WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defending the "sexual albeit legal" escort service she ran for 13 years, Deborah Jeane Palfrey said Monday she expects names of more clients to become public as the federal case against her moves forward.

Noting that she gave ABC News a huge pile of her business' telephone invoices, she added that while the network "is under no obligation whatsoever to me, I do expect their reporting to help identify potential witnesses for my defense.

"For me, this is an absolute necessity, since the Government has placed me in the untenable position whereby, I do not have sufficient monies to undertake this extraordinarily expensive task on my own."

Palfrey spoke outside a federal courthouse in Washington, after a hearing to request a public defender.

Palfrey has said that because the government seized the assets from her "erotic fantasy service," she could not immediately afford the legal bills she is facing in the multiple-count federal racketeering and money-laundering indictment.

"I believe there is something very, very rotten at the core of my circumstance and without money to hire my own investigators, I must rely upon your acumen and talent... to uncover the truth," she added.