary restraining orders to prevent her from distributing the list, first to preserve its availability, and then to prevent the harassment of potential witnesses through its distribution.
But prosecutors' arguments did not hold up, the judge ruled. The availability of the list is not in jeopardy and it was not seized or listed with her other assets that were subject to forfeiture, Kessler wrote.
Freezing "the personal property of an individual, not yet convicted of any crime" would be an extraordinary step, the requirements of which government prosecutors failed to satisfy, the judge wrote.
