'D.C. Madam' segment on 20/20 prompts request from lawyer
William Roberts, Bloomberg News William Roberts Bloomberg News
A Washington lawyer asked ABC News not to broadcast the identity of a person he represents when the network's <em>20/20</em> program airs an interview this week with Deborah Jeane Palfrey, accused of running a prostitution service.
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A Washington lawyer asked ABC News not to broadcast the identity of a person he represents when the network's 20/20 program airs an interview this week with Deborah Jeane Palfrey, accused of running a prostitution service.

Dubbed the "D.C. Madam" by ABC, Palfrey ran an escort business under the name Pamela Martin and Associates in Washington for 13 years until it shut down in August 2006.

Palfrey has said she is innocent and her former service provided "fantasy," not actual, sex. She has provided ABC with 10,000 telephone numbers of men who used her service from 2002 to 2006, and she agreed to an exclusive interview with 20/20.

Steven Salky, a lawyer with the firm Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington, claimed in a letter to ABC that broadcasting his client's name would violate a court order preventing "Ms. Palfrey from engaging in acts or actions against government witnesses," the network said. He referred to persons on the list who might be called to testify against Palfrey. Salky didn't return telephone calls to his office.

Palfrey's attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, said the person Salky represents is a former client of the escort service.

"ABC is very thoughtfully and carefully reporting out this story," said Jeffrey Schneider, an ABC spokesman in New York. "If there are elements that we think rise to a certain level and are newsworthy, that's what we are going to report."

Former Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias quit his government job April 27 after he was contacted by ABC News about his business with Palfrey's company.

Tobias, a former chief executive officer and chairman of Eli Lilly & Co., who led a Bush administration program to advocate abstinence to counter the spread of AIDS/HIV, told ABC he received only massages from women he hired to come to his condominium and didn't engage in sex acts, ABC said.

ABC reported that Palfrey's list of customers includes a Bush administration economist, the head of a conservative think tank, a chief executive officer, lobbyists and military officials whom it hasn't yet identified.

ABC plans to broadcast its 20/20 interview with Palfrey on Friday, though it may release information from the interview as soon as tomorrow afternoon, Schneider said.