ELIOT SPITZER WAS NOT CAUGHT BY THE PATRIOT ACT: “Currency transaction reporting requirements were enacted in the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, and money laundering was made a crime in overhaul of the federal narcotics laws that took place in 1986. Believe it or not, Karl Rove did not diabolically dream these provisions up to trap unwary Democrats, nor are they part of George W. Bush’s post-9/11 Politics of Fear.”

And here’s much more on the relevant law, and Spitzer’s scrutiny, from Phil Carter. (Via Professor Bainbridge).