Quid Pro Cuomo's Fundraising Track Record: Collect Cash, Dish Out Favors, Contracts And Legislation

Bill Mahoney at Politico NY anticipates Governor Cuomo's release of his last six months of fundraising with an analysis of last year's haul:

POLITICO New York examined each of the 454 checks Cuomo collected in last year’s July filing period. More than 90 percent of his money, or $4.5 million of the $5 million he raised, came from advocates for legislation or donors with business directly before the state.

This includes $268,250 from registered lobbyists and the firms for which they work. Clients for these lobbyists accounted for an additional $2 million, and companies that were identified as recipients of executive branch contracts by the comptroller’s Open Book New York site gave $393,500. The rest of the money primarily came from appointees to various state posts, companies that received contracts from authorities or individuals who were the principal funders of lobbying campaigns.

Mahoney shows how Cuomo collected the money at roughly the same time he was doling out favors, contracts or legislation in return.

For example:

The Cleveland-based NRP group was one of two companies involved in an affordable housing development in Corning. On May 12, the governor announced a $4.7 million state grant for the development. On May 13, the developer gave $25,000 to the governor. (In Cuomo’s first term, that company loaned the governor a private jet for campaign purposes and it received $3.3 million to construct housing in Ballston). 

Or this:

New York State Homes and Community Renewal joined MacQuestern Development to break ground on a Mount Vernon project on March 27; the company and its executives gave Cuomo $30,000 over the succeeding five days and an additional $30,000 in July.

Or this:

An executive at Triangle Equities, to whom the Cuomo administration proposed giving $16.5 million in subsidies for work in Staten Island, gave $25,000. And as the Times Union previously reported, Steven Aaron — whose LLCs gave the governor $25,000 during this six-month stretch and much more in prior years — received millions from the Division of Housing and Community Renewal for work in Schoharie after Cuomo-appointed commissioner Darryl Towns “bypassed competing projects that had higher recommendations from his staff.” 

There's a lot more - read the whole piece.

Some of the contributions Mahoney details are ones we've heard about before - like the $250K Cuomo took from multiple LLC's linked to a Kiryas Joel developer at the same time he was vetoing legislation the developer wanted vetoed or the education reformer/hedge fundie money he was taking at the same time he was pushing through "reforms" to the system.

The governor says he is not swayed by any of these donations in the least.

But the message here is pretty clear here.

If you want the governor to do something for you, pay him. 

NY Times Details Glenwood Management's Largesse And Access To Governor Cuomo

A fascinating piece in the NY Times this morning that you should read in total.  

In it we learn Glenwood Management owner Leonard Litwin - Governor Cuomo's largest and most generous campaign donor - was an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of Dean Skelos and his son, Adam.

We also learn that Glenwood had expectations about all that money they gave (which they saw as the "cost of doing business") and boy did those donations ever pay dividends.

Here's the opening of the piece (by William Rashbaum):

The recent federal trials that ended in the quick convictions of Sheldon Silver and Dean G. Skelos laid bare a world of greed, flagrant corruption and abuse of power in Albany, with evidence showing payoffs taking a deceptively circular route from business interests to the elected officials whose help they sought.

But one man who was a key player in both cases — and identified by the government as a co-conspirator at the trial of Mr. Skelos, the former Republican majority leader of the State Senate, and his son, Adam — never appeared in the courtroom.

That man was Leonard Litwin, the 101-year-old owner of Glenwood Management, an influential developer of luxury high-rise apartment buildings in Manhattan that is among the state’s most prodigious political donors. Prosecutors named Mr. Litwin as a co-conspirator during a sidebar conference with the judge and defense lawyers that went largely unnoticed.

In addition to its role at the heart of the government’s case against the Skeloses, both of whom were convicted of bribery, extortion and conspiracy this month, Glenwood also figured prominently in the federal corruption trial of Sheldon Silver, the Democratic assemblyman and former speaker who was convicted of extortion, wire fraud and money laundering 11 days earlier.

The name of Mr. Litwin was just one example of the way the two corruption trials revealed how entwined the interests of Glenwood and other developers are with the business of the state. 

Testimony, documents, emails and other evidence provided the most detailed look to date at the ways in which Glenwood and others deftly worked the levers of power to marshal tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions through a maze of limited-liability companies, trade associations and political groups, with Senator Skelos himself soliciting and directing the money at times.

Prosecutors had a 54 page printout of Glenwood donations to Albany political players over the last 10 years through 26 different entities.

Number #1 on the list of recipients?

The biggest beneficiary of Glenwood’s giving: Mr. Cuomo, who, in the last election cycle, received more than $1 million from limited liability companies, or LLCs, connected to the company.

More:

When it came to the governor, Glenwood was considered such a reliable contributor that his fund-raisers suggested to the developer that it spread what would become a multiyear million-dollar donation “into biannual installments,” according to documents uncovered by investigators from the Moreland Commission, an anticorruption panel that Mr. Cuomo created in 2013, but abruptly disbanded nine months later.

Glenwood also funneled money to Mr. Cuomo indirectly: On a single day in 2011, 10 of the company’s LLCs combined to give a total of $500,000 to the Committee to Save New York, a group of business interests that spent $16 million to support Mr. Cuomo’s agenda during his first two years in office.

And what did Glenwood get in return from the governor for all that cash?

Plenty:

The contributions seemed to pay dividends for Glenwood and the real estate industry as a whole in the form of a seat at the table — sometimes quite literally.

With a law that governed rent regulations set to expire in 2011, Mr. Dorego testified that he and other real estate executives were called to two meetings with state leaders in June, one at the governor’s office in New York City and one at his office in Albany.

At the meeting in Albany, Mr. Dorego testified, he and other executives met first with Mr. Cuomo in the governor’s office. And then they were summoned by Mr. Skelos, who sought to reassure them. Everything, Mr. Skelos said, “seemed to be falling in line.”

Glenwood bagman Charlie Dorego explained more of the benefits Glenwood reaped from the politicos they donated to - especially the "three men in a room," Silver, Skelos and Cuomo:

Mr. Dorego told the jury the company reaped an estimated $50 million to $100 million in savings over an unspecified period from one state program alone, a real estate tax-abatement law called 421-a. The State Legislature must renew the law periodically through a process essentially controlled by the two legislative leaders and the governor.

