January 26, 2006

The Eliot Spitzer team's tactics are to use unrelenting media pressure and leaks of discovery to force a settlement, so when they have to try a case from someone willing to risk defending themselves, they run into trouble. The team appears to have run up against a couple of defendants, the NYSE's Richard Grasso and AIG's Hank Greenberg, who wish to conduct civil discovery of their own. (Aaron Lucchetti and Ian McDonald, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 24; Reuters, Jan. 24). It's not clear that the requests—which include seeking a deposition of Spitzer himself—aren't a bit overreaching.