Prosecutors Say Moreland Leaders Felt Cuomo Interfered In Commission

And suddenly Cuomo's Moreland Commission interference is back in the spotlight, courtesy of Weiser, Kaplan, and Craig at the NY Times:

Senior officials of a state anticorruption commission abruptly shut down last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo have told federal prosecutors that they believed he and his staff intervened in its operations “in a manner that, at times, led them to question the independence” of the panel, the prosecutors said in a recent letter.

The letter, which briefly summarizes the officials’ statements, was attached to court papers filed on Friday night by lawyers for Sheldon Silver, the former Assembly speaker, as he prepares for his corruption case in federal court in Manhattan.

The officials have not spoken publicly about the involvement of the governor’s office in the operation of the panel, which was known as the Moreland Commission. Their statements to prosecutors are in contrast to Mr. Cuomo’s assertions last summer that his office did not inappropriately intervene in the work of the panel, which he created in July 2013 and abruptly disbanded nine months later.

...

 

The government says in the letter, which is dated July 29, that the statements about the actions of Mr. Cuomo and his staff came from “various members and staff” of the commission — including two of the panel’s three co-chairs and its chief of investigations.

... 

The former commission officials whose statements about Mr. Cuomo and his staff are summarized in the government letter include the panel’s two other co-chairs: Kathleen M. Rice, now a Democratic congresswoman from Long Island and the former Nassau County district attorney; and Milton L. Williams, Jr., a partner at the law firm Vladeck, Raskin & Clark. 

They and the third official, E. Danya Perry, who was the panel’s chief of investigations, all declined to comment on Saturday.

Cuomo has one co-chair shilling for him:

An investigation by The New York Times published in July 2014 showed that Mr. Cuomo’s office had hobbled the Moreland Commission’s work, intervening when it focused on groups with ties to the governor or on issues that might reflect poorly on him.

In response, Mr. Cuomo said that his office had merely offered advice to the panel, which he said possessed “total independence.” He repeatedly cited a statement released by one of the panel’s three co-chairs, William J. Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney, who said that “nobody ‘interfered’ with me or my co-chairs.”

On Saturday, Mr. Fitzpatrick declined to comment on the court filing, saying he was not privy to the exact substance of what was said in the interviews between prosecutors and the individuals in question. He added that there remains in his mind a big difference between interference and attempted interference.

“Every conversation I had with Governor Cuomo during my tenure on Moreland regarding our mission was supportive on his part,” he said.

Two co-chairs and the chief of investigations for the commission say Cuomo and his staff interfered in the commission's work, one says he didn't.

That one who says he didn't has a wife who is up for reappointment to a judgeship, so let's just say his word about what Cuomo and his staff did or didn't do with the commission is suspect, especially because privately he said Cuomo was interfering into the commission:

But Fitzpatrick had privately fumed over interfering by Cuomo’s office, sending an e-mail to colleagues saying the office “needs to understand this is an INDEPENDENT commission and needs to be treated as such,” The New York Times said.

This is about Shelly Silver's case, there's no suggestion that Bharara is going to go after Cuomo or members of his staff for their interference in the commission's work.

But considering how vehemently Cuomo denied interfering in the commission and considering how he had statements drafted up for Moreland Commission members to say just that, it will be interesting to see what additional details we get about Cuomo's Moreland interference during Silver's trial.

Cuomo's been on a bit of a roll lately, putting de Blasio on defense, triangulating on various issues like Common Core and the minimum wage - suddenly the Cuomo corruption story is back in the news.

Let's see what effect that has on the roll he's been on.

Another Cuomo Moreland Mystery (UPDATED)

Fred Dicker in today's Post:

Where’s Joe?

It’s a question many Albany Democrats are asking regarding longtime Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco, who appears to have dropped from sight.

“There are a lot of questions about what’s going on with Joe and very few answers,’’ said a Democratic activist and Democratic Party insider.

“You can occasionally get him on the phone but he’s not around the way he once was and people are wondering why not.”

Percoco was up to his next in post-closure Moreland tampering:

Joseph Percoco, a longtime political aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, contacted several members of the state’s now-shuttered anti-corruption commission during the past week and encouraged them to make public statements supporting the governor and affirming the panel’s independence.

According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Percoco allegedly offered to provide draft statements to those he contacted, and in some cases encouraged them to communicate with him through private emails rather than using their government email accounts.

Monday’s flurry of statements from Moreland members prompted a warning Wednesday from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who is looking into allegations that the administration interfered with the panel’s investigations.

Percoco, who previously served as the governor’s executive deputy secretary, has worked for Cuomo’s re-election campaign committee for several months. A quiet but formidable lawyer, he has been a behind-the-scenes fixture in Cuomo’s inner circle for many years, including during his four years as state attorney general and in his earlier role as U.S. housing secretary.

