THE state Public Integrity Commission gives the appearance of being “involved in a cover-up” of Gov. Spitzer‘s role in the Dirty Tricks Scandal because its probe has been slow and secretive, a member of the group has told The Post.
“Many of us are getting frustrated at the glacial pace and the secrecy within the secrecy that has come to define our investigation, not to mention the growing perception that we’re involved in a cover-up,” said the commission member, who has ties to Spitzer.
“I took this job to serve the state, not to help cover up for the governor or anyone else,” added the member, who insisted on anonymity.
The unprecedented comment by one of the 13 unpaid commission members comes after months of confused and ineffective investigative efforts by the Spitzer-controlled panel into the use of the State Police by top gubernatorial aides to gather purportedly damaging information on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer).
It also follows Spitzer’s claim to the Buffalo News that his long-expected commission testimony won’t be made public because of a supposed prohibition in the panel’s “rules.”
Legal experts told The Post that while state law bars the commission from disclosing certain investigative information, the law does not bar Spitzer from disclosing his own testimony.
“I don’t know of anything that would bar the commission from allowing the governor to record his own comments, which he could then make public,” said a well-known expert on state ethics laws.
“At the very least, the governor could agree to step outside and answer questions from the press the way he says he’s prepared to answer questions from the commission,” the expert said.
Spitzer has publicly claimed he wants to testify in public, but privately, he and his aides are fighting efforts by the commission and the Senate Investigations Committee to obtain scandal-related documents and testimony.
Two top Spitzer aides, Chief of Staff Richard Baum and Darren Dopp, the governor’s former communications director, refused to be interviewed about the scandal by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigators
The Post disclosed in October that commission Chairman John Feerick had created a special “subcommittee” of Spitzer-friendly members to oversee the investigation.
The move led some investigators to conclude that Feerick, a former Fordham Law School dean, was seeking to shut out commission members appointed by Bruno, Republican Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco and Cuomo, a Democrat who issued a bombshell report on the scandal in July.