Spitzer will testify if called Ethics panel probing scandal BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press
Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Tuesday he will testify about what he knew of the scheme involving two top aides who used state police to track the whereabouts of Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno during a campaign to smear the governor’s political rival. “I said I’m happy to, going to, look forward to it,” Spitzer said during a __ press conference in Syracuse. “If they call me, I’d love to, and even if they don’t, I’d love to send them my statement just because this needs to be clarified and made perfectly clear.” Bruno — and half of New Yorkers in three separate polls — said Spitzer should testify about what he knew of the plot to compile records on Bruno’s use of a state helicopter and a state police driver on days he mixed state business with political fundraisers. The information gathered by state police was then released to a reporter by the Spitzer operatives. Spitzer has denied knowing anything about the scheme. He suspended Communications Director Darren Dopp without pay and transferred public safety deputy William Howard out of the governor’s office when it was brought to light by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office on July 23. Spitzer, however, has rejected the Senate Republican majority’s call for a special prosecutor or referral to the State Investigations Commission or the Senate’s investigations committee. As of late last week, the investigation was in the hands of the state Ethics Commission. Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson said Tuesday the governor has agreed to testify before that panel even though his counsel had advised two aides not to be interviewed during Cuomo’s initial investigation. But Bruno said an investigation by the ethics commission — a board that includes Spitzer appoin- tees — “does not satisfy the people of New York state.” In a press conference in his district in Troy, Bruno called for the case to be referred to the state Investigation Commission or possibly to Albany County District Attorney David Soares. If there is no independent investigation, the Senate Investigations Committee would do it as “a last resort” and has subpoena power, he said. Formed in the 1950s to investigate organized crime and corrupt officials, the state Investigation Commission has broad powers. “All governmental bodies in the state are statutorily required to cooperate with and assist the commission in the performance of its duties,” according to the commission’s Web site. The commission also can grant immunity and hire independent investigators. The SIC has two commissioners appointed by Bruno, two by Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and two — including the chairman — by former Republican Gov. George Pataki. “The people in this state, the majority, when polled, said they do not believe that the governor had no knowledge of what went on,” Bruno said. Bruno said Spitzer is a wellknown “micro-manager” and it was “unacceptable to the public” that key Spitzer aides refused to be questioned in Cuomo’s investigation. Bruno also announced he will hold public hearings on the use of state resources for political purposes. The hearings could include Spitzer’s aides using state police to track Bruno as well as Bruno’s use of state aircraft and state police drivers. A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday found that most New Yorkers consider Spitzer honest and someone they would likely vote to reelect. While the voters who were polled feel the scandal will pass, Spitzer took a hit on how they view his job performance. Spitzer’s approval dropped to 48 percent from 60 percent on June 19. Just over half of those polled thought the governor and Legislature will be able to work together, but most blamed the difficulty on the Legislature. The Quinnipiac poll telephoned 1,548 voters from July 25-29 and has a margin of error or 2.5 percentage points. Like Siena and Marist college polls released since Friday, Quinnipiac found that about half of New Yorkers questioned think there should be more investigation of the scandal. By differing degrees, the polls also found many New Yorkers suspect Spitzer knew about the political plot, despite his denials. “Spitzer is in bad shape in his job approval,” said Maurice Carroll of the Quinnipiac poll. “But people still think he’s honest and should run for re-election and most said this won’t make much difference in how they vote.”
Anybody ever think that it's better for Bruno and Spitzer to keep each other busy so they're not throwing more laws and regulations at US?
Their little arguement seems important but, I wonder if we are missing other things....the media does have a tendency to do that.....they have not reported anything else.....why?....I'd say that was not very responsible......
