A federal judge on Thursday ruled that a woman accused of running a high-priced District of Columbia prostitution ring may make public 46 pounds of phone records containing former clients’ numbers.
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the “D.C. madam” after she threatened to expose high-profile Washington officials, said she plans to release her escort service’s billing records to credible sources to help her track down witnesses for her defense.
“I plan to distribute the records to as many responsible media, press, bloggers and private detectives who want them,” Palfrey said in a written statement to The Examiner.
In May, after Palfrey gave a portion of the records to ABC News, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler issued a temporary restraining order that barred Palfrey from distributing them to anyone else.
But in her order Thursday, Kessler disagreed with the U.S. Attorney’s Office argument that the “little black book” needed to be seized in order to prevent Palfrey from blackmailing former clients.
It’s unclear whether the billing records will yield any newsworthy information.
ABC’s investigation uncovered corporate leaders, and officials at the Pentagon and NASA but found few notable names.
The best known, Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias, resigned after ABC called him, but he insisted he did not have sex with the escorts who visited his condo in Northwest Washington.
Palfrey, 51, of Vallejo, Calif., is accused in federal court of racketeering by running a prostitution ring that netted more than $2 million over 13 years beginning in 1993.
Palfrey claims that her escort service, Pamela Martin and Associates, was legitimate.