Attempts to reach Percoco were not successful. 

Percoco's dropped from sight?

Given his history with helping tamper with the Moreland Commission, that is interesting.

It remains a mystery for now.

Perhaps we'll get some clarification in the near future.

If the weirdness the governor is displaying is any indication, I bet we might.

UPDATE: And now we indeed get some clarification:

ALBANY—Longtime gubernatorial confidant Joe Percoco has returned to the office, more than a month after undergoing hip surgery, according to administration officials.
Percoco, whose title is executive deputy secretary, is a political counselor who doubles as Governor Andrew Cuomo's enforcer. Percoco managed both of Cuomo's gubernatorial campaigns, and the governor has likened him to a brother.

Cuomo's spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa said on Twitter and in an email that Percoco had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip. Another administration source said the April 29 procedure was in the works for months, and that Percoco is in Albany today using crutches.

The officials spoke in response to a New York Post column by Fred Dicker on Monday, which quoted a “Democratic activist and Democratic Party insider” as saying Percoco was “not around.”

Well, now we know they read Dicker's column.

Interesting that they responded to the part of the column that wondered where Percoco was but not the part of the column that reported the sucttlebutt from Albany that Cuomo is in the sights of the US attorney.

Waiting For The Skelos Indictment - And What Might Come After

Chris Smith in New York Magazine:

The chatter about Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Albany's plague of corruption investigations went on all day, everywhere. In the state capitol's corridors, in the restaurants where the pols and the lobbyists eat lunch.

I hear Dean might be indicted Thursday.

Is this one of Dean's last days as Senate majority leader?

Who's next?

... 

"We've seen a lot of strange things in Albany," a veteran government operative says. "But we've never seen the indictment of two leaders of the legislature."

It hasn't happened. And maybe it never will. But the talk of the town has already moved on:

Will Bharara go for a trifecta?

A Skelos indictment is an almost near certainty - there's no way Bharara's office leaked the story of the Skelos scandal, complete with tales of subpoenas to Skelos' fellow Long Island Republican Senators and the empaneled grand jury looking into the State Senate Majority Leader, to the NY Times without an indictment coming down.

What comes after that will be most interesting.

Tom Libous, Skelos' deputy, is currently under indictment for lying to the FBI and has said he is dying from cancer.

Who takes over afterward, what exactly gets done in the waning days of the legislative session and what future leaks come from US Attorney Preet Bharara's office will be most interesting.

I know many readers on the blog are skeptical that Bharara is going to go for the trifecta and take down Cuomo too.

It seems almost unfathomable that the feds would take out all three men in the room in the New York government.

And yet, there is just enough smoke around Cuomo, his donors, the "pulled back" subpoenas, the Moreland Commission tampering and the like that, well, you never know...

Is The Education Commission Proposal For Evaluations Face-Saving For Cuomo? (UPDATED - 7:20 AM)

Glenn Blain at the Daily News:

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo may be giving ground on one of his top budget priorities — strengthening teacher evaluations.

Cuomo and state lawmakers, as part of ongoing budget negotiations, have discussed creating a special commission that would craft a new teacher evaluation system, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County) said Tuesday.

“I think we are just about there with (Cuomo),” Skelos said. “Now it’s really about the commission, the composition of the commission and what there charge will be in terms of finalizing education reforms.”

Cuomo spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa did not deny that a commission was being discussed but insisted nothing was decided.

"Regarding rumors about teacher evaluation, there are a number of proposals floating around and none of them have been agreed to,” DeRosa said.

The Democrat-controlled state Assembly has not signed off on the creation of a commission, lawmakers said.

“It’s the latest proposal in the budget dance,” said one Democratic Assembly member.

Patrick Sullivan on twitter:

@edbobgreen @perdidostschool @leoniehaimson @mma718 @DeborahJGlick Commission would have no power. Just face saving for gov.
— Patrick J. Sullivan (@PSulliv) March 25, 2015

Given how Cuomo has manipulated some other high profile commissions (see here, here and here), I'm not ready to say this one - if it is empaneled - will be innocuous.

Perhaps Regina Calcaterra could chair this, just the way she chaired Cuomo's LIPA and corruption commissions?

And maybe just for old time's sake, Cuomo could bring back Larry Schwartz for some old-fashioned meddling and tampering like back in the day - you know, 2013.

Until I see details of the commission, who will make the appointments, who actually gets appointed and what power the commission will have, I'm not ready to say it's face-saving for Cuomo after the thundered on about his "My Way Or The Highway" on education reform for the last few months.

