Back when he was still Sheriff of Wall Street, Eliot Spitzer said his pursuit of American International Group was a matter of enforcing “simple rules of transparency.” Transparency, he liked to say, was a basic ingredient for markets to function properly.
But if transparency is important for companies operating in a market, surely it’s even more vital for public officials in a democracy. Which is why we find it so interesting that the former state attorney general and governor filed an 84-page motion last week asking state Supreme Court Justice Christopher Cahill to quash a Freedom of Information Law suit seeking Spitzer’s private e-mails from his time as attorney general.
The e-mails are being sought by the former chief financial officer for the AIG, Howard Smith. Smith is seeking these documents as part of his defense against a civil-fraud suit Spitzer initiated against him in 2005. Smith claims Spitzer’s private e-mails will show the then-attorney general’s pursuit of AIG was based on his personal bias, not the law.
For his part, Spitzer says no such e-mails exist. He’s also asking the judge to reject the request, on the grounds that FOIL requests apply only to government agencies, not private citizens.
We leave it to others to hash out the legal fine points. But when this case came before Cahill in 2012, he pointed out in a footnote that “there appears to be no dispute that Spitzer had “used a private e-mail account to conduct official business.” He went on to underscore the obvious: If politicians can escape scrutiny simply by doing their work via private e-mails, we lose all hope for government accountability and transparency.
After Cahill ruled, another judge reviewing the case said Spitzer had to be heard from. But being brought into the suit personally is no doubt the last thing Spitzer wants. Because it means he might be asked questions about his actions and e-mails he would have to answer under oath.
We look forward to Judge Cahill’s decision. We hope it will mean that a self-promoting sheriff who demanded his targets turn over every last bit of information he sought will finally have to live by his own rules.
And that it will make any other New York pol tempted to escape public accountability by taking his dirty work private think twice.