Albany DA David Soares yesterday gave Gov. Spitzer a license to use State Police to spy on and try to frame his enemies.
We’re not kidding.
Nearly everyone in Spitzer’s office believed that Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno was doing nothing illegal, the DA said in his 35-page report – but they still went ahead anyway with efforts to suggest just that.
If that’s not a “smear” job, we don’t know what is.
At the same time, the DA concluded that, in conducting those efforts, no one in Spitzer’s office did anything wrong.
If that’s not a whitewash, we don’t what is.
At the very start, “Spitzer informed [communications director Darren] Dopp . . . that the law was so porous and, as such, Sen. Bruno’s acts were probably not illegal,” the report said.
And yet it makes clear that Spitzer & Co. proceeded to direct State Police to track Bruno’s trips and collect information about them, then got a newspaper to report it and called for an investigation.
And somehow all this – according to Soares – is perfectly kosher.
There was no misuse of the State Police.
No ugly campaign to frame the majority leader unfairly.
No attempt to deceive the public by knowingly disseminating misleading information about Bruno.
Soares determined that, technically, no criminal conduct occurred because the actions by Spitzer’s aides were not “an improper exercise of official function.”
“That these actions may have been done with ill intent does not turn a lawful action into an unlawful one,” he wrote – though he also said he makes “no finding on whether ill motive existed.”
In other words, getting the State Police to gather damaging and misleading information, encouraging a media organization to spread that information and officially requesting a probe, even when you believe nothing illegal occurred . . . is all OK.
Looks like anyone who crosses Spitzer now better beware: He’ll feel free to do anything – and have the DA bless it.
Meanwhile, Soares’ “technical” finding is itself in doubt – given that he declined to use the full powers available to him.
Indeed, his failure to place anyone under oath or to subpoena documents is particularly curious given the “factual discrepancies” and “inconsistencies” he found.
Soares claims he stopped short to avoid having his probe turn into “a fishing expedition.” Seems more like he feared what he might find.
Yet even Soares admits that not all the questions have been answered. His decision to “make no finding” about Team Spitzer’s “intent” suggests that other bodies – like an impartial Ethics Commission – have a role to play in trying to get to the heart of the matter.
Too bad the state Ethics Commission officially goes out of business today.
And that the panel that replaces it will have a majority of its members appointed by . . . Spitzer.
The gov yesterday urged an end to the probes. Never mind that nearly 60 percent of New York’s voters think he’s a liar. Never mind that 70 percent want him to testify publicly, under oath, about what he knew.
Well, he can try all he wants to sweep the issue under the rug. But until he testifies, until the full truth comes out, he’ll be governing with a cloud over his head.
No matter what Soares says.