UPDATED - 7:20 AM: And just like that, we learn that Cuomo is indeed engaging in machinations over the evaluation commission:

FUNDING TIED TO JUNE EVAL DEAL—Capital’s Jessica Bakeman: “Members of the State Assembly’s Democratic majority fumed Tuesday night over a plan they said was developed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senate Republicans to hold back a school funding increase until June, when an appointed commission would recommend a new teacher-evaluation system. After meeting privately for several hours, Assembly members accused Senate Republicans of reneging on an apparent understanding between the two chambers that education funding would not be contingent on the enactment of reforms, such as an overhaul of the performance rating system for educators, which Cuomo has pushed.

“According to the plan, Cuomo and lawmakers would establish in the budget a six-member commission with two appointees each for the governor and the legislative houses, members said. The panel would develop a new evaluation system and return it to the Legislature by June 1, at which point, schools would have access to an increase in aid.

“‘There is a great concern that the governor is trying to maneuver to accomplish an agenda that we all reject,’ Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, a Democrat from Westchester, said after the conference’s meeting on Tuesday night. ‘[Setting] up another way to deal with the policy issue of teacher evaluations sounded like an attractive approach, but now all of a sudden, we’re hearing that [Senate Republican leader Dean] Skelos is backing away from what he said would be the pre-condition for that, which would be no linkage [to funding]. So if we can’t trust him on that, how can we trust him on the commission?’” http://bit.ly/1xwIxmY

If anybody thinks the governor has caved on his fight to destroy public schools and public school teachers, they should pay attention to what he's looking to do by delaying school funding until June and making it contingent upon teacher evaluation changes.

That's the move of someone not looking to save face but to get his way.

Why Did The Cuomo Campaign Spend $100,000 On Criminal Defense Attorney On December 29?

And the answer is - Moreland!

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s re-election campaign spent $100,000 last month on an attorney representing his office in a federal probe of the Moreland Commission, an anti-corruption panel he abruptly shuttered last March.

Cuomo’s campaign cut the payment on Dec. 29 to the law firm of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason & Anello PC, according to a campaign-finance filing posted Thursday. Elkan Abramowitz, a white-collar criminal defense attorney, was retained by Cuomo last year to represent him and his staffers in U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s investigation of the Moreland Commission.

This is the money they're willing to admit to spending by having the campaign pay for it (and thus having to disclose it via disclosure.)

Wouldn't be surprised if they didn't find a creative way to funnel money to Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason & Anello PC from some other entity too.

Cuomo wants everybody to think that there's nothing to see here in the Moreland tampering thing, he's done everything above board and nothing is going to happen to him in the case.

That may be for all I know, but cutting $100,000 to a criminal defense firm on December 29 for work done in the federal probe of the Moreland Commission sure does leave a lot of questions circling around.

The biggest one being, is Cuomo going to face some serious legal troubles down the road?

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.

Cuomo Proud To Be A Micromanager

Cuomo on CBS this morning for his book tour:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo in an interview with Charlie Rose copped to being a micromanaging chief executive, but didn’t apologize for his management style.

“Well, you micromanage, you should delegate more,” Cuomo said in the interview when summing up the criticism he’s received.

Added Rose: “And you’re not transparent, you should be more transparent.”

“You push too hard,” Cuomo said. “You microamange.”

Rose asked Cuomo if he pleads “guilty or not guilty” to those claims.

“You can’t have one without the other,” Cuomo said. “I plead guilty.”

...

“I’m not sitting on a beach in the south of France saying, ‘Go ahead, guys, you run it. Good luck. I’m a delegator,’” Cuomo said in the interview.

But Cuomo insists it’s a strength, and it’s a style that comes in contrast to his immediate predecessors, including George Pataki and David Paterson, who were criticized for being disengaged.

“That’s who I am,” Cuomo said. “That’s what I told the people of this state.”

Cuomo's micromanaged the Moreland Commission, his fracking commission, his Common Core commission, his Smart Schools panel.

But the one thing he never micromanages is his campaign:

Gov. Cuomo passed Thursday morning on saying whether he'll debate Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout before the Sept. 9 Democratic primary.

The hands-on Cuomo said he's leaving the decision to the campaign.

"I'd leave that to the campaigns to work out, whatever they decide," said Cuomo during a soggy appearance at the state Fair opening in Syracuse.

When pressed what that means, he repeated: "I'll leave it to the campaigns to work out if there should be debates, who should participate. That's a campaign tactic that I will leave to the campaigns."

Cuomo's not just a micromanager.

As his rhetoric around the debates with both Zephyr Teachout and Rob Astorino show, he's also a liar and a hypocrite.

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.