A funny thing happened on the way to disbanding the Moreland Commission Gov. Cuomo set up to investigate the state Legislature: It may end up as a federal investigation of the governor.
That’s just one possibility from Preet Bharara’s news that he will be taking possession of all the commission’s case files.
In a letter to top commission officials, the Manhattan US attorney said he found the events surrounding the governor’s decision to shut the commission down could give the “appearance” that important investigations “have been bargained away as part of the negotiated arrangement between legislative and executive leaders.”
When the governor set up the panel last July, it was hyped as the answer to a Legislature that refused to clean up its act. Instead, it seems to have been just the latest exercise in pressure politics: Accusations are that top aides to the governor used their influence to limit investigations and withdraw some subpoenas.
In other words, the commission was less an instrument to root out corruption than a vehicle for applying pressure to push through the governor’s political agenda.
In his defense yesterday, Cuomo insisted the commission was always meant to be temporary. That’s true. But New Yorkers expected the commission to finish its work, not have the rug pulled out from under it when the governor got what he wanted.
In a speech last April, Bharara noted that “we cannot just prosecute our way to cleaner government.” He’s sure right about that. But count us glad that someone outside the Albany men’s club will be taking a closer look at what Moreland unearthed.