NOW SHEAR THIS: Sheldon Silver, at a ribbon cutting yesterday, will be probed in the Vito Lopez payoff. (NY Post: Chad Rachman)
The state’s new ethics panel voted yesterday to launch a massive investigation into the actions of everyone involved in the Vito Lopez sex scandal — including Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.
Silver approved the secret taxpayer-funded $103,000 settlement to two women who say they were harassed by Lopez, a powerful Brooklyn assemblyman.
The offices of Schneiderman and DiNapoli were consulted for legal advice on the deal, and DiNapoli’s staff cut the checks. But Schneiderman and DiNapoli have insisted they had no personal knowledge of what their staffers were doing.
The June settlement was revealed after Silver publicly censured Lopez on Aug. 24 for groping two other women not covered by the settlement. The Joint Commission on Public Ethics is investigating those groping allegations as well.
Lopez has given up his chairmanship of the Brooklyn Democratic Party but vowed to keep his Assembly seat.
The development came as Gov. Cuomo renewed his threat to activate his own special investigatory body under the 105-year-old Moreland Act if JCOPE fails to perform its duty.
He said his “Plan B” would be a probe that looked at the actions of everyone involved.
Janet DiFiore, the Westchester County district attorney appointed by Cuomo to chair JCOPE, which cannot impose criminal penalties, said only that the commission voted “to commence a substantial investigation” following a meeting in Albany yesterday.
Another commission member, Mary Lou Rath, who was appointed by Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, said the vote was unanimous.
“I have higher hopes than anything I’ve seen in government before,” said Rath, a former state senator from western New York.
Silver has apologized for initially keeping the settlement private and not reporting the accusations against Lopez to ethics investigators. He said Cuomo’s threat to launch his own probe is “academic’’ now that JCOPE promised to act.
Silver confirmed he will be a subject of the JCOPE probe.
“The commission has voted for a full investigation, which is what we wanted because we believe a full investigation will show that we acted in good faith pursuant to law and what we believed was the best interest of the women,” Silver said.
Silver also insisted the agreement he signed was “morally correct.”
He has demanded that Lopez resign from the Assembly.
DiNapoli’s office said it received a formal request from JCOPE to retain all documents related to the matter.
Likewise, Schneiderman’s office said it turned over a pile of documents to both the press and JCOPE two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, JCOPE members rejected charges they had held up an inquiry into Silver’s handling of the settlement.
“What I continue to be concerned about is this information out there that there was some effort . . . to block investigations,” said Marvin Jacob, a Silver appointee. “It’s time to dispel it.”
Before the vote, the commission spent a tortuous 70 minutes arguing in public the merits of conducting its session in public or private. It voted for a private meeting.
The commission members could be charged with misdemeanors if they discuss what happens in the private meetings.
Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan, a Republican assigned to the case as special prosecutor, is also conducting a separate criminal probe into Lopez and Silver.
In another twist, Ravi Batra, the appointee of state Senate Democratic Minority Leader John Sampson who resigned from JCOPE last Friday, penned a bizarre open letter to Cuomo that referenced Mark Twain and Kristalnacht.
Batra complained that JCOPE staff had withheld information from some commissioners but shared it with others.
Lopez’s attorney, Gerald Lefcourt, declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Sally Goldenberg