How Did Spitzer Dodge Criminal Charges?

This is a rush transcript from "America's Election HQ," November 7, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG JARRETT, CO-HOST: All right. He is off the hook. You know who we are talking about, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer will not - that's right - not face criminal charges for committing crimes, soliciting high-end prostitutes.

The fed is saying there's no evidence that he misused public or campaign cash. How in the world did Spitzer get off so easy?

Joining us now, FOX News legal analyst Lis Wiehl.

LIS WIEHL, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: That's terrible.

• Video: Watch the 'America's News HQ' interview on Eliot Spitzer

JARRETT: I'm sorry.

WIEHL: Oh, my gosh.

ALEXIS GLICK, CO-HOST: This is going to be the highlight of the show.

(CROSS TALK)

JARRETT: Off the hooker right here on the New York Post. You've got to love that.

WIEHL: That's I love that part.

JARRETT: So he confesses that he broke the law but he doesn't get prosecuted.

WIEHL: Look, I'm a lawyer so I can argue out of both sides of my mouth here. What the feds are saying is, look, it is a federal resource issue. We don't prosecute johns as a policy, you know.

I was a federal prosecutor. I never prosecuted johns. I prosecuted the people that organized the rings, all right?

JARRETT: You should have.

WIEHL: OK. But that's what they're saying. It's a resource issue, and I'm not going to go after it. We don't have the number of assistant U.S. attorneys to do it.

On the other hand, you know, if you don't prosecute when somebody breaks a law, guys, well, why -

JARRETT: You're encouraging people to break the law.

WIEHL: I wasn't - but then, you have to prosecute everybody who does it.

JARRETT: And you have to do it (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(CROSS TALK)

WIEHL: Not just celebrity prosecutions.

GLICK: Call me a conspiracy theorist, because - what was he? He was number nine on the list?

WIEHL: Number seven or number nine.

GLICK: Number nine.

(CROSS TALK)

GLICK: I think he was number nine. One through eight members of Congress or executives. And therefore, we don't want to touch this because you don't want to know who else is on the list?

WIEHL: What's interesting is that the news report today went - you know, the office of the - the feds were coming out and saying, "Well, look, you know, he has been publicly embarrassed and he lost his job. And he has already been humiliated enough." You know what I said to people who made those arguments in sentencing when I was getting people sentences, like, "You know, the kids are crying in the background." "Hey, you should have thought about the kids before you committed the crime, you know."

JARRETT: And here's what I don't like. In Seattle, 73 guys were busted and prosecuted for the same thing. Jacksonville, 33 men, busted and prosecuted for the same thing. They were using Craigslist.

WIEHL: Craigslist, right.

JARRETT: Instead, Eliot Spitzer, who's a governor, picks up the phone and does his business instead of Craigslist.

WIEHL: Right.

JARRETT: He doesn't get prosecuted.

WIEHL: Exactly. I mean, so you - but it's really got to be one thing or - it's got to be zero-tolerance if you're going to have that kind of policy.

JARRETT: Right.

WIEHL: It's not (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

GLICK: Yes. And it doesn't get splashed all over the headlines without there being some kind of consequences - something.

JARRETT: He is rich and powerful and privileged. And he doesn't get prosecuted. That's the bottom line.

WIEHL: You know you are so darn cynical there, Greg.

GLICK: Yes, but you know, attorney generals ...

JARRETT: I'm a realist.

GLICK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) tough on the job, you know.

JARRETT: Irrelevant. Irrelevant. Immaterial. Inadmissible.

(CROSS TALK)

Nice. Lis Wiehl -

WIEHL: You got it.

JARRETT: Good to see you.

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