The TU had to have the editor write in defense of their coverage.....hhhmmmm
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Bruno wants probe handled by Cuomo’s office The Associated Press
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Investigations has asked state Inspector General Kristine Hamann to refer her probe of the governor’s former top energy adviser to the attorney general’s offi ce. In a letter Thursday, Sen. George Winner, an Elmira Republican, cites doubts about how conflicts of interest are handled by Hamann’s office in light of its previous investigation of three other aides to Gov. Eliot Spitzer. She is a Spitzer appointee. Michael Boxer, the first deputy inspector general, said Friday the office had seen Winner’s letter and would respond to the senator “shortly.” He did not say if the inspector general would transfer its investigation to the attorney general. Now Winner wants Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to take over the investigation into whether Steven Mitnick, who resigned from the Spitzer administration last week, threatened and intimidated Public Service Commissioner Cheryl Buley as she has claimed. The Senate Committee on Investigations and Government Operations held a meeting last week on reform measures. There the inspector general’s staff was criticized by Republican senators for their handling of the investigation into whether other Spitzer aides — including top adviser Richard Baum — misused State Police to gather politically damaging information on Senate Republican Majority Leader Joe Bruno. A report from Cuomo’s office released July 23 concluded that Spitzer’s longtime top media spokesman, Darren Dopp, and public security chief William Howard, conspired to release politically damaging information about Bruno’s use of state aircraft on trips that included political fundraisers. They were not accused of violating the law, but the report found policies designed to protect public officials’ safety were broken for political gain. Hours later, the Inspector General’s Office said it concurred with Cuomo’s fi ndings but also found no violation of laws. Hamann didn’t release a report or any fi ndings other than a brief press statement. At last week’s committee hearing, Hamman’s counsel Nelson Sheingold said their investigation was “professional, objective and fair-minded,” but couldn’t progress further because it would be seen as an appearance of a conflict of interest. The inspector general reports to Baum. Winner now wants the Mitnick investigation referred to Cuomo, this time including the subpoena power Cuomo lacked before when his investigators were unable to compel Dopp and Baum to answer questions. In Mitnick’s case, Buley has charged that she received up to 10 telephone calls from Mitnick in April, urging her to vacate her commissioner’s post and trying to infl uence her vote on whether the commission should authorize an investigation of Consolidated Edison’s role in last year’s nineday blackout in Queens. In his letter, Winner questioned whether a similar conflict of interest shouldn’t prompt Hamann to refer the Mitnick investigation to the attorney general. He cited a New York Times report that Mitnick said he asked Buley and nine other officials to resign as the Spitzer administration took over after consulting with Baum, who was his boss. “As you have a statutory mandate to report to the secretary to the Governor there is an obvious conflict in your office undertaking this investigation,” Winner wrote. “Even if Mr. Baum was not implicated in the matter, the fact that Mr. Mitnick reported to and was supervised by Mr. Baum, should raise serious concerns over your ability to impartially and thoroughly conduct the investigation.”
Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE One hatchet man maybe went too far Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com.
Let’s see what we have in the latest round of Gov. Eliot Spitzer vs. Sen. Joe Bruno for the heavyweight championship of Albany. We have — is it possible to believe this? — a Bruno operative telephoning Spitzer’s 83-year-old father at 10 o’clock at night, anonymously, and leaving a message threatening him with a subpoena and promising, “If you resist this subpoena you will be arrested and brought to Albany, and there is not a [blankety-blank] thing your phony, psycho, piece of [blankety-blank] son can do about it,” and then referring to the governor further as a “pathological liar.” Who was this caller? By all indications it was Roger Stone, veteran Republican hatchet-man hired by the Senate Republicans about two months ago at $20,000 a month to wage their so-far highly successful public relations campaign against Gov. Spitzer. The same Roger Stone who led the shut-down of the Florida recount in 2002, on behalf of George W. Bush, and who began his political career as a trickster for Richard Nixon, under the alias Jason Ranier. At least it was his telephone number in his Manhattan apartment that the phone call was traced to. He imaginatively claimed that devious Democrats must have gained access to his apartment to make the call and must have used television clips to splice together his words, to make him look bad — “people who falsify state helicopter records will falsify a voice tape,” he offered — but yesterday Sen. Bruno fired him anyway. (“He has agreed to resign and end his relationship with us at our request.”) Too bad! Just when things were getting good! Just when the steamroller was running in full reverse. Just when Gov. Spitzer was getting flattened with this so-called Troopergate business, which is what Stone was referring to when he talked about falsifying helicopter records. Of course, the governor’s staff didn’t falsify helicopter records, but we know what Stone was talking about. He was talking about the state police accurately recording Sen. Bruno’s use of state helicopters to transport him to Republican fund-raising events in New York City but recording those trips after the fact, at the request of the governor’s staff, and then planting the records in the press. That’s what Sen. Bruno is indignant about and what Roger Stone is indignant about on his behalf — the dubious means employed to expose his freeloading. They have been milking it for all it’s worth, making the governor out to be the worst slimeball in the state. But now, alas, Stone is off the Republicans’ payroll. We don’t know about Michael Caputo, his longtime associate, who finally accepted responsibility for the anti-Spitzer Web site nyfacts.net, and its clone, spitzerfile.com, after having launched those operations anonymously and having kept them anonymous as long as he could. We in the news business have much enjoyed the mud flung by those operations into our in-boxes, which I figured must have been covered by the $20,000 a month, and I hope it doesn’t disappear. We’ll see. HUMBLE PIE I have before me a photo distributed by The Associated Press showing Rudy Giuliani standing next to Sen. Joe Bruno at the Saratoga race track during a recent visit, and the caption to it really cracks me up. It says Giuliani “smiles as he watches a race at Saratoga Race Course,” and then, “The man at the right” — meaning Bruno — “is not identified.” Not identified! The majority leader of the state Senate! In the news almost every day! Oh, how the mighty can be humbled.
