Gov. Andrew Cuomo claimed Monday that his tainted anti-corruption panel — now under scrutiny by federal prosecutors — was an “overwhelming success” and said he shut it down to save money for taxpayers.
Emerging publicly for the first time since a scathing exposé last week of his administration’s alleged meddling in the group’s work, Cuomo conceded his aides had input into the operation of the 25-member Moreland Commission panel, but insisted it was never told what or whom to investigate.
“The commission took advice and opinion from many, many people,” Cuomo said following an event in Buffalo.
“Interference is different. Interference says their independence was trumped by the second floor,” Cuomo added, referring to the governor’s office in the Capitol.
The governor’s comments were his first since July 23, when The New York Times published a lengthy article detailing how his office protected his pals and allies from commission scrutiny.
Top Cuomo aide Larry Schwartz was accused of ordering the panel to yank a subpoena issued to an ad-buying firm that worked for the governor’s campaign.
“Pull it back,” Schwartz was quoted as instructing.
At the same time that Cuomo was praising its work, he claimed taxpayers couldn’t afford to keep the panel in business.
“I don’t believe the state needs another expensive prosecutor’s office,” said the governor, explaining his decision to pull the plug on the commission he had empaneled less than a year earlier.
“That’s always the answer: Create a new bureaucracy. That was not the answer here.”
One of the commission’s three co-chairs, GOP Onondaga County DA William Fitzpatrick, released a letter two hours before Cuomo spoke, backing his view.
“The bottom line is that nobody ‘interfered’ with me or my co-chairs,” Fitzpatrick said.
But Mark Green, who lost to Cuomo in the 2006 primary for attorney general, said the governor was being disingenuous.
“It’s a classic stonewall. It’s hypocritical and misleading for the governor to say that the Moreland Commission was independent and could investigate anyone — including him. Neither was true,” Green said.
GOP rival Rob Astorino compared Cuomo to a Mafia don.
“To suggest that he was suggesting to the commission members where they should go with an investigation is like a Mafia boss coming forward and saying that he wants to make a suggestion — an offer you can’t refuse,” Astorino said “That clearly is intimidation.”