GOP Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin said it best: Only in New York, he tweeted, could the governor appoint an anti-corruption commission and wind up with a federal prosecutor investigating whether the governor corrupted it.
That’s precisely what appears to be happening in the wake of Gov. Cuomo’s abrupt dismissal of his own Moreland Commission. The governor did so after the state Legislature passed a much-watered-down ethics bill.
The New York Times recently reported that Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara — who had already taken over the commission’s discontinued investigations — has issued a subpoena for e-mails, text messages and other records of its members. The subpoena reportedly focuses on the Moreland Commission’s creation, its operation, its closing and how it was overseen.
Before the panel was closed down, there were repeated and disturbing reports that its executive director, a long-time Cuomo aide, blocked subpoenas and diverted investigations of the governor’s political allies and donors.
This, despite Cuomo’s repeated insistence that the commission was “independent” and had the right to investigate whatever it wanted.
Cuomo now suggests he always intended the Moreland Commission to be little more than a political lever to prod Albany into passing an ethics package.
We look forward to hearing what prosecutor Bharara makes of all this.