This morning, Fred Dicker of the NY Post confirms that:
The top aide to Gov. Cuomo has agreed to meet with federal prosecutors investigating the governor’s disbanding of his own anti-corruption panel.
Larry Schwartz voluntarily agreed to meet with prosecutors from US Attorney Preet Bharara’s office, according to a source with law-enforcement ties. Schwartz and others “want to avoid the embarrassment of a subpoena, so they proactively volunteered to go in,” the source said.
Schwartz has been at the center of alleged meddling into the panel to protect the governor against his own possible misdeeds.
Schwartz has been accused of contacting one of the panel’s co-chairs to yank a subpoena issued to an ad-buying firm that had worked for the governor’s campaign.
Bharara’s investigation into the Moreland Commission panel has recently been extended to allegations of witness tampering and obstruction of justice, after a number of members were allegedly influenced to support Cuomo’s decision to disband it.
The Cuomo camp can try and put a positive spin on the Schwartz news all they want.
That Bharara is now interviewing Schwartz in the Moreland matter is bad news for Governor Cuomo.
And you can bet had Schwartz not agreed to "voluntarily" talk to prosecutors, he would have been compelled with a subpoena.
I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar happen with Cuomo's Luca Brasi, Joseph Percoco.
Percoco was the aide who called Moreland Commissioners last week and "offered" to write statements of support for Governor Cuomo over the Moreland mess that Cuomo could then use as defense in public statements of his own.
UPDATE: More on Percoco and other Cuomo aides and associates:
.@maslowsneeds @CuomoWatch Denerstein being GJ's this week, Schwartz soon. Dealt w Percocco. Do you think Calcaterra had secret GJ? #Cuomo
— Seema Kalia (@seemakalia) August 4, 2014
If she hasn't had a secret Grand Jury invite already, she will soon.
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