NY Times Should Look At Cuomo's Common Core Commission For Interference Too

The NY Times takes a look at Cuomo's first Moreland Commission - the post-Sandy panel that studied the failures of the electric companies during Hurricane Sandy and finds the following:

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has faced intense scrutiny in recent months, including an investigation by federal prosecutors, over his management of a commission that he created to root out corruption in New York politics, but prevented from examining his administration’s conduct and then prematurely shut down.

 

An analysis of Mr. Cuomo’s handling of an earlier investigative commission, which highlighted the failures of electric companies in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, reveals some of the same hallmarks: interference, efforts to shield his administration’s role and a sense that the governor had a clear idea at the outset of what the commission should conclude.

Gee - what a surprise that Cuomo tampered with his LIPA commission, had a pre-determined outcome for what he wanted from the commission and worked to shield just what a sham the commission was.


These were also the hallmarks of Cuomo's Common Core Commission:

Todd Hathaway, a teacher at East Aurora High School and a member of the Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Common Core panel, ripped the process today after the panel released its report last night.

The recommendations include what Cuomo wanted: holding students harmless for the tougher exams, but not a three-year moratorium on using the tests to evaluate teachers.

The 11-member panel—which included two state lawmakers—said the state should keep Common Core-based tests in grades 3-8 from appearing on a student’s transcript, while capping the amount of instructional time that can be spent on standardized tests.

...

Hathaway said, “The report – and the process that produced it—is incomplete. the report was released suddenly, even as final comments were still being solicited. I had indicated the likelihood I would dissent and not allow the report to be spun as ‘consensus.’” Nevertheless, the report was issued with my name attached. I am very concerned that the report tries to make it seem like all the discussion had been completed.”

Here’s the rest of his statement:

“In fact, the Executive Office repeatedly ignored my concerns and the legitimate concerns of others about inappropriate state testing, the misuse of invalid tests for evaluations and the lack of transparency in state testing. The result is that some of the report’s conclusions and suggestions do not hold up to scrutiny. I wouldn’t accept this kind of work from my students and I don’t accept it here.”

“The failure to address testing and evaluation issues in a comprehensive way suggests the dynamics of the classroom will not change. The report seems to blame everybody else for the problems of the Common Core learning standards without adequately addressing the appropriateness of some of the standards and the testing that goes with it. This report should have addressed serious deficiencies in state testing. It should have discussed the lack of transparency in tests; the lack of diagnostic and prescriptive worth to teachers; the unacceptable delays in returning scores to school districts and the insanity of pretending there is validity to teacher ratings that are derived from student scores widely acknowledged to be invalid.”

“Finally, this panel should have recognized the need to pause in the use of assessments for high-stakes decisions for students and teachers. This would have allowed the State Education Department, as well as school districts, to refine the tests and testing materials; teachers to engage in the standards and develop a variety of lessons to meet them instead of just relying on modules; parents to understand the role and utility of data in education; and for teachers to receive the necessary professional development. Implementing massive curriculum changes do not just happen overnight. They take time. I fully support a delay in the use of tests in high-stakes decisions for students and teachers, but that issue was never fully explored. You can’t put students first if you put their teachers last.”

Cuomo knew what he wanted from the Common Core panel before it ever met.

It was a sham panel, just the way his first Moreland Commission was a sham commission, with the "findings" of the panel already pre-determined by Cuomo's needs and wants, just the way his second Moreland Commission was a sham commission.

I've covered this before, but it bears repeating:

The games Cuomo played with the Moreland Commission are the same games he played with the LIPA Commission and the Common Core panel.

Cuomo uses these commissions as political cover to get something he wants through, then rigs the panels and commissions so that it all ends up the way he wants.

The difference between the LIPA Commission and the CCSS panel and the Moreland Commission is, Cuomo was screwing around with potential criminality when he dealt away the Moreland Commission in order to get some minor league ethics reforms in the budget agreement.

With the other two panels, he was simply rigging a process and engaging in political gamesmanship, not dealing away criminal investigations in some quid pro quo budget deal.

