She Thought She Could Do Better

Newsweek, May, 2008 by Eve Conant And Evan Thomas

Deborah Jeane Palfrey saw a business opportunity and took it. But her success was also her downfall.

She was never your typical madam. Discretion was definitely not one of her virtues. After Deborah Jeane Palfrey was charged with running a prostitution ring in the spring of 2007, she released 46 pounds of phone records—including her clients’ phone numbers—and said, in effect, to investigative reporters and to the blogosphere, “Go to it.” Instantly dubbed “the D.C. madam,” she caused considerable heartburn and more than a few sweaty palms on Capitol Hill, in government offices on the Federal Triangle and in the law firms and lobbying shops lining the K Street corridor. In time, the trawl of phone records turned up a U.S. senator who had espoused family values, the State...

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