April 14, 2008 -- ATTORNEY General Andrew Cuomo's ac celerating probe of renegade members of the State Police may lead to grand-jury subpoenas for former Govs. Eliot Spitzer and George Pataki, The Post has learned.
Among the explosive questions likely to be posed:
* Was Spitzer being blackmailed by senior State Police or top government officials, or by anyone in the private sector who had knowledge of his involvement with prostitutes?
* Did Republican Pataki, whose longtime friend and neighbor, Daniel Wiese, was a top State Police official with strong personal ties to Spitzer, have any knowledge of the Democratic governor's penchant for prostitutes?
"If the answer to either of those questions is 'yes,' all hell is going to break loose," said a source close to the investigation.
Prosecutors and police investigators working for Cuomo are also focusing on a half-dozen specific allegations against State Police officials, ranging from political espionage to illegal conduct, that could produce a series of criminal indictments, sources said.
Among other potentially explosive questions expected to be posed to current and former State Police and government officials:
* Did Wiese or any member of the tight-knit group of State Police officers assigned to guard Pataki and Spitzer have knowledge that Spitzer, either as governor or as attorney general, was engaged in illegal conduct with prostitutes?
* If they did, what did they do about it? Did the State Police assist Spitzer in any illicit rendezvous with prostitutes?
* Was blackmail behind Spitzer's seemingly inexplicable flip-flop last fall, when he went from adamantly opposing the New York Racing Association's continuing operation of thoroughbred racing in the state to full-fledged support?
Lobbyists associated with NYRA's rivals have claimed in recent days that someone close to the association learned of Spitzer's involvement with prostitutes and used it to pressure him.
* Was the Spitzer/State Police Dirty Tricks Scandal plot against Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer) far more extensive than has so far been disclosed?
* Did Spitzer, as attorney general, repeatedly refuse to conduct high-level investigations of allegations of corruption during Pataki's 12 years in office because he feared his own illicit conduct would be exposed?
A longstanding question in political circles has been why, during a period of deteriorating public integrity, Spitzer did so little to pursue allegations of government corruption.
* Why did Spitzer, a self-styled reform crusader, allow Wiese, who invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a federal grand-jury probe of Pataki administration corruption, to remain as the state Power Authority's inspector general?
* Did renegade members of the State Police, aided by inspector generals and other investigators in other state agencies, create dossiers and gather information on political opponents and critics of Pataki and Spitzer?
Wiese left his top State Police job in 2003 for a highly paid post as the authority's inspector general, where, sources said, he also recruited, and directed the activities of, inspector generals in other state agencies.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04142008/news/columnists/subpoenas_eyed_for_spitz__pataki_106479.htm
On a side note:
SPITZER'S LEGACY: A $3.6M PROBE TAB
-- Eliot Spitzer's political and sexual shenanigans are costing taxpayers upwards of $3.6 million.
1 comment:
No worries about this one Cuomo is just positioning himself to be Governor. As for his attack on Pataki well if no one got Pataki for stealing millions of money from the 9/11 victims this is a piece of cake. As for Spitzer it's so funny to read about how great he is as a lawyer so great he was called Eliot Ness. Now Cuomo calls himself Eliot Ness. To bad both men didn't read about who Eliot Ness really was. The movies and the stories sound good but most of it was fake. Now Cuomo is looking to be like his Father and he's willing to make fake investigations for public attention. Let's hope the people of New York aren't tricked twice.
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