4 Spitzer Aides Broke Ethics Law, Panel Says
July 25, 2008
Four Spitzer administration officials violated the state’s ethics law when they used the State Police last summer to gather travel documents they hoped would tarnish Joseph L. Bruno, then the State Senate majority leader, according to a report released on Thursday by the State Commission on Public Integrity.
The report drew on 3,000 pages of testimony and thousands of internal documents, and depicts an administration on a war footing, with Gov. Eliot Spitzer seething over attacks from Mr. Bruno and eager to strike back.
It also describes an extensive — but ultimately fruitless — effort by the governor’s top aides to deny the commission e-mail messages and documents that could shed light on the administration’s actions last spring and summer, when internal discussions began about whether Mr. Bruno’s travels on state aircraft could pose a political problem for the senator.
The commission brought no charges against Mr. Spitzer. But in its report, the commission left open the possibility of action, including taking steps against Mr. Spitzer, if additional evidence emerges.
While separate investigations continue, the report had been perhaps the most eagerly awaited in Albany, and it offered one of the most thorough examinations of the conduct of the Spitzer administration as it gathered and released information about Mr. Bruno.
The commission found that the Spitzer administration enlisted the State Police “in an effort to gather and publicize sensitive information about Senator Bruno’s travel. In doing so, Spitzer administration officials caused the State Police to contravene longstanding State Police procedures governing the disclosure of such travel administration.”
It also affirmed the findings of previous inquiries that Mr. Spitzer’s communications director, Darren Dopp, and William F. Howard, a public safety adviser to the governor, asked the State Police to re-create travel itineraries for Mr. Bruno, hoping to show that he had used state aircraft to attend political fund-raisers. Though that would not necessarily have violated state policy at the time, such uses by other state politicians have drawn criticism in the past.
The State Police superintendent, Preston L. Felton, who has since retired, worked with troopers to obtain the information, the report said, knowing it would be released to the news media. In some cases, the police reported the details of Mr. Bruno’s trips to Mr. Dopp “on a real-time basis,” according to the report, suggesting a continual, close monitoring of Mr. Bruno’s travel.
Richard Baum, then the top aide to Mr. Spitzer, received e-mail messages about the travel records from Mr. Dopp, but failed to intervene to prevent any impropriety, the report says.
Mr. Baum and Mr. Howard have already reached settlements with the commission. Both men admitted wrongdoing under a broadly worded section of the ethics law that governs state officials’ conduct, known as the Public Officers Law, that forbids any action that might “raise suspicion among the public” that an official might be involved in improper acts. Neither was asked to pay a fine.
The other two officials are contesting the findings, which will require a public adjudication of the charges. If the commission’s findings are upheld, Mr. Dopp could be subject to a $10,000 fine and Mr. Felton to fines totaling $20,000.
Even as it issued its report on Thursday, the commission itself was under attack, with critics saying that it shied away from a detailed examination of what role Mr. Spitzer may have played in the effort. The panel has emphatically denied the criticism.
Mr. Dopp has accused the commission’s executive director, Herbert Teitelbaum, of seeking to paint him as a rogue operative who acted without direction from or approval of the former governor. The Albany County district attorney, P. David Soares, who released a report this year concluding that the governor had been deeply involved in the effort against Mr. Bruno, has said Mr. Teitelbaum sought to interfere with his investigation.
In a statement, Mr. Dopp said that the commission had been “compromised from the beginning and after a year has produced a report that is more concerned with validating the improper conduct of the commission staff than getting at the truth.”
In an interview, Mr. Felton said: “I look forward to the administrative hearing and to bringing some matters to light. I believe I have done nothing wrong, and that will be proven in the end.”
Source: NY Times Read the complete article here
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