WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request from the former attorney of “D.C. Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey to release him from a judge’s 2007 restraining order, which prohibited him from sharing telephone records from her escort service.
Without comment, the eight-member high court rejected the motion from Montgomery Blair Sibley to hear his argument to free him from the order that was issued during the run-up to Palfrey’s federal trial for racketeering, money laundering and mail fraud.
Sibley has said the names listed in Palfrey’s records would “contain information relevant to the upcoming presidential election,” though he has offered no elaboration or proof.
Last month, Sibley released some of the names of companies, government agencies and organizations that had called Palfrey’s Pamela Martin & Associates between 2000 and 2006.
Sibley released 174 entities that had dialed Palfrey’s service but he stopped short of listing individual names.
With the political conventions nearing, and the Supreme Court’s refusal to argue his case, it is unclear what Sibley’s next move might be.
“Now that I am at that bridge, I am going to figure out the best way across,” Sibley told WTOP in an email. “That will take a few days as it is a big decision for me.”
The list of released entities includes the following government agencies: Department of Health and Human Services, FBI, General Services Administration, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Internal Revenue Service, National Drug Intelligence Center, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Information Systems Command, Department of Commerce, Department of State, U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Forest Service.
Others listed in the filing include the Archdiocese of Washington, Embassy of Japan, Bethlehem Steel, Constellation Energy/BGE, Hewlett-Packard, Johns Hopkins University, Washington Gas and several large law firms.
In July 2007, Palfrey and her attorney released her phone records for public viewing. After the release of the phone numbers, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter acknowledged being a customer of Palfrey’s service.
Judge Gladys Kessler ordered Palfrey and her attorney to cease distributing her bookkeeping records.
Sibley’s license to practice law was suspended in 2008 for three years by the D.C. Court of Appeal. In addition, Sibley has sued the former chief judge and court clerk in D.C. for $1 million each.