CAPITOL Suspended Spitzer staffer will return to payroll today BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press
Gov. Eliot Spitzer will end the suspension of the staffer said to have been involved in the scandal in which state police were used to track the whereabouts of a political opponent, a spokesman said Monday. Darren Dopp, Spitzer’s longtime communications director, will return to the state pay roll today, Spitzer spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said. Gordon said Dopp will use vacation time before resuming work and would not return as communications director today. Gordon wouldn’t comment on what job Dopp would have, or if he would be demoted. Dopp refused comment Monday. Dopp was accused of being part of a plot to embarrass Senate Republican Majority Leader Joe Bruno this spring. According to an investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Dopp and Spitzer aide William Howard tracked how Bruno used state aircraft and a state police driver. Bruno had used a state helicopter and a state police driver on trips to New York City in which he mixed meetings with lobbyists with Republican fundraisers. The state Ethics Commission has also been investigating. On Aug. 13, it tightened state travel rules, saying officials now will have to strictly account for their time on state aircraft and reimburse the state for any portion of a trip that isn’t for a “bona fide” public purpose. Dopp was suspended without pay since Cuomo issued his report on July 23. Howard was demoted out of the executive chamber. On advice from the governor’s counsel, Dopp wouldn’t agree to be interviewed by Cuomo. The state ethics commission and Albany County District Attorney David Soares continued to investigate. “By returning Darren Dopp to a high-paying position within his administration, before the ongoing investigations are completed and the matter is thoroughly resolved, Governor Spitzer would be making another poor decision and further compromise both the integrity of his administration and the public trust,” said Republican Sen. Dean Skelos of Nassau County. Albany County Republican Chairman Peter Kermani said returning Dopp to the payroll is a “shocking disappointment to the people.” “Richard Nixon was forced to resign from office for utilizing public resources for his own personal, political gain,” Kermani said. “Governor Spitzer appears to have done the same thing, including a failed cover-up attempt. As a result, people’s faith in the Spitzer administration has been shaken.” Spitzer had immediately apologized to Bruno and said Dopp and Howard operated alone and out of a zeal to reform abuse of state aircraft, which has been a longtime concern.
New York Horse Racing Posted by Adam Scavone at 10:02 AM | Comments: 3 | Email this post
No, not this kind. As I mentioned a few days ago, I come from Saratoga Springs, New York, and while Saratoga has a thriving private sector, we get a huge influx of business every summer because we have one of the greatest tourist draws in the state: the Saratoga Race Track.
There are three big race tracks in New York (Belmont and Aqueduct are the other two), all run by a company that is granted a monopoly by the state, currently the New York Racing Association. Apparently, they have to renew this monopoly in the legislature once in a while, but NYRA's been running the show since I can remember - and I've been going to the track since before I was tall enough to place a bet.
Now, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Brunswick) wants to revoke NYRA's monopoly and give it to someone else. NYRA's been embroiled in scandal for years (some of the best investigative work was unveiled earlier this year by State Comptroller Alan Hevesi), and they lose money ($16 million in 2004, about the same in 2005), and they claim they're going to go broke in months. (To avoid that fate, they're selling off land that they may or may not own - land that may or may not be owned by the state, which the governor claims it is.) Just a few weeks ago, federal prosecutors announced that a criminal case against NYRA (for a "two-decade tax fraud scheme") would not be pursued, under a "deferred prosecution agreement" in which NYRA allegedly cleaned house.
So Senator Bruno thinks a new and better public-private scheme put in its place: he wants to award a new monopoly for the three tracks to a new company.
