N.Y. / Region
U.S. Attorney Warns Cuomo on Moreland Commission Case
In an escalation of the confrontation between the United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo
over the governor’s cancellation of his own anticorruption commission,
Mr. Bharara has threatened to investigate the Cuomo administration for
possible obstruction of justice or witness tampering.
The
warning, in a sharply worded letter from Mr. Bharara’s office, came
after several members of the panel issued public statements defending
the governor’s handling of the panel, known as the Moreland Commission,
which Mr. Cuomo created last year with promises of cleaning up
corruption in state politics but shut down abruptly in March.
Mr.
Bharara’s office has been investigating the shutdown of the commission,
and pursuing its unfinished corruption cases, since April.
In
the letter, sent late Wednesday afternoon to a lawyer for the panel,
prosecutors alluded to a number of statements made by its members on
Monday, which generally defended Mr. Cuomo’s handling of the commission.
The statements were released on the same day Mr. Cuomo first publicly
responded to a report in The New York Times that described how he and
his aides had compromised the commission’s work.
At
least some of those statements were prompted by calls from the governor
or his emissaries, according to people with direct knowledge of the
situation who were unwilling to be named for fear of reprisal.
One
commissioner who received a call from an intermediary on behalf of the
governor’s office said he found the call upsetting and declined to make a
statement.
The
letter from prosecutors, which was read to The New York Times, says,
“We have reason to believe a number of commissioners recently have been
contacted about the commission’s work, and some commissioners have been
asked to issue public statements characterizing events and facts
regarding the commission’s operation.”
“To
the extent anyone attempts to influence or tamper with a witness’s
recollection of events relevant to our investigation, including the
recollection of a commissioner or one of the commission’s employees, we
request that you advise our office immediately, as we must consider
whether such actions constitute obstruction of justice or tampering with
witnesses that violate federal law.”
Reached
late Wednesday night, a spokesman for the governor did not immediately
respond to a request for comment on the letter from Mr. Bharara’s
office. A lawyer for the commission declined to comment on the letter.
The Times reported last week that Mr. Cuomo’s office had deeply compromised the panel’s work,
objecting when it focused on groups with political ties to Mr. Cuomo, a
Democrat who is seeking re-election, or on issues that might reflect
poorly on him.
The
Times’s article prompted condemnations from government watchdog groups
and newspaper editorial boards. Mr. Cuomo, facing perhaps the harshest
scrutiny of his three and a half years as governor, remained out of
public view for five days as criticism mounted.
Late
Sunday night, Mr. Cuomo’s office announced that he would make an
appearance in Buffalo on Monday morning, setting in motion what appeared
to be a coordinated effort by Mr. Cuomo and his aides to present a
defense for their conduct.
Just hours before Mr. Cuomo faced reporters, one of the co-chairs of the commission, William J. Fitzpatrick, released a three-page statement in which he asserted that “nobody ‘interfered’ with me or my co-chairs.”
Facing questions from the news media, Mr. Cuomo repeatedly cited
the statement by Mr. Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district
attorney. The governor called the statement “very helpful,” explaining
that Mr. Fitzpatrick “knows better than anyone else what happened with
the Moreland Commission.”
“Now we have facts that we can actually deal with, right?” Mr. Cuomo said.
Mr.
Fitzpatrick’s statement seemed at odds with frustration he had
expressed to colleagues last year; in one email reported by The Times,
he wrote that Mr. Cuomo’s office “needs to understand this is an
INDEPENDENT commission and needs to be treated as such.” Mr. Cuomo
dismissed that email as “snippets of conversations.”
Timeline: The Short Life of an Anticorruption Commission
Mr.
Fitzpatrick’s statement on Monday also appeared to contradict previous
statements he made to federal prosecutors, according to three people
briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak on the record. Mr.
Fitzpatrick did not immediately return a call late Wednesday seeking
comment.
Also Monday, Thomas P. Zugibe, the Rockland County district attorney and a commission member, released a statement
in which he asserted that the panel “did incredible work” and said, “At
all times it was clear that all investigatory decisions were within the
exclusive discretion of the Commission.”
Another commission member, Frank A. Sedita III, the Erie County district attorney, issued a statement
that acknowledged there had been “rumors” that Mr. Cuomo’s office had
sought to block the issuance of some subpoenas. But he said that Mr.
Cuomo’s office ultimately “agreed not to interfere with our work.”
And in an interview
with Gannett, Gerald F. Mollen, the Broome County district attorney,
said he believed that he and his colleagues had “absolute independence
to go wherever the commission wanted and the governor could not stop us
if we choose to go somewhere.”
The
letter noted “the commissioners and the commission’s employees are
important witnesses in this ongoing investigation, and information from
those with personal knowledge of facts of the investigation is highly
material to that investigation.”
The
letter warned that tampering with the recollections of commission
members or employees could be a crime, and directed them to preserve any
records of “actual or attempted contact” along those lines.
James Margolin, a spokesman for the United States attorney’s office, declined to comment Wednesday night.
Stop scratching on holidays
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
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Confidential > Stop
scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
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