That's why Preet Bharara wasn't going to look into the LIPA Commission or the CCSS panel process, but he is looking into just what Cuomo engineered in the Moreland mess.

Perhaps Cuomo, emboldened by four years of successfully manipulating these commissions and panels to get the outcomes he wanted, thought nobody would blink at his Moreland machinations either.

If so, Cuomo was wrong about that.

Too bad the Times Editorial Board doesn't read its own new section before it issues endorsements.

Maybe Cuomo wouldn't have gotten theirs.

The Sounds Of Silence In Albany

A comment at the NY Times:

Consider the deafening silence from our state legislators over this affair verses the fire storm in New Jersey when Gov. Christie was involved. When the Moreland group was decommissioned, a great sigh of relief was audible through the halls of the Legislative Office Building. Cuomo is being called on his behavior and Democrats have to wake up to the fact that they have a choice. Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu represent traditional Democratic values with 21st century plans. The Primary is in 39 days. Cuomo is vulnerable. He can be rejected. New York deserves a Governor who will engender trust and speaks truth to the entrenched power cliques. No one should have to hold their nose while voting Democrat.

I can't argue with any of that.

Cuomo and the Legislature, all in cahoots together to enrich themselves and maintain their power and privilege.

That's why Teachout/Wu have my support.

It's Always The Cover-Up

Blake Zeff on Twitter:

Reminder: It's always the cover-up http://t.co/P4D1Dn3zKw
— Blake Zeff (@blakezeff) July 31, 2014

Stephen Gillers in The Nation writes in an article entitled "Andrew Cuomo's Watergate?" that up until now, he didn't see much for US Attorney Preet Bharara to get Cuomo on, but after Cuomo's shenanigans this week stage-managing his defense, he thinks Cuomo gave Preet an opening:

Before Monday, I and others had been trying to figure out what statutes Bharara may have been looking at. Certainly, he could pursue evidence of corruption by state officials, including lawmakers, whom the Commission had been investigating before it was dismissed, and about which it had files.

But Cuomo's claim that he had a right to disband the Commission, because it was "my" Commission, did not seem to be a basis for federal investigation even if it was a politically foolish decision and defense.

Now,  Bharara has a basis to investigate Cuomo himself and his aides. The statute would be 18 USC 1512(b) and possibly others. It is a crime to knowingly corruptly persuade another to keep information from an official proceeding. That's the Arthur Andersen case in the Supreme Court among others.

There is a sitting grand jury, which is an official proceeding, and former Commissioners must have been aware that they could be witnesses even if not yet subpoenaed.  Cuomo would also be so aware.

Bharara is warning Cuomo that any effort to coordinate a false story (of non-intervention) that these Commissioners would  tell the grand jury if called would be a federal crime. This is so even if their statements are so far only public statements,  even if the effort fails because the Commissioners don't testify. The statute forbids attempts.

Now, as I say, it may all be innocent. The Commissioners who spoke out, and who  prior to doing so may have been contacted by the governor's people to solicit their statements (Bharara says he "has reason to believe" they were), may have spoken truthfully with no "knowing corrupt  persuasion" at play. 

But Monday's events put the governor is at risk in ways he was not before. The US obstruction statutes are incredibly broad. Whoever got the idea to coordinate the concurrent Commissioner statements, assuming there was coordination and not a coincidence,  and even if any such idea was entirely benign, may not have been aware of  what they were handing Bharara for investigation.

NY Times reporter Nicholas Confessore tweeted this earlier:

It is genuinely puzzling that Cuomo, a politician with so many ex-federal prosecutors in his kitchen cabinet, is messing this up so badly.
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) July 31, 2014

I think the answer for why that is happening is fairly obvious, given who Cuomo is:

@nickconfessore It's arrogance & hubris. He thinks he's untouchable, thinks he's smarter/tougher than anybody else.
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) July 31, 2014

In Bharara, Cuomo seems to have met his match.