Mr. Dorego testified that the law’s continued renewal was an “absolute necessity” for Glenwood. Without it, he said, the cost of city real estate taxes — the largest component of a luxury high-rise’s operating budget — would make building such towers unfeasible, in part because lenders would not finance them.

For that reason, Mr. Dorego told the jury, keeping the State Senate in the control of Republicans — who, in his words, “were more business-oriented and had more of an interest in making sure business thrived in the city” — was “the No. 1 priority” for Glenwood’s political strategy and “Mr. Litwin’s No. 1 concern.”

Glenwood also benefited from another state-administered program, using it to obtain more than $1 billion in low-interest, tax-exempt bond financing since 2000, to buy land and construct eight buildings it has put up since 2001, according to testimony at Mr. Silver’s trial. Each application to the program, under which a developer must set aside 20 percent of a new building’s units for low-income housing, must be approved by an obscure state agency, the Public Authorities Control Board.

The three-member board is made up of the governor and the two legislative leaders, or their designees. All applications require unanimous approval, giving each member a potential veto as well as, prosecutors suggested, power and leverage.

Glenwood also depended on the governor and the legislative leaders to renew favorable rent regulations that determine when a developer or landlord can shift rent-stabilized apartments to market-rate rentals.

Okay, let's recap:

Governor Cuomo's largest donor, Leonard Litwin, was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Skelos case.

Litwin's firm, Glenwood, reaped at least $50 million in tax savings from one state program (421a tax abatement) and maybe as much as $100 million, got $1 billion in low interest, tax-exempt bond financing to build 8 towers since 2001 that had to be approved by a board made up of three men - either the heads of the two legislative houses and the governor or their "designees," - and lots of other help in renewing "favorable rent regulations" for shifting rent-stabilized apartments to market-rate rentals.

In return for all that help and largesse they gave $10 million in campaign contributions since 2005, with over $1 million going to Governor Cuomo just last election cycle.

Governor Cuomo's allies at the shadowy Committee To Save NY PAC that spent millions touting his "pro-business" agenda early in his first term also enjoyed Glenwood largesse, receiving half a million in contributions through ten different entities one day in 2011.

Let's consider the five men tied most closely to all of this:

One was Shelly Silver, convicted on seven corruption counts.

Another was Dean Skelos, convicted on eight corruption counts.

A third was Glenwood bagman Charlies Dorego, who received a non-prosecution agreement for working with prosecutors against Silver and Skelos.

A fourth was Leonard Litwin, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Skelos case.

And the fifth was Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, so far unindicted but seemingly not uninvestigated.

Where did this Times story come from?

It's got the feel of someone beginning to lay the public groundwork for an eventual takedown of Cuomo.

If Preet's "Stay Tuned..." tweet during Governor Cuomo's Buffalo Billion Mach II presser was the First Day of Preetmas (signaling there is more to come - especially around Cuomo's other economic development program, the Buffalo Billion Project, which is under investigation by federal prosecutors for what looks to be bids rigged for Cuomo donors), this interesting little story here has the feel of the Second Day of Preetmas, detailing as it does Glenwood's generosity and largesse in return for political benefits.

There's an awful lot of Litwin money that ended up in Cuomo's coffers, either directly or to Cuomo allies like CSNY (or other allies, which Bill Mahoney of Politico NY reported on back in August).

Glenwood got an awful lot of access for all that dough and certainly the governor looked to hide that access, "forgetting" that he had meetings with real estate executives, including Glenwood execs, in his offices in both NYC and Albany in 2011 when rent regulations were set to expire.

2011 was the year his Committee To Save NY friends got $500,000 in one day through 10 different LLC's to help tout Cuomo's message, btw.

The smoke swirling around Cuomo and his campaign donors is starting to get awfully heavy, isn't it?

And this is just the Glenwood stuff.

Don't forget, there's more - the feds subpoenaed Cuomo donors and state entities connected to his Buffalo Billion Project for funkiness around the bidding process (and donations that ended up in Cuomo's coffers right around the same time as the bidding process was going on.)

If Preet Bharara was able to take down Shelly Silver for quid pro quo corruption without ever proving an explicit quid pro quo agreement, it's not out of the realm of possibility that he's going to look to take down Governor Andrew M Cuomo for quid pro quo agreements around campaign donations and political benefits reaped by donors in return without anyone ever expressly admitting to an explicit quid pro quo.

Again, whether this all ends with criminal charges against Cuomo, well, that's hard to say.

But these stories about Cuomo and his donors (i.e., the Glenwood/Cuomo connection and the Buffalo Billion/Cuomo connection) aren't coming out of the ether.

Preet leaks as a way to set the stage for eventual criminal charges. 

He did it with Silver (leaking news of a federal investigation into the speaker one month before the criminal charges were filed in January), and he did it with Skelos (leaking first in January, then again in May right before the criminal charges were levied against Skelos.)

Just something to think about when you see these stories about Cuomo and his donors.

Cuomo Gives $15 Million Subsidy To News Corporation After Receiving Book Deal Worth Up To $700,000

The Cuomo corruption continues apace:

New York’s state government has committed millions of dollars in taxpayer support to News Corporation for a real estate deal -- less than three years after a subsidiary of that company gave New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo a book deal worth up to $700,000. The commitment was disclosed in documents released by the Port Authority -- an agency jointly controlled by Cuomo and New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

The documents say the Port Authority, News Corporation and 21st Century Fox “have received commitments from New York State” for a “one-time payment of $15 million in 2016 and the utilization of a $15 million” state tax credit as part of the agency’s push to make the companies “anchor tenants” for 2 World Trade Center. The documents say the transactions are part of an initiative to reduce News Corporation’s and 21st Century Fox’s rent payments at the new building by $155 million.

...

This is not the first time the Cuomo administration has moved to help News Corporation. IBT reported that before Cuomo was given the lucrative book deal, he signed tax legislation in 2011 that News Corporation lobbied on and that was expected to help one of its online publications. And in 2012, while News Corporation lobbied Cuomo’s office, he backed an expansion of controversial film and television tax credits that have benefited News Corporation’s films.

