TV reports expected to detail Washington escort client list

A prominent military consultant and a Bush administration official have already been linked to a Washington escort service that prosecutors contend was a prostitution ring.

Others soon could join them after a television newsmagazine reports what it learned from the accused’s phone records.

The ABC News show 20/20 today planned to air what it has learned about Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s business from phone records she gave the network before a judge’s order barring her from releasing them took effect.

Palfrey, 51, of Vallejo, California, is charged in federal court with racketeering and money laundering associated with prostitution.

She contends that she ran Pamela Martin and Associates as a “legal, high-end erotic fantasy service” and that the women who worked for her signed contracts in which they promised not to have sex with clients. Prosecutors say she knew the 130 women she employed over 13 years engaged in prostitution.

Palfrey has said she gave ABC News the phone records because she hoped a network investigation of the records would compel customers to testify they did not engage in sexual conduct with the escorts.

Senior US State Department official Randall Tobias resigned from his post last week after ABC confronted him about his use of the service. Tobias confirmed to the network that he used the service, but denied he had sex with the escorts.

In court papers filed last month, Palfrey named Harlan Ullman, known as an author of the “shock and awe” combat strategy, as a regular customer. Ullman has said the accusation does not merit a response.

Yesterday, a lawyer for Palfrey said an instructor at the US Naval Academy was one of the service’s escorts and ABC reported that a secretary at a prominent law firm was another escort.

Montgomery Blair Sibley, Palfrey’s civil attorney, confirmed a report in the Navy Times that an academy instructor worked as an independent contractor for Palfrey’s service. Sibley said he did not know whether the person is still at the academy.

The ABC network has said the list of Palfrey’s customers also includes a Bush administration economist, a prominent chief executive officer, the head of a conservative think tank, lobbyists and military officials.