An Ominous Warning For Governor Cuomo

Mike Allen on The Morning Joe Show:

This is turning into a potentially defining episode for Governor Cuomo, who is of course up for re-election in November and is expected to easily be re-elected. But through all this bad press throughout the ethics commission, this bombshell story last week about how the governor's office had been said to have interfered, the trillion dollar question had been, what nobody was really sure of was, just how interested is the US Attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, in this? He had gotten a lot of documents, but how interested is he in this? Well, this morning we have the answer and the answer is very. The wording of this letter could not be more ominous for the governor. And what happened, just to connect a couple of dots there, the US attorney says in this letter that his office was contacted after these statements of support for Governor Cuomo and the suggestion was that they had been requested, that they had been asked for, maybe somebody had even been pressured to give these statements.

Michael Fiorillo here at Perdido Street School blog:

The vise is closing, and our Reptilian Governor's testicles are about to get caught in it.

It's gonna be sweet watching this awful facsimile of a human being go down...

Until early this morning, I wasn't so sure Bharara was really targeting Cuomo and his administration in his Moreland investigations.

Yes, there had been various signs that he might be heading there, but I didn't want to get ahead of the story - I learned my lesson well in the "Karl Rove sure to be indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald" story back during the Bush administration. 

But after the NY Times story went up around midnight, with Bharara warning Cuomo he would hit him with obstruction and witness tampering if he didn't lay off the intimidation and behind the scenes stage-managing, it finally hit me.

Preet Bharara really is going after Andrew Cuomo.

That letter was, as Allen said on Morning Joe today, "ominous for the governor."

Now who knows, maybe in the end Bharara decides no laws have been broken and Cuomo skates legally in all of this.

Nonetheless, the damage to his national profile has been considerable - Mike Allen again on Morning Joe:

Our sister site, Capital NY, has a story up by Laura Nahmias, pointing out that one problem Governor Cuomo is that there's kinda been a vacuum in his national image, he hasn't done a lot of interviews and this is filling that vacuum.

Can't wait for Cuomo's book tour in the fall - which may or may not happen, depending upon how bad this Moreland mess gets for him.

Cuomo Tries To Turn A Corner On Moreland Mess, Preet Says Not So Fast

Last night around 9:30 PM, Reuters posed the following story:

Exclusive: Cuomo intervened in BNP deal to get $1 billion more for NY state fund

(Reuters) - Only days before U.S. authorities reached a landmark $8.97 billion settlement with BNP Paribas over the bank’s dealings with countries subject to U.S. sanctions, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo intervened to ensure the state government got a much bigger share of the proceeds, according to three people familiar with the situation.

One of these people said Cuomo called Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney, on June 27 to seek a big chunk of the $2.2 billion that was going to be available to Vance to tap for law enforcement projects.

Vance eventually agreed that $1.05 billion of the $2.2 billion would go into the state’s coffers because otherwise the whole deal could be jeopardized, this person said. The settlement was announced on Monday, June 30, after last-minute negotiations over the preceding weekend.

The state’s general fund was already set to receive $2.24 billion from a state regulator’s piece of the settlement, and the eleventh-hour deal pushed the state’s take up to $3.29 billion. That change was contained in a side agreement signed by Vance on June 29, and a lawyer for Cuomo on June 30.

After a week of getting beaten up on the airwaves (including The Daily Show and Morning Joe), in the papers (especially on the editorial pages) and on the Internet over the NY Times expose on Moreland, Andrew Cuomo finally surfaced on Monday in Buffalo to push back against the narrative that he had manipulated the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption.

Behind the scenes he engineered four similar statements backing him from Moreland Commissioners, including one by co-chair William Fitzpatrick (someone Cuomo elevated yesterday to "senior co-chair," though he was never called that before.)

Cuomo made another appearance yesterday, this time on Long Island, doing governor's stuff and dismissing efforts by his GOP opponent to make a big deal over Moreland as "entertaining."

Then came the BNP Paribas leak to Reuters that went up as a story last night, one that reflected well on Cuomo (and was meant to reflect well on Cuomo.)