Cuomo’s office did not respond to IBT’s questions about the 2 World Trade Center transaction or the book deal, instead referring inquiries to the Port Authority. Amid a sprawling federal probe of corruption in Albany, the New York governor recently denounced lawmakers for accepting personal payments that might raise questions about conflicts of interest.

You know the story's a problem when Cuomo's flying attack monkeys don't respond to requests for comment with some snark .

In this one, they let Cuomo's man at the PA, Patrick Foye, defend the deal.

There may be nothing illegal about this deal and the PA deal says that News Corporation will have to pay back the subsidy by 2021 but IBT reports it will still cost taxpayers $9 million bucks.

There has been no indication that the feds are looking at the Rupert Murdoch/Andrew Cuomo connection or the book deal Cuomo got in which he received somewhere near $700,000 for writing a book that sold very few copies.

But this still feels like just another example of Cuomo playing the system and the residents of New York for suckers.

Skelos Trial: Cuomo Administration Gave Job To Donor's Son After Campaign Donation

This isn't "new" news, as Newsday reported it back in the spring, but it is interesting to see it surface in the Dean and Adam Skelos trials:

Skelos: Bonomo on cross admits his son got a job at NIFA shotly after he gave $50K to Cuomo.

— John Riley (@jriley8832) December 4, 2015

Back in June, Yancey Roy at Newsday reported this:

ALBANY - The son of Anthony Bonomo, a prominent insurer linked to the federal investigation of Sen. Dean Skelos and who until days ago led the New York Racing Association, began working for the Cuomo administration last year, state records show.

Anthony Bonomo Jr. started in 2014 as an executive assistant for the Office of Storm Recovery, which was launched by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to help residents rebuild after superstorm Sandy and other recent hurricanes. Bonomo, who handles constituent services on Long Island, was hired for the $55,000-per-year job in May 2014, a spokeswoman said.

"Anthony is a hard worker and a smart young man who has done terrific work for the Office of Storm Recovery," said Barbara Broncaccio, agency spokeswoman.

Bonomo's father runs Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, a Roslyn-based medical malpractice carrier that holds about 25 percent of the market, according to reports. The Manhasset resident also is a significant campaign contributor and racehorse owner who, until Tuesday, chaired the New York Racing Association, which operates Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga tracks.

Federal prosecutors have alleged that Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), the former state Senate leader, tried to "monetize" his political power by getting payments and a job for his son, Adam, from a developer, an environmental firm and a malpractice insurer. Among other things, prosecutors alleged that the senator arranged a $100,000 per year "no show" job with a medical malpractice insurer. Skelos and his son have pleaded not guilty.

Though Physicians Reciprocal wasn't named in the indictment, a company spokesman said it has been contacted in the probe and has been cooperating with investigators. It has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Newsday previously reported that state lawmakers tucked into this year's state budget an extension of an exemption that helps malpractice insurers such as Physicians Reciprocal.

In July, Zack Fink gave much context to the "Bonomo Connection":

Anthony Bonomo, described by one insider as “just one of those guys everyone in state government knows,” is believed by many to be cooperating with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s case against former State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his son Adam. The Skelos’ pleaded ‘not guilty’ yesterday to a superseding indictment unveiled last week that contains two new charges. Specifically, that Adam Skelos threatened his supervisor who confronted him about not showing up to work. The arrangement seemed to be that Adam got a no-show job in exchange for the elder Skelos steering state money the firm’s way. That firm ( although not named ) is believed to be Physicians Reciprocal Insurers’ or PRI, owned and operated by one Anthony Bonomo.

What is less known is just how extensive Bonomo’s ties are to state government. According to Competitive Advantage Research, Bonomo, his associates and affiliates are responsible for 126 filings over the last 15 years. The campaign contributions spread across party lines and totaling $2,719,240.93. That’s a lot of dough. Jon Reznick of Competitive Advantage explains the breakdown:

“The individual Anthony Bonomo, his friends and relations including his spouse and likely his children as well as professional associates and the businesses he operates are themselves substantial donors accounting for $2.7 million just that I’ve found in the last 15 years.”

In addition, Bonomo has hired big time lobbyists including former Senator Al D’Amato, Founder and Managing Director of Park Strategies. According to Reznick’s analysis, Bonomo and associates have spent $1,550,500 since 2007.

According to the latest indictment, Adam Skelos threatened his boss with physical violence after being challenged about his failure to show up for work. Someone then called Dean Skelos ( sitting Senate Majority Leader at the time ) to try and explain the problem and work something out. At least one GOP source believes the only person who could have made that phone call was D’Amato, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

So, here is the timeline from which you can draw your own conclusions: In March, Bonomo gives a $50,000 contribution to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s campaign committee. A few days later, Cuomo appoints Bonomo the head of the New York Racing Association or NYRA ( a job that people close to the Administration insist he was qualified for, since he was very knowledgeable of horses and racing. Fair enough ). About a month later, Skelos and his son are slapped with federal corruption charges. And in early June, just four days before the Belmont Stakes – one of the biggest days in racing – Bonomo steps down from his position at NYRA, and presumably starts cooperating with the Feds against Dean and Adam. A month after that the new indictment drops with two new charges including personal details about Adam’s behavior. This signaled to some that federal investigators were likely getting information from Bonomo which helped build the second set of charges.

Now a question a reasonable observer might have is, how is it different when Dean Skelos presses Bonomo and PRI for a job for his son in return for favorable legislation to keep the company afloat and the Cuomo administration hires Anthony Bonomo's son for a $55K a year state job after dad gives $50,000 to Cuomo's campaign coffers?

Bonomo's got a non-prosecution agreement with the feds for the Skelos case, so he faces no charges for being part of the alleged quid pro quo.

US Attorney for the Southern District Preet Bharara was in the courtroom yesterday when Bonomo admitted on cross examination that his son got a state job after he gave Cuomo $50K, so clearly the feds are aware of that little doozy.

Now whether they choose to follow up on it, that's a whole other matter.

