Spitzer Accuser Says Ex-Governor Hid Her in a Suitcase

A Russian woman at the center of a sex scandal surrounding former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer says he repeatedly snuck her into his swanky Upper East Side pad by squeezing her into a piece of luggage. The details are reportedly part of a renewed push to put the disgraced politician behind bars, the New York Post reports. “He used to sneak me into his Fifth Avenue apartment in a black suitcase . . . when his wife [Silda] was away,’’ Svetlana Travis Zakharova, a former escort, told the Post. Zakharova claimed that Spitzer used this tactic at least 15 times. “My knees would be up by my face. When the doorman would ask if he could help, Eliot would say, ‘No, thanks.’” Zakharova first accused New York’s ex-governor in 2016, alleging he choked her during a sex game gone wrong at The Plaza hotel in Midtown. Zakharova was subsequently accused of extorting $400,000 from Spitzer, a charge that was later dropped as part of a plea deal involving a petit-larceny charge. Zakharova’s lawyer, Joseph Murray, is asking Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman to investigate Spitzer for alleged “improprieties” in his efforts to evade prosecution, the Post reports.