United States:She has already triggered the resignation of one senior Bush administration official and sent Washington into a fever of speculation, but former "DC madam" Jeane Palfrey says she is only trying to defend her good name.
Randall Tobias resigned last week as deputy secretary of state after admitting that he had used Ms Palfrey's escort service, although he insisted that he only "had some gals come over to the condo for a massage" and never had sex with them.
Later this week, Ms Palfrey will name more former clients, including a Bush administration economist, the head of a conservative think tank, a well-known chief executive, some lobbyists and a number of military officers.
She said this week that she regretted the distress the revelations would cause, but claimed that naming her clients was her only option as she faced charges of running a prostitution ring.
"I'm sure as heck not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone four to eight years, because I'm shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever. I'll bring every last one of them in if necessary," Ms Palfrey said in an ABC News interview to be broadcast on Friday.
Although she admits that she employed more than 100 women in the US capital over 13 years, Ms Palfrey claims that she ran an entirely legal "sexual fantasy" service. At $300 for 90 minutes, clients received a visit from a woman who was over 23 and had at least two years' college education, and who might offer a massage but would not have sex.
"Occasionally a client would want to go to the Kennedy Center or go to dinner, but generally speaking they went straight to the homes, or they went straight to the hotels," Ms Palfrey said.
Federal prosecutors claim Ms Palfrey made more than $2 million (€1.5 million) out of the operation, known as Pamela Martin and Associates, and an indictment claims escorts offered "sexual intercourse and oral sex in exchange for money".
Ms Palfrey, who once served 18 months for attempted pimping in San Diego, says she is naming her clients in the hope that they will agree to support her claims.
The women who worked for her signed contracts that specified that they should not have sex with clients. She now says the government should individually prosecute those "who disobeyed my directives, their signed contracts, and participated in illegal behaviour, be they a client or subcontractor".
Ms Palfrey, who ran the operation from her home in California, did not know her clients' names but kept their telephone numbers. She handed the numbers - more than 10,000 in a stack of pages a foot tall - over to ABC News so they could be traced.
She has welcomed Mr Tobias's statement that he never had sex with the "gals" from her agency as valuable evidence in her favour, but added that he should have come forward sooner.
"Had he done so earlier, along with many, many others who have used my company's services throughout the years, I most likely would not be in my current predicament," she said.
Ms Palfrey has sued the federal government to force it to return $500,000 in property seized by the tax authorities, but a judge recently ruled that the criminal case against her must first be resolved. Montgomery Blair Sibley, the lawyer handling her civil case, rejected the suggestion that his client's decision to name names amounted to blackmail.
"I don't know why that's blackmail. I call that due process of law. We don't have any options left," he said.
