No Wonder Andrew Cuomo Is Purging Emails

Pro Publica and the Times Union report:

Previously undisclosed emails sent by a mortgage industry lobbyist doubling as a consultant for then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo show the lobbyist played a self-described "critical role" in one of Cuomo's signature financial investigations.

The emails from 2007 and 2008 detail how the lobbyist, longtime Cuomo confidant Howard Glaser, was involved in an investigation of mortgage industry players that included Glaser's own clients.

In one email, Glaser touted his influence over a Cuomo deal that weakened rules to prevent misdeeds in the mortgage market. That deal, with mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reflected Glaser's "significant, critical and current input," he wrote in an email, "a fact to which current (Fannie and Freddie) employees and the NYAG's office are prepared to attest." Fannie and Freddie were both Glaser's clients.

The emails contradict Glaser's previous account of his involvement in Cuomo's investigations.

ProPublica and the Times Union reported last year that Glaser had worked simultaneously as a consultant for the attorney general's office and for a bevy of mortgage industry firms. Glaser said at the time that he only gave general advice to Cuomo's office, that he did not represent clients with the attorney general, and that he was "not involved" in specific mortgage industry cases.

The emails, however, suggest Glaser was involved in mortgage industry cases, and traveled to Cuomo's office repeatedly over the course of nearly two years while the investigations related to Glaser's clients unfolded.

"Oy. I Spent the last 48 hrs at the NY AG's office and am glad to give you an off the record briefing and my observations," Glaser wrote in a Nov. 7, 2007, email to the federal regulator of Fannie and Freddie. The same day, Cuomo announced subpoenas of the two mortgage giants as part of an investigation into widespread conflicts of interest in the appraisal process.

"These emails on their face indicate a serious conflict of interest, a conflict that could very well have influenced enforcement actions by Cuomo, much to the benefit of Glaser's clients," said Craig Holman of the government watchdog group Public Citizen.

... 

Glaser's years-old emails also show the importance of email preservation at a time when the Cuomo administration is under fire for instituting a policy that purges emails after 90 days unless they're actively retained. If the emails had been sent to or from Cuomo's current office or a state agency under the new policy, they likely would have been lost.

No wonder Cuomo wants to delete all those pesky emails after 90 days.

Then he doesn't have to worry about stuff like this surfacing in the newspapers or media.

Andrew Cuomo - The Dirtiest Man In The Albany Cesspool Of Corruption

So many Cuomo stories today.

First, the games he's playing with the Tappan Zee Bridge plan.

Then the story of how Cuomo, along with Chris Christie, used Christie's Bridgegate cronies to play games when they wanted to hike the Port Authority bridge/tunnel tolls.

And now this one, as has been all over the Internet today:

In early 2007, when he was state attorney general, Andrew Cuomo brought on a longtime confidant as a consultant on mortgage industry investigations, a move that has gone undisclosed until now.
The friend was Howard Glaser, and he had another job at the same time: consultant and lobbyist for the very industry Cuomo was investigating.

Glaser, who went on to become a top state official in Cuomo's gubernatorial administration, was operating a lucrative consulting firm, the Glaser Group, with a host of mortgage industry clients.
Later that year, Glaser provided insights on Cuomo's investigations to industry players on a conference call hosted by an investment bank.

Cuomo's office ended up giving immunity to one of Glaser's clients a year into his term as attorney general.

Experts say the mortgage investigations Cuomo touted as "wide-ranging" came to little, even as he held one of the country's most powerful prosecutorial positions through the financial crisis and its aftermath.

... 

Before becoming a lobbyist for the mortgage industry, Glaser worked in the late 1990s under Cuomo at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he was known as Cuomo's "right-hand man'' and "hammer."

Glaser declined to release a list of his clients from the period he worked for the attorney general. A 2008 bio said his clients included "mortgage insurance companies, real estate and housing trade associations, mortgage bankers, and investment research companies."
Glaser's dual role when Cuomo was attorney general "poses a serious conflict of interest," said Craig Holman of Public Citizen.

At least two of Cuomo's early investigations involved firms that Glaser acknowledged to ProPublica were his clients. The client that was granted immunity in return for cooperation was the mortgage due diligence firm Clayton Holdings.

Gee, no wonder so many of the bad actors in the mortgage mess of '08 got away without prosecution.

Cuomo's right hand man, his "hammer," was working for both them and Cuomo, the attorney general investigating them.

I have written numerous times how Albany may be a cesspool of corruption, but nobody in that city - NOBODY - is dirtier than one Andrew M. Cuomo.

Could that be any clearer than from this Glaser story?