NEW YORK - Days after Gov. David Paterson admitted he may have used a campaign credit card to pay for a hotel tryst with a girlfriend, his lawyer said the governor will reimburse the campaign for two nights at a Manhattan hotel.
Campaign lawyer Henry Berger told a news conference Friday that Paterson also used the campaign card to pay for such personal expenses as food, flowers, clothing and furniture - but has already paid back those charges.
Other than the two hotel stays, the attorney said, there was no evidence that Paterson did anything financially improper.
“To suggest that every time a check is made out to a woman something untoward was happening is sexist,” Berger said.
Paterson, who was sworn in on Monday following reports that Eliot Spitzer was implicated in a federal investigation of a call-girl ring, held an extraordinary news conference the next day to admit that he and his wife, Michelle, had both had affairs during a troubled period in their marriage.
Since then, Paterson has been under pressure to explain whether any state or campaign funds were used for the affairs.
Berger provided reporters with copies of expenses and checks going back to Paterson's state Senate campaign in 2002, and several months earlier.
Paterson charged $103.87 to the campaign card for one night at the Quality Hotel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in November 2002, and $149.17 for another night at that hotel, as well as an Amtrak train ticket to Albany, in April 2003.
He plans to reimburse the campaign for those expenses.
As for the question of whether Spitzer may have used taxpayer dollars or campaign committee money to subsidize his trysts, an analysis by The Associated Press of a year's worth of expense reports for Spitzer's office and his 2010 campaign shows little sign that those funds were used to pay for illicit activities.
Federal prosecutors have yet to weigh in on the matter; so far, only the alleged organizers of the prostitution ring have been charged. Spitzer resigned last week just days after he was identified as a client.
Expense reports filed by Spitzer's campaign committee show plenty of far-flung travel for the governor, but nothing in them overtly suggests that he was taking prostitutes along or making frivolous jaunts as an excuse to be alone in a hotel room.
There are no payments from the committee to any companies that have been identified by federal authorities as fronts for prostitution.
The committee's lawyer, Kenneth Gross, said he has seen no evidence that the organization paid for hotel rooms for people who weren't on legitimate campaign business.
“We had a really good system, and we carefully reviewed not only the contributions coming in ... but also on the expenditure side,” Gross said.
Records of Spitzer's state-issued credit card also show no obvious sign of having been abused for extracurricular pursuits.
Between September and February, the governor charged $4,056 in travel-related expenses to the state, including three trips to Washington D.C. and another to a conference with Hispanic lawmakers in Puerto Rico.
But he did not use his state card to pay for the two rooms that FBI agents said he used to arrange a Feb. 13 encounter with a call girl named Kristen at Washington's Mayflower hotel.
Spitzer's campaign didn't pay for the rooms either, suggesting that the governor - a millionaire - paid with his own money.
Other than the two hotel stays, the attorney said, there was no evidence that Paterson did anything financially improper.
“To suggest that every time a check is made out to a woman something untoward was happening is sexist,” Berger said.
Paterson, who was sworn in on Monday following reports that Eliot Spitzer was implicated in a federal investigation of a call-girl ring, held an extraordinary news conference the next day to admit that he and his wife, Michelle, had both had affairs during a troubled period in their marriage.
Since then, Paterson has been under pressure to explain whether any state or campaign funds were used for the affairs.
Berger provided reporters with copies of expenses and checks going back to Paterson's state Senate campaign in 2002, and several months earlier.
Paterson charged $103.87 to the campaign card for one night at the Quality Hotel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in November 2002, and $149.17 for another night at that hotel, as well as an Amtrak train ticket to Albany, in April 2003.
He plans to reimburse the campaign for those expenses.
As for the question of whether Spitzer may have used taxpayer dollars or campaign committee money to subsidize his trysts, an analysis by The Associated Press of a year's worth of expense reports for Spitzer's office and his 2010 campaign shows little sign that those funds were used to pay for illicit activities.
Federal prosecutors have yet to weigh in on the matter; so far, only the alleged organizers of the prostitution ring have been charged. Spitzer resigned last week just days after he was identified as a client.
Expense reports filed by Spitzer's campaign committee show plenty of far-flung travel for the governor, but nothing in them overtly suggests that he was taking prostitutes along or making frivolous jaunts as an excuse to be alone in a hotel room.
There are no payments from the committee to any companies that have been identified by federal authorities as fronts for prostitution.
The committee's lawyer, Kenneth Gross, said he has seen no evidence that the organization paid for hotel rooms for people who weren't on legitimate campaign business.
“We had a really good system, and we carefully reviewed not only the contributions coming in ... but also on the expenditure side,” Gross said.
Records of Spitzer's state-issued credit card also show no obvious sign of having been abused for extracurricular pursuits.
Between September and February, the governor charged $4,056 in travel-related expenses to the state, including three trips to Washington D.C. and another to a conference with Hispanic lawmakers in Puerto Rico.
But he did not use his state card to pay for the two rooms that FBI agents said he used to arrange a Feb. 13 encounter with a call girl named Kristen at Washington's Mayflower hotel.
Spitzer's campaign didn't pay for the rooms either, suggesting that the governor - a millionaire - paid with his own money.