Earlier this summer, Albany's signature newspaper, the Albany Times Union, was on Bruno's case about a deal that was maybe questionable and maybe not that bad: his son Ken took out a $50,000 loan, cosigned by his father, and he turned around and gave the money right back to Senator Bruno. They both say it was for cost overruns on Ken's house that occurred while he was in the middle of a divorce a couple of years ago. As it happens, Ken Bruno also happens to be a lobbyist, which is why this was a controversy. I stood up for the Senator in a (tangentially related) letter to the Times Union that they published (August 24) and which concluded thus:
Your newspaper and editorial staff are far from "courageous," as they were described earlier this year by readers when Editor Rex Smith was pounding his chest for "discovering" and "exposing" that Joe Bruno helped his son Ken by loaning him money to cover cost overruns on his house. "Partisan," "biased," and "agenda-driven" are much more apt descriptions of the day-to-day antics of your boardroom. So back to horse racing: guess whose brand new lobbying firm, Albany Strategies, is hauling in $15,000 a month to represent Magna Entertainment, a contender in the battle to take over NYRA's publicly endorsed monopoly. If you guessed that it's Ken Bruno's new lobbying firm, you're exactly right. (The same Ken Bruno that represented Madison Square Garden and Cablevision in their battle royale with the New York Jets over the West Side Stadium - hmm. See here, June 8. Caveat: I'm still glad the Senator stopped the WSS, but I'm referring to the means, not the ends here.)
Which brings me to my final point: why does the NYS Legislature get to pick who provides us our horse racing and horse gambling services (and food and drink services at those tracks - another huge part of the industry)? If horse racing is "vital" to New York State, how come we lose money on it every stinking year under these stupid government-run schemes that somehow "protect" the public? In Saratoga, a lot of us love our horse racing - love it to death. Surely Saratoga won't disappear if the State sells off the track to the highest bidder. There are plenty of strong businessmen and women who absolutely love racing, love the track, and would be fine custodians of it. If Belmont and Acqueduct are failing miserably, fine: they can go out of business. Just get the damned government out of it - why are they spending our tax dollars to keep failing businesses afloat, and to deny the right to compete on fair turf to anyone who might challenge NYRA or Magna Entertainment? It's a crock, and I'm pissed - especially after taking the time to defend the Senator and his son in the paper. Crooks and liars, every last damned politician in this state.
Update: In my Sunday morning reading after posting this, I came across Saratoga (and elsewhere) racing writer Michael Veitch's column, which is chock full o' context, including specifics about how the system operates and semi-recent history:
So with three of the nine seats empty [on the panel that decides who gets the monopoly], Sen. Bruno wants to move forward.
Do you suppose he is worried about possible gains by Democrats in the 2006 elections, and wants the franchise issue resolved before those gains? Only he can answer that, but it is the same Sen. Bruno who signed on to a NYRA franchise extension in 1997 for 10 years through 2007.
He did that just days before New York was supposed to begin a bidding process on Sept. 1, 1997 for a review of the franchise and other potential bidders to operate Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga.
He was joined by Governor Pataki and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in that cute little move, which ignored the legislative intent of the franchise agreement governing racing at that time. Veitch concludes:
There are decades of ancient laws and regulations governed by layers of state bureaucracies that are outdated.
This cannot be changed in six months, yet that is what Sen. Bruno is proclaiming.
It can be fixed in six months: the State can withdraw from its role in racing. If NYRA owns the tracks, NYRA can keep the tracks. If the state owns the track, the State should sell the tracks to the highest bidder. Saratoga will be racing til the day I die, and it will race after that. Contrary what Joe Bruno's inflated self-image might lead him to believe, he is not the one keeping us racing. He's a looter and a parasite, and he needs to be put out to pasture
posted october 9,2005 Columbia College Libertarians
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
CAPITOL Panel advances case against Bruno plane provider Abbruzzese’s actions referred to integrity commission BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Bob Conner at 462-2499 or bconner@dailygazette.net.
