Focus now on use of campaign funds

Prosecutors have asked the governor’s lawyers about the travel arrangements for three trips, including his February 13 rendezvous with a prostitute at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan has also asked about the governor’s use of car services during trips to Washington.

The governor’s lawyers have begun consulting with a campaign finance expert who has long worked for Spitzer’s political organisation to see whether campaign money was spent on the trips, including some as recently as last month, a person briefed on the investigation said.

The governor, in the two brief statements he made this week as his political career ended, has not directly addressed the allegations concerning his use of prostitutes. But he has told his aides in recent days that he used prostitutes only in the last eight months and never spent campaign or public money in that regard, according to several of the aides. He reaffirmed that position to his lawyer during a meeting at his Manhattan apartment on Tuesday, others present said.

Several people involved in the campaign said on Thursday that they did not believe campaign money had been misused. Jonathan Rosen, a spokesman for Spitzer 2010, the governor’s campaign committee, and the Excelsior Committee, his political action committee, said neither organisation had received subpoenas from federal authorities.

One of Spitzer’s lawyers, Michele Hirshman, did not respond to requests for comment.

A person briefed on the inquiry said on Thursday that investigators pursuing the case discovered something last fall that raised suspicions that Spitzer may have used campaign money to pay for transportation or hotel rooms for trysts with prostitutes.

It was not clear what two other trips investigators had requested records for from the campaign. Earlier this week, a person with knowledge of the escort service’s operations said that Spitzer had had an encounter with a prostitute in...