State Agency Said To Interfere With Spitzer Probe

Albany County’s district attorney, David Soares, is alleging that the New York Commission on Public Integrity interfered with his investigation of the Spitzer administration by improperly coordinating with senior officials in the governor’s office, according to a source close to Mr. Soares.Mr. Soares is expected to release a report of his findings as early as Friday. It is unclear, however, if his allegations against the ethics commission will be contained in his report. The district attorney has privately expressed concerns about the scope of communication between the commission and the administration of the former governor and may soon air them publicly.The district attorney and the ethics panel, which is supposed to administer and enforce ethics and lobbying laws in New York government, have been conducting separate probes into whether Spitzer administration officials acted improperly when they assembled and released police records of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s use of state aircraft for fund-raising trips to New York City from Albany.Mr. Soares has complained that the executive director of the commission, Herbert Teitelbaum, a former senior litigation partner of Bryan Cave LLP, passed on sensitive information to Spitzer officials concerning testimony from witnesses who had been interviewed by Mr. Soares’s office and may have prepped Spitzer aides before they were interviewed by Albany investigators, according to a source.The district attorney has also told people close to his investigation that he suspects that Spitzer aides sought to pin responsibility for the controversy on Governor Spitzer’s communications director, Darren Dopp, who left the administration last year after he was suspended for several weeks without pay.Senate Republicans have charged that Mr. Spitzer and senior aides orchestrated a smear campaign against Mr. Bruno with the help of the state police. Last year, Mr. Soares released a report on the records dispute that exonerated the governor and his aides. He took up the matter again after his office received a referral from the ethics commission, which accused Mr. Dopp of committing perjury.Mr. Soares’s charges against the commission could have potential consequences for former Spitzer officials who now work for Governor Paterson.“I certainly think if it’s true, it’s extremely troubling and is clear evidence of putting the screws to my client,” an attorney representing Mr. Dopp, Michael Koenig, said. “The commission’s executive director and his staff should answer a lot of questions, starting with why they referred anything to Mr. Soares prior to the conclusion of their so-called investigation.”They began their probes after Attorney General Cuomo in July released a report on the matter that was critical of the Spitzer administration but was believed to be incomplete because his office had not been able to interview key officials in the governor’s office, including Mr. Dopp.The controversy overshadowed Mr. Spitzer’s first year as governor and weakened him politically. Mr. Spitzer was pressured to resign from office earlier this month after he was outed as a regular client of a high-end prostitution ring.Mr. Spitzer and lawmakers formed the commission last year, transferring the powers of the New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying and the New York State Ethics Commission to one single agency. Mr. Spitzer appointed its chairman, John Feerick, a former dean of Fordham Law School.A spokesman for integrity commission, Walter Ayres, said the ethics body has had an “appropriate” amount of communication with people involved in the case. A spokeswoman for Mr. Paterson did not immediately respond for comment.

State Agency Said To Interfere With Spitzer Probe

State Agency Said To Interfere With Spitzer Probe

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