With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff Friday July 28, 2000; 7:25 PM EDT Threat by Hillary Pit Bull Spitzer Could Be a Crime, Says Top Lawyer New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer may have committed a crime when he allegedly threatened to use the powers of his office to take revenge on WABC-NY talk radio host Sean Hannity after an interview went badly, a noted New York civil rights attorney said on Friday. Spitzer made the alleged threat Thursday afternoon after a contentious debate with Hannity and author Laura Ingraham about Ingraham's book on the first lady, "The Hillary Trap." The attorney general, a key New York state ally of Hillary Clinton who has recently brought the weight of his office to bear on issues important to her Senate campaign, was hand-picked to defend the first lady by the Democratic Party's media operation. "[Spitzer's threat] is arguably a criminal offense, it is arguably an impeachable offense," said Ron Kuby, reknowned New York civil rights attorney who co-hosts his own WABC-NY radio show with Curtis Sliwa. After a heated on-air exchange about the merits of Ingraham's book, Spitzer called Hannity Show producer Eric Stanger to complain. He was livid about what he charged was rude treatment by Hannity during the interview, according to Stanger, who gave NewsMax.com this account of the attorney general's off-air warning: SPITZER: I fully intend to use the capacity of the Office of Attorney General to act on this. STANGER: Sir, is that a threat? SPITZER: You can take that however you want. Well, no, what I meant was that I'm going call my friends in local government and tell them to boycott the show. Kuby described Spitzer's alleged comments to Stanger as "threatening, menacing and an outrageous abuse of power," adding that he should immediately apologize. During the on-air debate, New York's top lawman also tried to smear Georgia congressman Bob Barr, a staunch opponent of the Clintons, by mistakenly claiming that Barr had once fathered an illegitimate child. "When I was down in Congress recently, I had to sit there and see Congressman Barr, who is the hypocrite of all hypocrites," charged Spitzer. "Here's a guy who has a child out of wedlock, who wants to impeach the president because the president didn't live up to Bob Barr's moral standards." Asked if Barr had an actionable basis for a libel or slander claim against the attorney general, Kuby told NewsMax.com: "Technically, he does have a case, at least in the state of New York and any other state in which that statement was originally heard. Any untrue statement of material fact can sustain a defamation action." But the chances of Barr winning damages were slim, said the lawyer, because his reputation is unlikely to be seriously hurt by the attorney general's remark. "I just hope Spitzer is more careful in his criminal indictments than he is in his public ones," Kuby added. Barr's office did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Stanger told NewsMax.com that he had first booked noted Washington, D.C., attorney Keith Waters on the show to defend Mrs. Clinton. But at the insistence of the Democratic National Committee's radio services operation, he substituted Spitzer at the last minute. "They told me he really wanted to come on the air and talk to Laura Ingraham," Stanger said. In December Spitzer released a report suggesting that New York City police were guilty of racial profiling, a document that Mrs. Clinton's boosters used to attack her then-Senate race opponent, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Clinton and Spitzer joined forces to battle Giuliani in February in an effort to prevent a housing developer from bulldozing a Manhattan community garden. Spitzer refused an invitation Friday to clarify his remarks on Hannity's show, Stanger told NewsMax.com. The attorney general's office did not respond to a request for comment from NewsMax.com by press time. http://mindit.netmind.com/bwsignup.shtml?[EMAIL PROTECTED] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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