But it's just one more example in a long line of examples of Andrew Cuomo's donors getting preferential treatment from the state before and/or after giving campaign money to Cuomo or to entities linked to Cuomo (like the State Democratic Party or the Committee To Save New York, the shadowy PAC that pushed Cuomo's agenda early in his governorship but was shut down after the law changed and required PAC's like CSNY to reveal their donors.)

The impression a reasonable observer would get is, well, I think Steve McLaughlin put it best:

Nah....Cuomo's not for sale or anything.... that's just crazy talk.... https://t.co/RxTs5uTvIK

— Steve McLaughlin (@SteveMcNY) December 4, 2015

Those Skelos Wiretaps Are Going To Be Fun To Hear

Grab some popcorn and enjoy the show:

Prosecutors in the corruption case against State Senator Dean G. Skelos and his son want to play wiretaps that offer new details about how they say the son sought to leverage his father’s influence to his own benefit, according to a government court filing on Friday.

Among the wiretaps, excerpts from which were contained in the filing, is a conversation in which the senator and his son, Adam, talk about getting the son’s wife a job on a Long Island zoning board and discussing the salary and health benefits the position would bring to the couple.

“The purpose of the appointment was to make sure that Adam Skelos received additional income and health benefits, and that Adam Skelos would be able to corruptly use his wife’s position with respect to his real estate deals,” prosecutors said in their filing.

The recordings also include “colorful language” the two men used in speaking about other politicians, the defense said in a separate filing, arguing that they should not be played to the jury.

...

The prosecutors hope to present the court-ordered wiretaps to the jury to bolster their charges that the two men conspired in an extortion and fraud scheme, utilizing the senator’s office to reap hundreds of thousands of dollars for his son.

Prosecutors said in the filing that Senator Skelos “repeatedly pressured the entities from which he and Adam Skelos solicited money” around the time that “the same entities were lobbying Dean Skelos to take legislative actions in the entities’ favor, and Dean Skelos then took numerous official actions in favor of the entities that agreed to pay his son.”

In the newly disclosed wiretapped conversation in which the prosecutors contend Adam Skelos invoked his father’s office, he berates a man who represents Greek restaurants, to whom he was trying to sell energy services. “Adam Skelos made clear that buying energy services from Adam Skelos included a quid pro quo for Dean Skelos’s official power,” the government said.

Apparently enraged because the man had not met with him, Adam Skelos peppered him with expletives and eventually said, “you can lose my number, though, okay?” according to a transcript of the call.

More on the Skelos wiretap transcripts:

Adam Skelos on his cell phone number: "It's a privilege to have that number." pic.twitter.com/SP4vXUAGxa

— Susanne Craig (@susannecraig) October 23, 2015

Given what has been revealed on the wiretaps so far, you have to think that Skelos and son are going to go away for a long, long time.

These are damning transcripts - and these are just what has been revealed through the court filings.

There's more there - enough that the Skelos lawyers are trying to keep them from the jury.

This is going to be a fun, fun trial.

On a side note, Attorney General Schneiderman said yesterday there are more corruption probes that have yet to be publicly revealed.

Add that news to the ongoing Buffalo Billion Project investigation by Bharara (which gets some discussion in Buffalo at an Investigative Post event on Monday 10/26) and the coming Silver and Skelos trials in November and we're going to have a full slate of corruption news for some time to come.

Let's List The Quid Pro Cuomo Deals (UPDATED - 12:05 PM)

Let's see, how many examples of Quid Pro Cuomo deals do we have in the public record?

The IBTimes reported Cuomo took $132,000 in campaign donations from JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup and gave them $3 billion in bond business in return.

The IBTimes reported Cuomo received at least $700,000 in compensation from News Corporation for his memoir, All Things Possible, "after Cuomo’s administration backed a series of state initiatives that benefited the media giant."

All Things Possible has sold slightly more than 3,000 copies.

Hacked Sony emails showed "Cuomo’s campaign pressing Sony to deliver $50,000 worth of donations before a July 15, 2014 campaign filing deadline as he ramped up his re-election campaign last summer."

Film industry executives have donated $900,000 to Cuomo since 2011 while the film industry receives $421 million a year in tax breaks from New York State.

Cuomo's quid pro quo relationship with the real estate industry was revealed last summer in the NY Times' Moreland Commission expose:

The Real Estate Board of New York’s power and influence over state government is, as a well-known Democratic operative put it, “about as new as hieroglyphics.” Albany politicians often transition into lucrative real estate careers, and Governor Andrew Cuomo is a tuxedo-clad fixture at REBNY’s annual gala. But an investigative story in the New York Times yesterday laid out the extent of the industry’s influence with Cuomo in the most explicit manner yet. The industry’s initial response to the story, however, suggests that it is unlikely to impact how REBNY does business.

The Times’ three-month investigation chronicles the tempestuous saga of the short-lived Moreland Commission, which was formed by Cuomo last July to crack down on public corruption. It details how Cuomo sought to block a subpoena that the commission intended to send to REBNY in order to investigate, among other things, the organization’s political donations, its materials related to the controversial 421-a abatement used by New York developers including Extell Development and Silverstein Properties, and its communications with public officials.

In the newspaper’s story, REBNY president Steven Spinola seems to make a direct connection between the financial support and the industry-favorable policy to which it gives rise.

In a memo to REBNY members seen by the newspaper, Spinola said that based on private meetings with Cuomo, the Senate majority leader [Dean Skelos or Jeffrey Klein] and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, he had come to a clear conclusion: REBNY’s “past efforts to maintain a personal and supportive relationship was critical in shaping the outcome” of legislation. “Our future ability to adopt favorable legislation, stop terrible legislation or modify legislation to limit the pain to our industry is directly tied to our continued positive relationship,” Spinola continued in the memo.

Cuomo's largest donor, Glenwood Management, is at the center of both the Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos corruption cases.

Cuomo received $1.5 million from Glenwood during the last campaign cycle.

Cuomo said he would continue to take money from Glenwood because they have done nothing wrong and besides, he's never met with anybody from Glenwood to discuss anything related to real estate.

Except that he has - at least three times.

