Ex-‘Manhattan Madam,’ Kristin Davis, Expects Subpoena From Mueller

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/21/nyregion/manhattan-madam-kristin-davis-mueller.html

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The special counsel’s office has expressed interest in issuing a subpoena to a woman who gained notoriety a decade ago for running a prostitution service in Manhattan, the woman, Kristin Davis, said in a brief phone interview Saturday morning.

Ms. Davis, 43, said she was unaware what information she might possess that would be of interest to the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“I don’t know at this time,” Ms. Davis said. But she confirmed that the special counsel’s office had “contacted us asking where they can serve” a subpoena.

In 2008, Ms. Davis, known in the tabloids as the Manhattan Madam, claimed to have supplied escorts to Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York in 2008 after The New York Times reported that he had been ensnared by a federal investigation into prostitution. Mr. Spitzer denied any association with Ms. Davis, who spent several months at Rikers Island for running a prostitution ring.

She later campaigned as a candidate first for governor of New York and then for New York City comptroller before another arrest, in 2014, this time for selling prescription pills, led to a two-year federal prison sentence. She was released from federal custody in May 2016, according to Bureau of Prisons records.

Ms. Davis said she did not believe that the special counsel’s apparent interest had to do with her running a prostitution service. “It would not relate to my work as a madam because that was so long ago and I haven’t been involved in that work for many years,” she said.

One possible topic of interest might be Ms. Davis’s long association with Roger J. Stone Jr., the political consultant and longtime Trump adviser, who has become a focal point for the special counsel’s investigators. Mr. Stone, a self-described “dirty trickster,” was in contact with an online persona that prosecutors say was controlled by Russian intelligence officers. The persona, Guccifer 2.0, was involved in spreading stolen documents damaging to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic Party.

In 2010, Mr. Stone worked as a campaign strategist for Ms. Davis’s campaign for governor. She had promised to legalize marijuana and prostitution if elected.

An aide of Mr. Stone, Andrew Miller, worked as Ms. Davis’s campaign manager. Mr. Miller has been subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury hearing evidence in the Russian investigation. His lawyer moved to quash the subpoena in June.

Ms. Davis said she did not know if the special counsel’s office was interested in her association with Mr. Stone.

“I’d like to know as much as you’d like to know,” she said.

On Friday, a publicist for Ms. Davis, Lainie Speiser, issued a statement outlining the long association between Ms. Davis and Mr. Stone.

“Kristin Davis and Roger Stone are very good friends and she has worked on and off for him for the last 10 years,” the statement read. “Roger is the godfather to her son. She is currently in the cosmetology business and she knows nothing whatsoever about Russian collusion with the 2016 election.”

Ms. Davis said that in recent years she had worked for Mr. Stone doing “primarily I.T.-related stuff, website design and graphics.”

Daniel Hochheiser, a lawyer for Ms. Davis, confirmed that he was representing Ms. Davis in any dealings with the special counsel’s office. As of late Friday afternoon, he said, neither he nor Ms. Davis had received a subpoena.

“I don’t want to get into why I think she might, but I can say I won’t be surprised if she is subpoenaed,” Mr. Hochheiser said. “How we’ll respond to the subpoena — that I’m not going to get into.”

TMZ reported on Friday the news that Ms. Davis expected to be subpoenaed in the investigation.