You can see the strategy here - Cuomo, behind the scenes, calling Moreland Commissioners to solicit support and suggest what they should put in press statements that he wanted released on the same day he re-emerged from hiding over the Moreland mess, then pointing to those statements as proof positive that he hadn't meddled with the commission.

Then, to put an exclamation point on the whole thing, he has the BNP Paribas story, the one that makes him look good, leaked to Reuters, a way to try and counter the negative coverage he's been getting on The Daily Show and especially Morning Joe.

Just Andrew Cuomo being Andrew Cuomo, exerting influence, pulling strings, controlling things behind the scenes - in short, Cuomo back in the saddle, turning the corner on the Moreland story.

And then Preet Bahrara says not so fast and this story appears in the Times right around midnight:

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.” 

... 

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.

So much for Sheriff Andy, back in the saddle, turning the corner on the Meddling in Moreland scandal.

In addition, Bharara very visibly lunched with State Attorney General Eric Scheniderman earlier in the week in a place they were sure to be seen, another message aimed at Cuomo from the US Attorney's office - Scheiderman is not a target of any investigation, but he may be helping out with our investigation into Moreland meddling.

Jimmy Vielkind tweeted the following this morning about Preet's warning to Cuomo:

In a letter, Preet Bharara warns Andrew Cuomo about being Andrew Cuomo http://t.co/AuPQJIFnuk
— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) July 31, 2014

Indeed, Cuomo is just doing here what he has done on every other issue/crisis - stage-managing it to go the way he wants.

The difference here is, Preet Bharara is having none of it.

Here was the coverage Cuomo got this morning on Morning Joe:

As the questions build over Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his staff’s involvement in the Moreland Commission corruption-busting panel, the flap has increasingly picked up national media.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this morning, the panelists warned about the increasing damage it could cause Cuomo after U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in a letter warned the administration to not meddle with commission members who could be witnesses.

“There’s a serious cloud hanging over the governor’s mansion,” Ari Melber, a MSNBC co-host.

BNP Paribas/Cuomo back in control story?

What BNP Paribas/Cuomo back in control story?

So much for turning the corner on the Moreland mess.

US Attorney Warns Governor Cuomo Over Witness Tampering, Obstruction Of Justice Charges

The battle between US Attorney Preet Bharara and Governor Andrew Cuomo over the Moreland mess just got ratcheted up some more:

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.” ... 

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.

Can't get any starker than that:

Preet to Sheriff Andy: Stop fucking around with the Moreland Commission witnesses and evidence or you're getting hit with witness tampering and obstruction charges.

This comes on top of Bharara lunching earlier in the week with Attorney General Scheiderman in a place where they were guaranteed to be seen:

At the height of Moreland madness, two of the most high profile players in this seemingly never-ending saga – US Attorney Preet Bharara and state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman – met for a very public lunch in lower Manhattan yesterday, multiple sources confirm.

The Democratic duo was spotted lunching at City Hall Restaurant – an eatery favored by members of the New York City political set due to its proximity to (you guessed it) City Hall. Schneiderman and Bharara have known each other in a professional capacity for the past several years, but aren’t personal friends, according to a source familiar with their relationship.

It’s worth noting that Bharara, who is investigating the demise of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s now-defunct corruption-busting Moreland Commission, would probably not be seen in such a public place with Schneiderman if the attorney general was a target of that probe.

Given the role that Schneiderman played, however, through his agreement to deputize its 25 members to broaden their purview beyond the executive branch and loaning of top aides to staff the commission, it’s possible that he is providing information to the US attorney as the investigation progresses.

If it wasn't already clear before the events of this week, with Cuomo flailing away at a press conference on Monday, contradicting himself over his previous statements (and the official statement his administration gave to the NY Times in response to their Moreland piece) and now Bharara sending Cuomo a couple of not-so-subtle messages, it should be now:

The US Attorney is looking very, very closely at Governor Cuomo in these Moreland investigations and Sheriff Andy has no idea what to do about it.