Here's Gothamist:

It's been two days since Governor Cuomo told reporters that he has "never" talked about rent regulations with real estate company Glenwood Management—one of the state's largest political donors, best known these days for allegedly passing favors under the table to both Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Today, however, Capital reports that Cuomo appears to be suffering from selective memory loss: According to the Governor's public schedule, he actually met with Glenwood three times back in 2011 to discuss, you guessed it, "rent regulations."

In one of those meetings, the only people in the room were the governor, Glenwood President Leonard Litwin, and Senior VP Charles Dorego, the guy who just signed a non-prosecution agreement with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and consequently has Albany lawmakers shaking in their loafers.

New York City's rent regulation law is set to expire June 15th, along with 421-a, a '70s-era tax subsidy that favors large developers like Glenwood. For the past few months, housing advocates have been pushing for stronger rent regulation laws, and the abolishment of 421-a. Cuomo has spoken out in favor of renewing both.

It's worth noting that Cuomo received a combined $1.5 million in donations from Glenwood and Litwin, in his last election cycle. Just this week, an indictment against Skelos accused the Senate majority leader of supporting developer-friendly rent control legislation, in exchange for Glenwood paying his son, Adam, for doing very little.

And in January, Silver was accused of sending Glenwood business to law firm Goldberg & Iryami, P.C. in exchange for referral fees. Of Albany's notorious three men in a room, Cuomo is the last one standing.

As if all this doesn't look bad enough, Capital notes that Cuomo's Glenwood meetings took place in the leadup to June 2011, the last time rent control laws and 421-a were up for renewal. 

David Sirota from IBTimes with a little more on Cuomo and Glenwood:

Neither Cuomo's office nor Glenwood Management responded to International Business Times' request for comment about the governor's relationship with Litwin. But documents reviewed by IBTimes illustrate Cuomo’s role in the developer's state business.

The Cuomo-run New York State Housing Finance Agency, for instance, approved a $260 million state-supported low-interest loan in 2014 to finance Glenwood’s new luxury apartment building in midtown Manhattan. At the time the loan to Glenwood was approved, the NYHFA was headed by Cuomo appointee Bill Mulrow, an executive and registered lobbyist at Blackstone, a private equity and real estate firm. Mulrow was just appointed to be the governor’s chief of staff. According to NYHFA documents, Glenwood also has had other business with the agency.

And then there was the "ethics" deal Cuomo got out of former Assembly Speaker Silver and soon-to-be-former Senate Majority Leader Skelos in return for shutting down the Moreland Commission that was investigating Albany corruption and had uncovered some dirt on both Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos.

That ethics deal was so lukewarm that the NY Times reported not much had really changed afterward. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutors were investigating "whether New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo or his staff directed an anticorruption commission to not refer cases to district attorneys for prosecution, according to people familiar with the matter."

In addition, the WSJ reported that prosecutors

are investigating whether the Cuomo administration interfered in the commission's work, and why the commission was disbanded.

Finally, prosecutors have indicated they want to know whether the governor's office pressured several commissioners to issue statements in recent weeks disputing the notion the administration had interfered in its investigations, these people said.

This is the stuff that's in the public record.

I'm sure there's a lot more that we don't know about, but given the Cuomo's administration's official policy to delete emails after 90 days, a lot of that may never be revealed.

Unless US Attorney Preet Bharara has wiretaps on people in Albany.

Oh, wait - he does.

And maybe if US Attorney Preet Bharara has some bad players cooperating with the feds against Albany politicians.

Oh, wait - he does.

I dunno if the feds are actually going after Cuomo for all this corruption, but there sure is a lot of smoke around Cuomo and his merry minions.

Seems to me if the feds look at Cuomo as closely as they looked at Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos, they'll find plenty to take him for an early morning police car ride downtown.

Will Federal Prosecutors Investigate Andrew Cuomo's News Corporation Book Deal?

Fred LeBrun in the Times-Union:

A book deal with HarperCollins over his selective memoirs called "All Things Possible," published last fall, has for months been sold to the public by the governor himself as a straightforward, ethical arrangement with which no reasonable individual could possibly find fault or even question.

True, a lot of money is involved, the better part of a million bucks, and very few books have been sold — around 3,000. Equally true, the contract has not been made public, so we are kept in the dark about its terms — a Cuomo administration specialty.

But it's apparent Andrew Cuomo has made himself an extraordinary arrangement under which he gets to keep some $800,000 when all the installments are paid out, presumably whether another book is sold or not.

What a splendid contract. Almost too good to be true.

And the best part for the governor is the money doesn't go to charity, or back into the state's general fund, or even his campaign fund. It goes right into his pocket.

LeBrun points to the David Sirota report that the Cuomo administration was lobbied both before and after Sheriff Andy was given the book contract by the owner of HarperCollins, News Corporation, and News Corp received tens of millions in tax breaks as a result of that lobbying as reason why a skeptical public and press might want to know the details of Cuomo's book contract.

But Cuomo says oh pshaw:

The INT connected a large number of dots that on paper at least show the appearance of a huge potential conflict, and at the least cast an ugly light on that gobsmacking great book deal of the governor's. When he was asked about the INT revelations, Cuomo dismissed any hint of impropriety. He said: "I have no idea that they lobbied for it. I don't even know what it is, by the way."

That doesn't sit well with LeBrun who says Cuomo needs to reveal the details of the book contract:

So we are to take the governor's word for it. A governor who is almost the definition of a micromanager is telling us he's not aware of multiple lobbying efforts on a number fronts by one of the leading media conglomerates in the world going back to his days as New York's attorney general.

Maybe so. But we should be told a lot more, not less, about this wonderful book deal.

Such as: the contract. Let's see it. The governor claims he got a waiver from his Joint Commission on Public Ethics to publish and market the book. Well, let's see that too. Let's see what restrictions were placed on him, it any, and which commissioners signed off on it. Let's find out from HarperCollins how many of these sweetheart contracts are out there, how unusual this is.

Let's find out who approached whom. Did the governor's agent approach HarperCollins, or vice versa? Under oath would be nice, but how likely is that? Or, for that matter, how likely is it that any state agency or investigative agent will scrutinize the book deal of the century?