The state lobbying commission on Thursday moved forward a series of civil allegations against Jared Abbruzzese, a wealthy businessman from Loudonville who has been involved in the racing industry and who allegedly violated the law by offering free plane rides to Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, RBrunswick. In its final meeting, the Temporary State Commission on Lobbying also closed the case on two plane rides offered by Richard Fields, another wealthy businessman with racing interests, to Eliot Spitzer when Spitzer was the Democratic candidate for governor. Those rides were eventually paid for by the Spitzer campaign. The commission also accepted a settlement with and $500 fine from Jeffrey Gural, chairman of American Racing & Entertainment, which owns two harness tracks in central New York. According to lobbying commission Executive Director David Grandeau, Gural had failed to register as a lobbyist when seeking legislative changes and dealing with state officials including Richard Rifkin, Spitzer’s counsel and point man on racing issues. The commission also moved forward allegations against lobbyist James Crane, whose partner, Dennis Vacco, is a former state attorney general. The civil penalty referrals against Abbruzzese and Crane will have to be addressed by the new Commission on Public Integrity, which will take over the functions of the current lobbying and ethics commissions on Sept. 22. Grandeau said he assumes that he will lose his job at that time. The new commission will be controlled by Spitzer appointees, a structure that Grandeau has criticized. The lobbying commission’s action against Abbruzzese, according to Grandeau, acknowledges a prima facie case that Abbruzzese violated lobbying law by offering rides on aircraft to Bruno on seven occasions in 2005-06. The total cost of each flight ranged from $3,000 to more than $8,000. The destinations included Florida, North Carolina and Washington. One of these flights was later paid for with Bruno campaign funds, Bruno’s chief spokesman, John McArdle, said last year. That Dec. 1, 2005, flight from Schenectady County Airport to New York City included McArdle and other Bruno aides. A lobbying commission source said that was apparently the only one of the seven flights not paid for by Abbruzzese. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albany, which along with the FBI has been investigating Bruno’s business interests, last year subpoenaed the lobbying commission’s records on the Dec. 1 flight. Grandeau declined to comment Thursday on any contacts he might have had with the FBI. Another Bruno spokesman, Scott Reif, declined to answer questions Thursday about the flights. At that time, Abbruzzese was a leader of Friends of New York Racing, which was seeking changes in racing law. He later joined Empire Racing Associates, one of the bidders for the thoroughbred horse racing franchise, but resigned from Empire when stories surfaced about the lobbying commission investigation. Abbruzzese has fought the lobbying commission in court, claiming that he is not a lobbyist and so should not have to testify before it, but he has lost at the state Supreme Court and the Appellate Division. Fields is a principal with another bidder for the racing franchise, Excelsior Racing Associates, and was a major contributor to Spitzer’s gubernatorial campaign. Abbruzzese has been a regular Republican contributor. Stephen Coffey, Abbruzzese’s lawyer, issued a statement headlined “Grandeau’s personal crusade continues against local businessman.” The statement said “today’s vote does not establish that Mr. Abbruzzese is a lobbyist or that there have been any violations of the Lobbying Act.” Grandeau said the commission’s vote Thursday demonstrates that the case against Abbruzzese does not represent a personal vendetta on his part. If the new commission continues on the path the lobbying commission has set, it would hold a hearing to determine if Abbruzzese violated the law. Regarding the Fields case, Grandeau said he found no violations under the lobbying commission’s existing guidelines. But he also said that those guidelines had been adopted under a previous commission chairman against his advice, that he thinks they are too loose and that he did see a potential problem with the fact that the Spitzer campaign only paid in December of last year for a flight that was taken in August. Grandeau also said that the New York Racing Association appears to have engaged in illegal contact with the Spitzer administration in negotiating a memorandum of understanding regarding the racing franchise that was released this week because it failed to report those contacts to the commission. The contacts, Grandeau said before the meeting, amounted to procurement lobbying and should have been reported. Paul Larrabee, a spokesman for Spitzer, said it is Rifkin’s contention that the administration and NYRA were engaged in a legislative process, not procurement. The agreement reached between the administration and NYRA has no legal force unless it is approved by the Legislature. Larrabee declined to comment on Rifkin’s contacts with Gural. Grandeau contends that he has received poor cooperation from executive branch officials in both the Spitzer administration and the prior Pataki administration in his efforts to enforce the 2005 procurement lobbying law. He said officials such as Rifkin should make sure that the person who is lobbying them is registered as a lobbyist and should report contacts to the commission. NYRA leaders and the state attorney general’s office did not respond to requests for comment. The four bidders for the racing franchise spent more than $2.2 million in 2006-07 on campaign contributions and lobbying, according to Common Cause, with Spitzer the biggest recipient. Grandeau himself has been praised by reform groups for his nonpartisan and aggressive enforcement of lobbying laws over the past 13 years. He has been less popular with political leaders.
