No Federal Prostitution Charges For Spitzer

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer will not face criminal charges for patronizing a high-priced prostitution ring, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday.

The announcement, a five-paragraph statement from Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney in Manhattan, ended almost eight months of uncertainty for the disgraced governor, whose lawyers had been quietly making their case to the country's most prominent prosecutor's office that he ought not be charged. And it ended the possibility that Mr. Spitzer, once an aggressive prosecutor himself, would have his private life explored in a public criminal case.

Mr. Spitzer resigned as governor in March, two days after The New York Times reported that he had been a customer of the Emperor's Club V.I.P., a prostitution service that charged as much as $5,500 an hour.