Cuomo Closely Tied To Politico Indicted For Bribery/Extortion

Fred Dicker reported Governor Cuomo's close ties to indicted Western New York power broker Steven Pigeon in yesterday's New York Post, noting that Pigeon was so tied to Cuomo last election cycle that the governor had him attending both election strategy and policy meetings:

Cuomo was so close to Pigeon — charged last week with nine felonies in connection with the alleged bribing of a state Supreme Court justice — that he gave him a key role in his 2014 re-election campaign despite objections from more important political aides like Joseph Percoco and Larry Schwartz, who considered him “untrustworthy and a little sleazy,’’ a source close to the campaign told The Post.

Cuomo directed Percoco, the focus of an ongoing probe by corruption-fighting US Attorney Preet Bharara, and Schwartz, Cuomo’s former chief of staff, and a handful of other trusted aides to allow Pigeon to attend key strategy meetings at the campaign headquarters from which virtually all other political operatives were excluded, said the campaign source.

“They objected, but the governor forced Pigeon on them,’’ according to the source. “At first Pigeon started to just show up at campaign strategy meetings, even though no one knew who had invited him to come.

“But it turned out that it was the governor who invited him to be there because the governor had come to believe that Pigeon was some kind of a political genius,’’ said the source.

Cuomo sought re-election obsessed with racking up a big vote in Buffalo and Erie County, Pigeon’s bailiwick, which he had lost four years earlier to Republican Carl Paladino, the source said.

Pigeon, the longtime Erie County Democratic chairman, “was the guy who Andrew was taking counsel from as to how to win in Buffalo this time around, but he was also taking his counsel on broader statewide issues,’’ the source said.

A second source said Cuomo was so close to Pigeon that in 2010, Gov. David Paterson refused to allow then-Attorney General Cuomo to name a special prosecutor to investigate election-related corruption charges being made against Pigeon — because he felt Cuomo “couldn’t be trusted to authorize a fair probe.’’

“Everyone knew at that time how close Cuomo was to Pigeon,’’ said the source.

Dicker writes that Cuomo was partly behind the 2009 Senate coup by turncoat Dems that Pigeon helped engineer, with Cuomo and Pigeon in close communication as the coup unfolded and control of the state Senate went to Republicans after turncoat Dems like Pedro Espada and Hiram Montserrate threw their lots in with Republicans (both men ended up in prison for corruption charges unrelated to the state Senate coup.)

Just as Cuomo has tried to distance himself from his former aide and lobbyist pal, Todd Howe (now squarely in the sights of federal prosecutors for corruption), Cuomo wants to distance himself from the now-indicted Steve Pigeon and make believe like he barely knows him.

But the record, when fully examined, shows Cuomo was as close as could be with both Pigeon and Howe (see here how Howe kept showing up at Cuomo functions and/or raising money for the governor simultaneous to the time Cuomo claims not to know what Howe was doing.)

Same goes for Pigeon - see the Buffalo News piece on Pigeon from 2013 as well as yesterday's Dicker piece.

You can bet if investigators look real close at the Cuomo relationships with his corrupt associates - Pigeon, Howe, former aide Joe Percoco, SUNY Poly head Alain Kaloyeros - they will find some interesting things, some of which may turn out to be criminal.

Whether they go that far, well, that's hard to say.

But Preet Bharara has warned executive branches in the state that malfeasance in the executive will be rooted out.

So Cuomo shouldn't get to comfortable thinking all he's got to do to keep himself from scrutiny is just keep repeated "I don't know these people, I don't know these people..."

Christie Can No Longer Use Hurricane Sandy To Innoculate Himself From Criticism

When the going gets tough, Chris Christie wraps himself in Hurricane Sandy, surrounding himself with people who suffered from the storm last year and generating good publicity for himself in the news cycle.

But with today's bombshell that he allegedly had two cronies, including his Lieutenant Governor, Kim Guadagno, deliver extortion threats to Hoboken mayor Dawn Zimmer that she either conceded to his wishes on a real estate project or he would withhold a couple hundred million in Sandy relief funds from the City of Hoboken, Christie may have lost his Sandy innoculation opportunity for good:

Brigid Harrison, political science professor at Montclair University, said she was surprised Guadagno is alleged to be at the center of this controversy. People think of her as being outside the Christie circle of influence.

"Most people perceived her as enormously effective and underutilized," Harrison said. "It's very surprising she is alleged to have had an active participatory role."

The revelations are damning to Christie, Harrison said.

"They pull the rug out from under the governor in one area of policy in which he had made so many significant inroads with New Jerseyans and so many people in the country," she said.

"He can no longer use Sandy victims as his foil as he did this past week," Harrison said, referring to his visit to Ocean County to talk with storm victims. "The fact that funds for Sandy were part of this scenario is really not going to resonate well."

Christie is also under investigation by the feds for misusing Sandy funds to promote his re-election.

Both of these stories now mean that the next Christie Sandy photo op/presser will contain questions about his alleged misuse of Sandy relief funds and his having cronies try and extort a real estate project go-ahead in return for a couple of hundred million in Sandy relief money.

Want to bet Christie doesn't do a Sandy photo op for a little while?

Bloomberg Sued Over Extortion Claims

More criminal activity from our criminal mayor:

The taxi magnate who said he was subjected to a profanity-laced rant by Mayor Bloomberg has filed a federal lawsuit charging the mayor with threatening him and siccing TLC inspectors on his fleet in retaliation for his opposition to the “Taxi of Tomorrow” plan.

The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court late yesterday, accuses Bloomberg and TLC chief David Yassky of ordering inspectors to dump a blizzard of bogus tickets - totaling about $3.5 million - on cabs operated by Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman.

“It’s deeply disappointing and terribly disturbing that the mayor will use his powers to try to beat people who disagree with him into oblivion,” said Steve Mintz, the lawyer representing Freidman.

The suit is an amended version of an earlier suit Freidman had filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, but contains the new allegations against Bloomberg and Yassky.

The TLC has imposed $85,000 in fines on one of Freidman’s medallions and similar penalties are in the works against dozens of other medallions, adding up to roughly $3.5 million in penalties, Mintz said.

Yassky, according to the suit, offered to revoke the fines in exchange for Freidman dropping his challenge to the mayor’s plan.

“In other words, Yassky was offering to exercise his discretion in a manner favorable to Freidman in exchange for a benefit in the form of political support for Taxi of Tomorrow,” the suit charges.

Freidman had originally sued the city to stop Bloomberg’s pet “Taxi of Tomorrow” plan, which would replace the existing fleet of hacks with new, gas-burning Nissan minivans.

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled against the mayor’s plan last week.

A day later, as The Post first reported Wednesday, Bloomberg heaped abuse on Freidman in a private club at Madison Square Garden during a Knicks game, threatening to “destroy your f--king industry” once he leaves office in January.

“These are the acts of a big, bad bully. It’s Putin-esque,” a source close to Freidman told The Post this morning, comparing Bloomberg to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The amended federal suit seeks a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages.

Bloomberg spokeswoman Julie Wood scoffed at the suit.

“It’s not uncommon for disturbed and angry people to file lawsuits against the Mayor and the City of New York.

 Actually the disturbed and angry person in this suit would be Mayor Bloomberg, who threatened to "f---ing destroy you guys" once he gets out of office in January.

If this suit is found to have merit and Bloomberg and Yassky really did offer to revoke millions in fines if Friedman would drop his lawsuit against the Taxi of Tomorrow project, then Bloomberg and Yassky both belong in jail for extortion.