They all live in terror of the Dark Prince. Oh, where art thou, Preet?

So far, Cuomo refuses to reveal the details of the book contract publicly.

It's long past time this matter receive some scrutiny.

Will it?

It would seem only the feds can handle this matter.

Will they?

Cuomo: I Can't Be Held Responsible For News Corp Quid Pro Quo Because I'm Ignorant

No, seriously, that's his excuse:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he knew nothing about a bill he signed -- a bill that News Corp. lobbied on before the company gave Cuomo a lucrative book contract. Cuomo was asked about the bill at an Albany press conference Wednesday after International Business Times reported that he backed initiatives helping News Corp. 

Questioned about the legislation he signed in September 2011, Cuomo declared: “I have no idea that [News Corp.] lobbied for it. I have no idea what it is, by the way.” 

The bill in question exempted online pay-walled publications from state sales taxes. State documents show News Corp. was one of only two firms to lobby on the bill. At the time, the Rupert Murdoch-led media company was making multimillion-dollar investments in the Daily -- a publication that would benefit from the special tax exemption. 

Prior to the IBTimes report, Cuomo challenged reporters to show how his book contract accepting cash from News Corp. presented a conflict with state business that he oversees. IBTimes documented state records showing News Corp. lobbying Cuomo’s office. Those records list the company lobbying on everything from tax policy to education policy to state contracts.

Caught red-handed taking dough from a company that directly lobbied his administration, Cuomo claims ignorance as an excuse.

Let us imagine how Attorney General Cuomo would react to such an excuse were he investigating a matter like this and the target said "Geez, I can't be held responsible because I didn't know..."

To make matters worse around this, Cuomo STILL refuses to release the contract he signed with News Corporation for his book deal - a book that has sold less 3,000 copies.

He is expected to be paid someone between $700,000 and $880,000 for the book and has already received $188,000 for it.

If he receives $700,000 for the book and it sells less 3,000 copies, News Corporation will be paying Cuomo more than $233 a book.

Considering the book lists at $30, that's an awful lot of dough Rupert Murdoch's paying Cuomo.

I bet he's happy he got some tax breaks and other deals from Cuomo on the side in addition to the memoir Cuomo wrote.

Cuomo Administration Caught Keeping Moreland Meddler On State Payroll

On Twitter, Cuomo Watch and I were just talking about Larry Schwartz, Governor Cuomo's former secretary (i.e., chief of staff), who has been accused of meddling in the Moreland Commission and had at least one visit with the feds over the matter:

@probacutor @CuomoWatch Anybody hire Larry Schwartz?
— realitybasededucator (@perdidostschool) February 22, 2015

.@perdidostschool @probacutor Fantastic question. Larry Schwartz has been VERY quiet since Preet Bharara depositions. pic.twitter.com/NwkkZO0ear
— Cuomo Watch (@CuomoWatch) February 22, 2015

Schwartz allegedly left Cuomo's employ in January for a "private sector job," but no public announcement was ever made about what that job is.

Today we learn from Fred Dicker at the NY Post why there was no public announcement - it's because Schwartz is still on the payroll:

Gov. Cuomo’s former chief of staff, Lawrence Schwartz — who is under scrutiny in Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara’s explosive public-corruption probe and supposedly off the state payroll — is, in fact, still being paid an astronomical sum, The Post has learned.

Cuomo officially announced Schwartz was leaving state employment on Jan. 11, saying his top aide “departs the administration for the private sector’’ and was being replaced in his $181,560-a-year post — $2,560 more than the governor is paid and one of the highest salaries in state government — by investment banker William Mulrow.

Yet Friday, 40 days after the Cuomo announcement and with Mulrow serving as chief-of-staff, Schwartz was still on the state payroll at the same large salary, according to official records checked on Friday.

Schwartz is listed as serving in the never-before-seen title of “Dir of the NY Off’’ of the governor, according to the records.

While the records show that Schwartz did, in fact, give up the job of secretary to Mulrow effective Feb. 2, they reveal that he was transferred to the new title on the same day — with no announcement by the governor.

Schwartz didn’t respond to e-mail and telephone requests for comment.

A spokesman for Cuomo said Schwartz was “transitioning out of his role and has been on accrued vacation and personal time, which is standard.’’

But a state employment official called the arrangement “highly unusual’’ and noted that Schwartz’s new job title “was one I’ve never seen before.’’

Several Cuomo-administration sources said Schwartz, who was known as Cuomo’s tough-talking and often crude “enforcer,’’ had planned to leave for a private-sector job, possibly in the real-estate industry, but had been unable to finalize an employment agreement because of Bharara’s ongoing investigation.

“People are nervous about hiring Larry because they see him as ‘radioactive’ over the Bharara investigation,’’ said one source.

Another source said Cuomo, who has hired a prominent white-collar criminal lawyer to advise him on the Bharara probe, may be keeping Schwartz on the state payroll in “order to help Larry out at a time when Larry could possibly do the governor a whole lot of damage.’’

Why is Schwartz still on the payroll?  Why did they create a special title for him?  What's he doing in return for his salary?  And why wasn't Cuomo upfront about this when the announcement was made that Schwartz was leaving his secretary position?

Dicker may have the answer here:

Two sources said there had been recent tension between Cuomo and Schwartz over the ongoing probe.

Keeping Schwartz secretly on the payroll for $181,000+ a year and creating some jive title for him in order to do it certainly smacks of a "You take care of us, We'll take care of you" kind of thing.

Might even call this a Quid Pro Quo arrangement.

I wonder what the feds think about this arrangement?

What Were Christie And Cuomo Colluding Over?

Two items of interest regarding Governor Andrew Cuomo and his social calendar.

First, this:

Even the governor of New York can overstay his welcome at his own holiday party.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo secured a free holiday soiree for his staff donated by posh Upper West Side American bistro Ouest and its chef-owner Tom Valenti on Dec. 18. But after a few hours of food and free-flowing booze at an open bar, Cuomo’s staff didn’t want to leave.

A witness told us: “Cuomo staffers, including the governor, himself, and his girlfriend Sandra Lee, overstayed their welcome. They were seen being politely, but firmly, guided out of the door by restaurant workers around 8 p.m.”

