I've been watching this develop, and I am just so disappointed in Spitzer. This is Tom Delay shit. WTF is he doing? The Assistant Secretary of the NYS Dept of Homeland Security has nothing better to do than investigate political opponents?
I thought more of Spitzer.
2 Spitzer Aides Not Questioned Over Police Use
By DANNY HAKIM and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
ALBANY, July 24 — Two of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s top staff members refused requests from the attorney general’s office that they submit to interviews in the investigation of the administration’s use of the State Police to tarnish a political rival.
The two men, Darren Dopp, the communications director, and Richard Baum, the secretary to the governor, are considered Mr. Spitzer’s closest advisers, and their roles in the internal effort to damage Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno have drawn intense attention. The governor has repeatedly said that his staff fully cooperated with the investigation. Mr. Dopp was suspended indefinitely by the governor on Monday, and no action was taken against Mr. Baum.
According to documents and interviews, Mr. Dopp and Mr. Baum never subjected themselves to questions under oath from investigators in Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s office.
Instead, on Sunday, the day before the report was released, they submitted two-paragraph statements sworn before the governor’s legal counsel that minimized their role.
On Tuesday, Mr. Spitzer again said that he had been misled by his staff and that he knew nothing about the true nature of the effort to discredit Mr. Bruno until last Thursday.
The question of Mr. Spitzer’s knowledge of those efforts — which the attorney general found involved a concocted story and abuse of the State Police — hangs over the case.
Republicans in the Legislature are demanding further investigation of the matter. Though they applauded the attorney general’s efforts, they said his report left a number of questions unanswered, chiefly whether the governor and Mr. Baum had knowledge of the effort to discredit Mr. Bruno.
“The air must be cleared and answers must be obtained to the serious questions raised by this still-unfolding situation,” Mr. Bruno said in a statement, bolstering expectations that the Senate would conduct an inquiry into the matter.
The attorney general’s office did not have subpoena power to compel the aides to Mr. Spitzer to be questioned under oath. The central question asked of the attorney general was whether the State Police had been improperly used by the governor’s staff.
“We had requested interviews with Baum and Dopp,” said Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo. “They refused and submitted sworn statements. We can’t compel anyone to talk to us,” he said.
Mr. Baum said he felt he had been cooperative and had not even hired a personal lawyer.
“They asked for testimony, we gave them a sworn statement, they took it and closed the investigation,” Mr. Baum said.
His remarks came a day after Mr. Cuomo’s office issued the report, which found that the governor’s staff had misused the State Police to gather information about Mr. Bruno in an effort to plant a negative story about him. The report said the governor’s staff concocted a false story for why the information was being gathered, saying they were acting on a Freedom of Information request from The Times Union of Albany.
The report found that no laws had been broken. But the news was nonetheless a deep blow to a governor who has billed himself as an ethical reformer.
The report said disciplinary action should be considered against Mr. Dopp and the governor’s top liaison to the State Police, William F. Howard, the assistant secretary in the state’s Office of Homeland Security, as well as the acting state police superintendent, Preston L. Felton. Minutes after its release, the governor suspended Mr. Dopp, reassigned Mr. Howard and took no action against Mr. Felton, saying he was put in “an untenable position.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/nyregion/25albany.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
I thought more of Spitzer.
2 Spitzer Aides Not Questioned Over Police Use
By DANNY HAKIM and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
ALBANY, July 24 — Two of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s top staff members refused requests from the attorney general’s office that they submit to interviews in the investigation of the administration’s use of the State Police to tarnish a political rival.
The two men, Darren Dopp, the communications director, and Richard Baum, the secretary to the governor, are considered Mr. Spitzer’s closest advisers, and their roles in the internal effort to damage Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno have drawn intense attention. The governor has repeatedly said that his staff fully cooperated with the investigation. Mr. Dopp was suspended indefinitely by the governor on Monday, and no action was taken against Mr. Baum.
According to documents and interviews, Mr. Dopp and Mr. Baum never subjected themselves to questions under oath from investigators in Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s office.
Instead, on Sunday, the day before the report was released, they submitted two-paragraph statements sworn before the governor’s legal counsel that minimized their role.
On Tuesday, Mr. Spitzer again said that he had been misled by his staff and that he knew nothing about the true nature of the effort to discredit Mr. Bruno until last Thursday.
The question of Mr. Spitzer’s knowledge of those efforts — which the attorney general found involved a concocted story and abuse of the State Police — hangs over the case.
Republicans in the Legislature are demanding further investigation of the matter. Though they applauded the attorney general’s efforts, they said his report left a number of questions unanswered, chiefly whether the governor and Mr. Baum had knowledge of the effort to discredit Mr. Bruno.
“The air must be cleared and answers must be obtained to the serious questions raised by this still-unfolding situation,” Mr. Bruno said in a statement, bolstering expectations that the Senate would conduct an inquiry into the matter.
The attorney general’s office did not have subpoena power to compel the aides to Mr. Spitzer to be questioned under oath. The central question asked of the attorney general was whether the State Police had been improperly used by the governor’s staff.
“We had requested interviews with Baum and Dopp,” said Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo. “They refused and submitted sworn statements. We can’t compel anyone to talk to us,” he said.
Mr. Baum said he felt he had been cooperative and had not even hired a personal lawyer.
“They asked for testimony, we gave them a sworn statement, they took it and closed the investigation,” Mr. Baum said.
His remarks came a day after Mr. Cuomo’s office issued the report, which found that the governor’s staff had misused the State Police to gather information about Mr. Bruno in an effort to plant a negative story about him. The report said the governor’s staff concocted a false story for why the information was being gathered, saying they were acting on a Freedom of Information request from The Times Union of Albany.
The report found that no laws had been broken. But the news was nonetheless a deep blow to a governor who has billed himself as an ethical reformer.
The report said disciplinary action should be considered against Mr. Dopp and the governor’s top liaison to the State Police, William F. Howard, the assistant secretary in the state’s Office of Homeland Security, as well as the acting state police superintendent, Preston L. Felton. Minutes after its release, the governor suspended Mr. Dopp, reassigned Mr. Howard and took no action against Mr. Felton, saying he was put in “an untenable position.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/nyregion/25albany.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
