You picked up the corruption investigation from the Moreland Commission when Governor Cuomo disbanded it, I think?
“That's correct.”
Do you believe the commission knew or would have discovered the Silver or Skelos schemes if Cuomo had left them alone?
“The Moreland Commission had a lot of very good investigators. … They were specifically looking at issues related to the outside income of former Speaker Silver. And when we took over the files … we had been looking at that ourselves, and we merged that information with our own information and got that ball across the finish line. Less the case with majority leader Skelos; I think the evidence is there they were on the right track and they were pursuing things vigorously and aggressively, and fortunately people in my office are pretty fearless and aggressive and picked up the ball where they left off.”
Did the governor know Skelos or Silver had something to hide?
“I'm not going to talk about what anyone else knew or didn't know.”
Are you still investigating Cuomo's campaign finances?
“I'm not going to talk about any investigations that we have open. We have lots of investigations open. People like to talk about what is going to happen tomorrow — people are interested in what's going to happen tomorrow, but I think we shouldn't let this moment pass without thinking about today and yesterday, because as I said and you noted, it is not every day that you have these kinds of convictions and this kind of record laid bare.”
But you're not going to say the governor is not under investigation?
“You shouldn't read anything into what I'm saying one way or the other. I know people like to do that; I'm here to talk about what has happened over the last couple of weeks.”
What about Cuomo steering Moreland away from the Committee to Save New York, which was spending big to promote his agenda? If he or one of his staff messed with the Moreland Commission to order it off that committee's trail, would that be a crime?
“I don't answer hypotheticals. Nice try for the third time. I'm here to talk about what's not hypothetical, and that's the convictions of two leaders and the evidence that was put forth that shows the problems we have in this state.”
Not exactly an endorsement of "The governor's a swell guy and I totally believe him when he says major ethics reform will be a part of his 2016 legislative agenda."
Also not an endorsement of the governor as an innocent man with no part played in the Albany corruption mess.
Doesn't signal impending criminal charges either, but then again, those usually get leaked by Bharara's office under the cover of night, not during a morning radio interview.
We have no way of knowing what, if anything, Bharara's got planned for Cuomo.
But one thing we do know from the public statements, tweets, and leaks.
Cuomo shouldn't sleep too soundly yet.
Depends on whether or not Preety Boy's itchy palm has been sufficiently greased.
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