The gov showed up at the beginning of the shindig at 5:30 p.m. in a festive mood. “He was very friendly, relaxed and approachable,” Valenti told us. “He mingled with everyone. When he arrived at the restaurant, he beelined to the kitchen and asked, ‘Do I need to taste test anything?’ ” Cuomo also made a toast with a speech thanking his staff.

Cuomo’s guests chowed down on foods such as New York state cheeses, chilled shrimp, charcuterie and goat cheese mousse with pickled beets. They washed down the finger foods with unlimited New York state wines.

With the drinks flowing, our witness said by 8 p.m., the restaurant crew was ushering merry Cuomo staffers, including the governor himself, out of the door.

Don't be sad for Governor Cuomo, though - there's always a home for him over in New Jersey:

Gov. Chris Christie dined with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New Jersey on Tuesday, officials confirmed.

The two governors met privately for lunch at Il Villaggio in Carlstadt, Christie spokeswoman Maria Comella said. However, Christie’s office wouldn’t say how long the lunch lasted or the purpose of the get-together.

...

Comella confirmed the pair dined privately today, but declined to provide additional comment.
...

A spokesperson for Cuomo’s office didn’t immediately respond to comment about today’s lunch.

Were they coordinating their Bridgegate cover story?

Colluding on toll hikes and PATH fare increases?

Going over talking points for their next joint presser?

Hatching plans to retaliate against Rob Astorino for having the audacity to run against Sheriff Andy?

Who knows what they were meeting about, but you can be sure whatever it was, it was sneaky and underhanded.

Hope Cuomo picked up the check.

Clearly he didn't pay a dime for his staff's "soiree."

Cuomo Signed NYSUT Leadership Pension Giveaway At Same Time Evaluation Deal Was In Works

When I first learned about Governor Cuomo signing the NYSUT leadership double pension giveaway, I figured there was some quid pro quo going on between the governor and the union leadership to get him to sign off on it.

Tonight we learn from Jessica Bakeman that there was indeed a quid pro quo:

ALBANY—Under a law approved in the final days of this year's legislative session, New York State United Teachers' elected officers will, for the first time, be able to simultaneously accrue time toward their state and private union pensions.

The law, signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo last month, allows NYSUT officers to accrue time toward their pensions through the state Teacher Retirement System while serving as union leaders. More specifically, it lets school districts offer paid leaves of absence to teachers who vacate their classroom positions to work for the union, while NYSUT reimburses the district for the officers' salaries and benefits.

After NYSUT officers serve for five years, they become vested in the union's private pension system, spokesman Carl Korn said. Therefore, officers could eventually be earning time toward both—a benefit former NYSUT president Richard Iannuzzi said is inappropriate.

...

The Legislature considered the bill at the same time Cuomo and lawmakers were negotiating changes to the state's teacher-evaluation system. The bill was introduced in early June, when Cuomo's office was engaged in closed-door negotiations with NYSUT over changes to the rating system. The Assembly passed the pension bill on June 19, the same day Cuomo announced he had reached a deal with the union, and the Senate passed it the next day.

Rather than fight the APPR teacher evaluation system, NYSUT leaders agreed to a lame change to APPR, then got Cuomo to sign off on their double pensions.

Last week I said here's another case for Preet Bharara to look into.

Now after it's revealed the pension giveaway came at the same time as the evaluation deal was getting done, I'll double down on that:

Bharara needs to look into the Cuomo/NYSUT double pension deal.

Why Would Michael Mulgrew Get So Violent In His Support Of Common Core?

As has been around on the blogs for awhile and surfaced in the Daily News this past week, UFT President Michael Mulgrew told AFT Convention attendees he will "punch in the face" and "push into the dirt" anyone who takes Common Core from him:



Some people have asked why Mulgrew was so animated in his speech in support of Common Core and so violent in his language describing what he would like to do to anyone who opposes Common Core.

We can't get into Mulgrew's brain and find out exactly what brought about the violent imagery in that speech, but we do know that Mulgrew and his family have stood to gain from support for education reforms in the past.

For example, the NY Post reported the following in April of 2013:

The sister of teachers-union president Michael Mulgrew is under investigation for failing to disclose she managed a company that raked in $39.6 million in public-school contracts while she was on an 11-year child-care leave from her city teaching job, The Post has learned.

Kathleen Mulgrew-Daretany, 40, was an English teacher at Lafayette HS in Brooklyn for less than five years with a $56,707 salary. She left in 2001 on maternity and child-care leave, but was allowed to remain on the Department of Education employment rolls.

She finally resigned in 2012, but the DOE rehired her this year as a $75,828-a-year “program officer.”

During her leave, Mulgrew-Daretany worked as chief operating officer for Brienza’s Academic Advantage, a Brooklyn-based company that sells teacher-training seminars and student tutoring. She is listed as COO in a Brienza’s organizational chart filed with the DOE. She left “last year,” a company official said.

DOE payments to Brienza’s rose from $5,109 in 2002 to $10.9 million in 2012, when the city received No Child Left Behind funds for after-school tutoring, officials said.

City employees are barred from holding second jobs with companies that do business with the city unless they get approval from their agency head and a waiver from the Conflict of Interest Board.

“She was required to request a conflict-of-interest clearance, but she did not seek one,’’ said DOE spokeswoman Connie Pankratz. She said Mulgrew-Daretany’s work for the vendor “was not disclosed to us.”

Pankratz said the DOE discovered the “potential conflict of interest” only after The Post asked about Mulgrew-Daretany’s work history last week. It has referred the matter to Schools Investigator Richard Condon and the conflict board, she said.

Mulgrew-Daretany, who lives in Staten Island like her union-leader brother, hung up when reached by The Post on Friday.

The possible violation came to light the same week Mike Mulgrew won a second full term as president of the United Federation of Teachers, a post he has held since 2009. Union members re-elected him with 84 percent of the vote.

The DOE grants employees child-care leaves up to the August after a kid’s fourth birthday. Mulgrew-Daretany extended her leave because she gave birth again.

