- The “Manhattan Madam” was questioned as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
- Kristin M. Davis, 41, is notoriously known for running a high-end prostitution ring in the 2000s.
- She is also a close friend of Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign adviser who has become a target of Mueller’s investigation.
- Davis went to prison for running a prostitution ring and selling drugs, and also ran for governor of New York.
New York’s notorious “Manhattan Madam” has come back into the limelight.
Kristin Davis, 41, who was known for running a high-end prostitution ring in the 2000s, testified before a grand jury on August 10 as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The Washington Post and The New York Times reported then that Davis was expecting to be asked about her close friend, Roger Stone, a former Trump campaign adviser who has become a subject in Mueller’s investigation.
Here’s everything we know about the Manhattan Madam:
Kristin Davis started her career working at a hedge fund. She claimed that by the end of her stint, she was senior vice president of operations for a $2 billion fund.
Source: XO Jane
In her time working in finance, she said she was asked to book escorts for her bosses. It was from here that she decided to set up her own agency.
“I was working at my last hedge fund job when I began toying with the idea of opening an agency as a means of making additional income to help support my mother and her medical expenses,” she wrote in a blog post for XOJane in 2014.
She set up and ran an escort agency for five years.
She told the Washington Post that her company had about 10,000 clients who would may for than $1,000 an hour for sex or companionship.
Davis, who also developed websites at the time, said that while she managed the business, she did not have sex with the clients herself.
The staff of the company reportedly called Davis “Mama Fabulous.”
Sources: XOJane, Washington Post
In 2008, Davis was arrested and accused of running a prostitute ring. She was sent to Rikers prison.
She claimed to have provided escorts to Eliot Spitzer, a former governor of New York. Spitzer denied he had contact with Davis, and her name didn’t come up in the investigation into his conduct.
He resigned as governor that year after admitting that he had patronized a prostitution ring.
She pleaded guilty to one count of prostitution.
Sources: The New York Times, XO Jane, WNYC, Manhattan Madam
After her stint in jail, Davis came back on the scene in 2010 to run for governor of New York as a protest candidate on a Libertarian platform, promoting the legalization of prostitution, marijuana, and gay marriage.
She wrote in a 2014 blog post about where she first met Roger Stone, who worked as her campaign manager:
“He proposed I run for governor of New York. While I laughed at the idea because I’m actually mortified of speaking in public, he eventually talked me into it by convincing me I could advocate for some social issues I believe in: marriage equality, decriminalization of prostitution and marijuana.”
She was not elected.
After the campaign, Davis occasionally did work for Stone in website development, and helped create StoneColdTruth.com and StoneOnStyle.com, which he used to promote his books and publish writings on politics and fashion, according to The Washington Post.
Source: Washington Post, XO Jane
In 2013, she was back again running for city comptroller against Spitzer. But she had to withdraw from the race after being arrested and charged for selling ecstasy, Adderall, and Xabazm in August that year.
Source: The New York Times
The prosecutors claimed that between 2009 and 2011, she bought these drugs from an FBI witness. She pleaded guilty in March 2014.
Sources: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal
This led to a two-year federal prison sentence; she was released from federal custody in May 2016.
Sources: Newsday, NY Daily News
Davis came back into the limelight in July because of her relationship with Roger Stone.
The pair met on a radio show in 2008 after Davis was released from Rikers.
Davis told the Washington Post Stone called her and said: “You’re brilliant. Can we talk about what you’re going to do with your life?”
Source: Washington Post
“Roger’s one of my best friends,” she told the Washington Post. “I have nothing bad to say about him.”
Source: Washington Post
Davis’ Instagram documents photos of herself and Stone over the past few years.
Source: Instagram
Stone is even her young son’s godfather, and the three of them live in an apartment building in New York.
Stone’s wife, Nydia, is Davis’s son’s godmother, but she resides in Florida and rarely travels to New York.
In 2017, Stone, Davis, and Davis’s son moved into an apartment in Harlem together. Davis and her son took the lower level of the apartment, while Stone lives upstairs.
Sources: Washington Post, Instagram
Stone confirmed to CNN that Mueller’s interest in Davis is likely related to him. “I cannot imagine anything other than that question,” he told CNN July 20. “She has been an associate of mine for over 10 years. She is someone I have great affection for.”
The dates when Davis worked for Stone could be of interest to Mueller’s investigators.
Stone said Davis wasn’t working for him in 2015 or 2016 in the run-up to the presidential election.
Investigators are currently looking into Stone’s activity during the presidential campaign.
Davis says she did not start working for Stone again until January 2017 – after the 2016 election. But she did receive an advance on her first paycheck in December 2016, according to the Washington Post.
Sources: CNN, Washington Post
In a statement to the press issued on July 20, Davis’ publicist said: “Kristin Davis and Roger Stone are very good friends … She is currently in the cosmetology business and she knows nothing whatsoever about Russian collusion with the 2016 election.”
Source: Washington Post
On August 3, multiple media outlets, citing anonymous sources, reported that Davis had met with Mueller. She posted on Instagram calling out CNN for using a photo from 2009, and said, “I also was not grilled.” It’s unclear if she was denying their characterization of the meeting or saying that she hadn’t met with Mueller’s team at all.
Sources: The New York Times, NBC, CNN, Instagram
Davis’s spokeswoman confirmed to the Washington Post on August 10 that she had appeared before a grand jury.
She is among half a dozen of Stone’s associates to be contacted by Mueller’s office, according to the Post.
Stone said Davis appeared before the grand jury voluntarily.
He told the Post: “She has no knowledge of Russian collusion, WikiLeaks collaboration or any other illegal activity on my part. At the instruction of my attorneys, I have not discussed her testimony with her.”
Source: Washington Post
The post The ‘Manhattan Madam’ who ran a high-end prostitution ring in the 2000s was questioned in the Mueller probe — here’s everything we know about her appeared first on Business Insider.