ALBANY – Nervous state Power Authority officials have hired a $400-an-hour private lawyer to handle Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s probe of the destruction of e-mails and other records relating to Daniel Wiese, the authority’s suspended inspector general, The Post has learned.
The hiring of Max Shulman, who once represented former Republican Gov. George Pataki in a dispute with the Legislature in 2001, raised eyebrows among aides to Cuomo and Gov. Paterson, both Democrats, who asked why an outside lawyer paid with taxpayer funds was necessary.
Cuomo hit the Power Authority with a tough letter Tuesday, demanding that it disclose the names of those responsible for destroying e-mail and BlackBerry messages involving Wiese, a former top State Police official and the central figure in the attorney general’s sweeping probe of an alleged renegade State Police squad engaged in political espionage. Authority spokeswoman Christine Pritchard said Shulman was hired “because the [Cuomo] investigation is outside the scope of work normally handled by NYPA’s legal department.”