US News

SPITZ VS. DA ON DOPP ‘LIE’

ALBANY – Gov. Spitzer insisted yesterday that former top aide Darren Dopp signed a valid document on the Dirty Tricks Scandal – even as the Albany district attorney suggested that Dopp penned an unsworn statement and so can’t be charged with perjury.

Spitzer, through aides, said there was “no question” the statement signed by Dopp and notarized by the governor’s chief counsel, David Nocenti, in July “was a sworn statement” that had been offered to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as evidence.

Spitzer’s contention came as administration officials revealed that DA David Soares unexpectedly put off until early next year plans to present a possible perjury case against Dopp to a grand jury.

The Public Integrity Commission told Soares that Dopp appeared to contradict a July statement during under-oath testimony to the commission in late October.

Dopp also contended before the commission that he had been “pressured” by Spitzer aides to sign the statement and claimed some of the statement wasn’t true, sources familiar with his testimony said. If the original statement is unsworn, Dopp’s contradiction of it may not be a crime.

In the original statement, Dopp told of obtaining State Police records about Senate GOP leader Joseph Bruno’s air travels, and said it was wrong. In later testimony, Dopp said he did nothing wrong.

A source close to Spitzer suggested that Soares, who issued a controversial report in September clearing the governor of any wrongdoing, was trying to “avoid his own embarrassment by saying he can’t investigate the commission’s referral because the governor’s office produced a flawed statement for Dopp.”

The New York Times quoted Susan Necheles, a lawyer for top Spitzer aide Peter Pope, as saying about Dopp’s statement: “There is nowhere in it that says, ‘I swear to the truth of the statement.’ “

fredric.dicker@nypost.com