A woman at the centre of a Washington escort scandal has said she was strongly considering retiring to Ireland if she was acquitted of running a prostitution ring for powerful political figures.
In e-mail correspondence with The Irish Timesyesterday, Deborah Jeane Palfrey said she visited Dublin in November 2004 to examine potential new homes.
"I was in Dublin on pleasure and a wee bit of business. I was considering the possibility of relocating to Ireland, once I retired," she said.
Ms Palfrey said she ultimately decided on Berlin, Germany, and will be moving there if she is acquitted on federal racketeering and money laundering charges.
She said she was very interested in restoring old houses and had won a city award for restoring her mansion in Vallejo, California. She was attracted to Dublin and Berlin because of the beauty of the old houses.
The Irish Times reported yesterday that Ms Palfrey continued to run her business from Dublin while visiting the city in 2004.
According to phone records she released on Monday, Ms Palfrey had 68 business calls on her mobile phone while in Dublin between November 25th and November 29th, 2004.
Some 29 of the calls were to Vallejo, California, where prosecutors allege she made over $2 million running a prostitution ring through the Pamela Martin and Associates escort agency.
Many of the other calls were to numbers at hotels in greater Washington where many of Ms Martin's clients were staying. However, Ms Palfrey said that she sold "sexual fantasy" and not sex.
The phone records are causing a political storm in the US. Ms Palfrey had been under a temporary order to prevent her from revealing the phone numbers.
US District Judge Gladys Kessler lifted the order last Thursday, strongly suggesting prosecutors may have been protecting high-placed clients.
Judge Kessler asked why the prosecutor's office "exhibited such a strong interest in protecting a list containing the telephone numbers of unindicted co-conspirators".
After the records were released, Republican Louisiana senator David Vitter acknowledged that he had committed "very serious sin" with Ms Palfrey's escort agency and asked for forgiveness.
Ms Palfrey's lawyer, Montgomery Blair Sibley, said yesterday that there were still many high-profile names on the client list that have yet to be revealed.