Spitzer appointee grilled on scandal by GOP lawmakers Senators decry inspector general’s probe The Associated Press
Republican senators accused the state inspector general on Thursday of failing to do her job so she could protect Gov. Eliot Spitzer when she was supposed to investigate the scandal that has snared two of Spitzer’s top aides. Accused by their Democratic colleagues of keeping the scandal alive to hurt Spitzer, GOP senators spent almost two hours Thursday pressing state Inspector General Kristine Hamann, an appointee of the Democratic governor. She told them she had sought to join forces with Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo “from the beginning” several times in their separate investigations of an apparent political plot by two Spitzer aides against Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno. According to Cuomo’s investigation, Spitzer Communications Director Darren Dopp and Spitzer aide William Howard tracked how Bruno used state aircraft and a state police driver. Dopp and Howard planned to release the records to a reporter, the report concluded. They were not accused of violating the law, but the report found policies designed to protect public officials’ safety were broken for political gain. While Cuomo didn’t have subpoena power in the case, Hamann did and could have used it to compel testimony of top Spitzer aides in a joint investigation. She defended that decision, however, saying that if she subpoenaed a potential target of the investigation she would have to provide immunity from prosecution. That contention was disputed by Republican senators. Hamann wouldn’t say why Cuomo wouldn’t combine probes in early July. “The attorney general thought it was vital that we conduct a completely independent investigation,” Cuomo spokesman Jeffrey Lerner said in an interview after the hearing. “Our position was conveyed to the inspector general at the time.” Hamann also raised more questions among Republican senators when she explained why she ended her probe without writing her own report and instead concurred with Cuomo’s. She told the Senate investigations committee that she could have referred her case to Cuomo when she ran into a conflict of interest after the name of her boss, Secretary to the Governor Rich Baum, surfaced in the case as receiving some e-mails. But she said that at about that time Cuomo ended his investigative report. She wouldn’t specify when she discovered the conflict, refusing to divulge elements of her probe because it could jeopardize continuing investigations by the state Ethics Commission and Albany County district attorney. She said that she couldn’t turn over subpoena power to Cuomo at that time, mid- to late July, because his report concluded no crime was committed, only misconduct. She said state law only allows her to transfer her subpoena power in criminal cases under these circumstances. On July 23 she quickly concurred with Cuomo’s findings, despite the refusal by Baum and Dopp to be interviewed by Cuomo. After the hearing, however, she said didn’t realize Baum and Dopp had refused to be interviewed by Cuomo. Instead, they provided brief written statements that Cuomo didn’t include in his report because they refused to be questioned. “I didn’t know that they hadn’t been spoken to,” she told reporters. In the hearing, she wouldn’t tell senators who she interviewed, saying it could jeopardize the continuing investigations by the state Ethics Commission and the Albany County district attorney. Still, she stands by the decision not to pursue her investigation further. “I felt I could not bring finality to the matter,” she said. “No matter what I had said there still would be questions raised and the issue still would have gone to the Ethics Commission and the Albany D.A., and I believe we would be in the same position we are in today. “I believed that given the political firestorm surrounding this matter, that any continued efforts by my office would not have brought a final resolution to the public controversy,” she said in her presentation to the committee. “There was no time,” she told reporters, arguing that she needed to concur with Cuomo’s report before he released it. “What was the urgency?” asked Republican Sen. Michael Nozzolio of Seneca County. “How you can conclude an investigation without having subpoenaed anybody, without putting anybody under oath and come to a decision that no criminal activity had taken place is beyond me,” said Sen. Martin Golden, a Brooklyn Republican. “It doesn’t matter who was involved if there was no crime,” said Democratic Sen. Eric Schneiderman of the Bronx, defending Hamann. “You can’t have a conspiracy of a legal act.” “The answer is obvious,” Senate Investigations Committee George Winner, an Elmira Republican, told reporters after. “The answer is she didn’t interview anyone in the executive chamber, she merely reviewed the testimony [from Cuomo] . . . she really didn’t undertake any investigation.” In the hearing, he reminded Hamann of a telephone call she had with him and other senators in late July. Winner said she admitted she didn’t interview anyone in the executive chamber for her investigation. She acknowledged the call to privately brief the senators, but wouldn’t confirm or deny that to the committee Thursday, saying it could hurt the continuing probes. She told reporters afterward that Winner’s recollection was inaccurate. Winner said now “it’s a reasonable suspicion” that the governor knew of the plot and a cover-up that followed. Spitzer has denied knowledge of the alleged political plot, had suspended Dopp without pay and demoted Howard after apologizing to Bruno.
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