Washington, D.C.
The owner of a Washington escort service this week made an unusual public request for former clients to come forward to help her beat a prostitution charge. Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, claims she ran a “legal high-end erotic fantasy service” staffed by $300-an-hour female escorts who signed employment agreements that required them to perform only lawful acts. Prosecutors contend that Palfrey encouraged her escorts to have sex with clients. Now Palfrey is asking clients, who she says reach “high into the echelons of power in the United States,” to testify that they didn’t have sex with her employees. She has also turned over reams of phone records to ABC News’ 20/20 program. One person who is named in the phone records, Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias, resigned last week after ABC asked about his use of Palfrey’s service. Tobias, who oversaw the Bush administration’s global AIDS policy, acknowledged hiring Palfrey’s escorts, but only for massages.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Quiz of The Week: 15 – 21 NovemberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
Can the UK do more on climate change?Today's Big Question Labour has shown leadership in the face of fraying international consensus, but must show the public their green mission is ‘a net benefit, not a net cost’
-
The Week Unwrapped: Will US Catholics rebel against the Pope?Podcast Plus what are the ethics of freezing your late partner?
