ALBANY – A top aide to Gov. Spitzer is expected to be asked by the Albany district attorney if he or others threatened former Spitzer communications director Darren Dopp with dismissal if he refused to sign a controversial affidavit on the Dirty Tricks Scandal, it was learned last night.
The question will likely be posed to Spitzer policy director Peter Pope, who has been summoned to appear before DA David Soares as soon as today as part of a potentially explosive new investigation of whether Dopp, a central figure in the scandal, committed perjury when he signed the statement, a source said.
“Pope is expected to be asked if he or others threatened Darren with termination unless they signed the affidavit,” the source said.
Pope, along with Spitzer counsel David Nocenti and Sean Patrick Maloney, the governor’s first deputy secretary, helped prepare a sworn statement signed by Dopp on July 22, a day before Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released a blockbuster report on the use of the State Police by top Spitzer aides to gather purportedly damaging information on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer.)
Dopp later testified about the scandal under oath to the state Public Integrity Commission – which found his testimony contradicted at least one assertion contained in the affidavit.
In the affidavit, Dopp said he was responding to media inquiries when he began collecting information on Bruno’s use of state aircraft.