Saturday, May 3, 2014

Governor Cuomo's Complicity In Christie Bridgegate Scandal Gets Some Scrutiny

Cuomo already has to worry about Preet Bharara's nosing around in his Moreland Commission wreckage and now there's this:

It hasn’t been a great few weeks for New York governor Andrew Cuomo. He got in a public spat with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara for closing down an anti-corruption commission, his budget was roundly criticized by many in his own party, and a new poll shows him losing serious ground to his Republican opponent if he gets a challenge on the left.

But another unwelcome development for the governor flew mostly under the radar, and has national implications. While the George Washington bridge scandal focused exclusively on the role of New Jersey governor Chris Christie, the bridge is controlled by a joint New York-New Jersey bi-state authority – and last week Cuomo’s hand-picked Executive Director of the Port Authority, Patrick Foye, was issued a subpoena by the New Jersey legislative committee investigating the flap.

Investigators believe there are omissions in the carefully crafted timeline put forth by the Cuomo Administration about what they knew about the lane closures, and how they responded. ”Lots of questions need to be asked to fill in the blanks,” the committee’s Co-Chair John Wisniewski told Salon.

In a worst-case scenario, Cuomo’s version of events could come under great scrutiny and cause a number of new political and legal headaches. In a best-case scenario, he can no longer simply wave off questions about the issue as merely a New Jersey problem – and his office’s communications may now be exposed to investigators.


Read the whole piece by NY1 reporter Zack Fink over at Salon.

It's long but illuminating.

It becomes pretty clear by the end of the piece that

A) Cuomo knows more about the scandal than he is letting on
B) He's hiding when he learned about the closures and what he did after he learned about them
C) His Port Authority guy, Patrick Foye, is covering for him

Cuomo and Christie colluded to raise bridge/tunnel tolls and the PATH fare and as the Salon piece makes clear, they are on friendly terms, have met for dinner, and may have colluded on more than just the Port Authority fare and toll hikes.

It's time to find out if Cuomo helped Christie from his end in any way in this GWB scandal.

Here's hoping the NJ legislative committee looks to find out and whets the appetite of a US attorney in either New York or New Jersey to look more into Cuomo's complicity in the GWB mess.

7 comments:

  1. Let's hope Cuomo and Christie drown politically. They are cut from the same cloth. They love charters and hate the commoners. They have never seen a tax cut for the wealthy they did not like.

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    1. Cuomo's involved somehow - nothing happens at the Port Authority like this without his being aware much much earlier than he claims he was aware of it.

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  2. Michael FiorilloMay 3, 2014 at 1:28 PM

    Let's hope the Fat Man takes the Reptilian down with him...

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  3. Man, that would be something, wouldn't it?

    Cuomo is shifty, but if he gets scrutiny here, it may lead to something. Depends on whether NJ legislators want to dig or not.

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  4. When did Cuomo first find out about the GWB mess?

    Did Cuomo conceal wrongdoing by the Port Auothority of NY and NJ?

    .......just the tip of the iceberg ------

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    Replies
    1. That's right - here's hoping the NJ legislative committee probes it and either Preet or the US attorney in NJ picks it up and investigates more.

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    ReplyDelete