A judge has ordered the release of Eliot Spitzer’s trove of missives from a private e-mail account that he used as New York attorney general to conduct official business in secret.
The undisclosed e-mails relate to his Wall Street crackdown in 2005, when he extracted hundreds of millions in penalties from big banks, as well as his toppling of insurance titan Hank Greenberg as head of AIG for alleged financial wrongdoing.
State Supreme Court Justice Christopher Cahill in Albany ordered the attorney general’s office to release Spitzer’s private e-mails. A copy of the order, issued two weeks ago to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, was obtained by The Post.
Schneiderman declined to comment, and Spitzer didn’t return calls.
Cahill’s order grew out of Greenberg’s ongoing seven-year legal battle to clear his name and that of his financial chief, Howard Smith. Greenberg said in documents that the e-mails could help clear the names of both men for good.
Spitzer rode headlines as the “Sheriff of Wall Street” to capture the governor’s job only to be forced out in a prostitution sex scandal before his term ended.
His penchant for private e-mails to punish political enemies also tarnished his days as governor when some of his secret comments surfaced in a 2007 scandal known as “Troopergate.”
Private e-mails were said to be involved in a plot to destroy the political career of former GOP state Sen. Joseph Bruno, in which state troopers were used by the governor to spy on Bruno for dirt. The Post exposed the scandal n 2007.
None of the governor’s private e-mails was turned over to investigators at the time.