She did not collect a salary or benefits during the leave. “It’s an entitlement,” Pankratz said. “You’re guaranteed that your job will still be there when you return.”

Mulgrew-Daretany’s new DOE job, which she started in January, is funded by a grant to study how schools help students prepare for college and careers, officials said.

How she got a higher-paying management position after an 11-year absence was not explained. The DOE could not say Friday whether she listed Brienza’s on her résumé.

Betsy Combier, a paralegal and blogger, said she wasn’t surprised at Mulgrew-Daretany’s cushy deal. “At the DOE, it’s not what you know, but who you know,” she said.

 The NY Post followed that April 2013 report up with this story in December 2013:

The sister of teachers-union President Michael Mulgrew was wrist-slapped Monday for operating a booming tutoring company that was awarded $40 million in work from the city while she was employed as a public-school teacher.

The overlapping gigs got Kathleen Mulgrew-Daretany a warning letter from the city Conflicts of Interest Board, after it determined that her work for Brienza’s Academic Advantage violated city conflict-of-interest rules.

While Mulgrew-Daretany was technically on an extended unpaid maternity leave from 2001 through 2012, she was still barred as a city employee from working at a firm that conducts business with the city.

Mulgrew-Daretany served as COO of the firm from 2008 to 2012, at which point she resigned from her teaching gig.

She then left Brienza’s in 2012, but the city Department of Education rehired her. She is currently an “associate education officer” with a $75,825 salary, officials said.

Officials launched a probe following inquiries by The Post about Mulgrew-Daretany’s employment.

Brienza, which also trains teachers, has raked in nearly $40 million from its work for the Department of Education since 2002.

A message left for Mulgrew-Daretany, who formerly taught at Lafayette HS in Brooklyn, wasn’t returned Monday. A UFT spokesman declined to comment.

I wrote the following on December 24, 2013 after Mulgrew's sister was slapped on the wrist for the conflict of interest:

Just how did a company that barely had any business with the city start to rake in millions of dollars after UFT President Mike Mulgrew's sister became it's COO while she was on leave from her teaching position with the DOE?

At the same time Mulgrew's sister's company is raking in the bucks, the UFT is caving left and right on teacher evaluations tied to test scores, Danielson, Common Core and all those other swell education reforms that have been used as bludgeons against teachers and schools.

Sure, maybe these two things are just coincidental, the UFT cave-in's would have happened without the Mulgrew-Daretany company raking in millions in DOE contracts.

But surely were you or I to become a COO of some tutoring company start-up, we would not rake in $40 million over our first ten years in the business.

The whole thing stinks and is just another example of how our political and union elites are nothing more than WWE wrestlers, putting on a show for us in the public ("Them's Fighting words!") while behind the scenes it's all one big pig trough of corruption and cronyism. 

Mulgrew's sister isn't the only member of the Mulgrew Family to get a pass from the DOE - Mulgrew also got one:

A lawsuit filed by a disgruntled teacher claims the powerful head of New York City's teachers union was caught having sex with a teacher in a high school wood shop. 

Andrew Ostrowsky says the United Federation of Teachers covered up the scandal to protect Mike Mulgrew, who became president in 2009, and that the union traded key concessions with New York schools officials in order to keep the alleged misconduct quiet. 

The lawsuit further claims that the teacher allegedly having sex with Mr Mulgrew, Emma Camacho-Mendez, was rewarded with a cushy union job paying her $22,000 a year, in addition to her $85,000 teaching salary.

The New York Post reports that former teachers at William E Grady High School in Brooklyn had also heard the rumors about Mr Mulgrew's tryst on a drafting table with Ms Camacho-Mendez in 2005. 

According to the lawsuit, a janitor discovered the pair having sex. New York school officials used that knowledge to 'extort' concessions from the union in exchange for the the city's silence on the matter.

In April 2013 I wrote the following about the Grady woodshed story:

Now this is the sort of tabloid story that, if Mulgrew were an ordinary teacher at, say James Madison High School, and this showed up in the papers, he would have been immediately pulled from the classroom, placed in a rubber room and maybe even fired.

Just another example of how there are two codes of justice - one for the elites and one for the rest of us.

Michael Mulgrew received the elite, kid glove treatment while the two teachers from James Madison High School received the treatment the rest of us get:

Guilty as charged unless you can prove your innocence.

I don't know if there's a connection between Mulgrew's hostility toward CCSS critics and opponents and the special treatment he and his sister received at the hands of the DOE over the Grady woodshed allegations and the conflict of interest problems.

But Mulgrew's hostility toward CCSS critics and opponents, the violent imagery he uses to describe what he wants to do to them, is disconcerting at best, disturbing at worst.

It's like he has something to lose personally if the AFT's support of Common Core goes away.

The Grady woodshed allegations and the conflict of interest issues his sister had are two examples of how Mulgrew and his family may have potentially profited from or been helped by their
support of education reform in the past - they reek of quid pro quo deals between Mulgrew and the DOE.

His violent support of Common Core has the same kind of reek around it.

And remember, the Grady woodshed allegations and the conflicts of interest in the Mulgrew Family are just two example that we know of - want to bet there are more under the cover of darkness?

Did Cuomo Break The Law By Tampering With The Moreland Commission?

The answer is, maybe:

Cuomo's camp contends his office had the right to guide the panel under the language of the 1907 Moreland Act, which allows the governor to investigate any executive branch agency or related entity. While past governors have used the statute to examine the inner workings of government and specific industries, it does not give the governor power to directly investigate the Legislature.

But Cuomo's public corruption panel, created a year ago and scrapped in March in exchange for a reduced package of ethics reforms tucked into this year's state budget deal, was special: By allowing Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to give the lawyers who served as commissioners the powers of deputy attorneys general, Cuomo argued that he had created a body that could look into the scandal-scarred Legislature.

It's a tactic that legal scholars and others contend effectively stripped the executive branch of its lawful ability to steer the panel.

"This entity was never a Moreland Commission — it was a hybrid," Richard Brodsky, a former assemblyman and senior fellow at the public policy organization Demos. "Part of it was a Moreland Commission; part of it was an attorney general investigation. ... These folks had a legal obligation to make independent judgments and not do what they were told."

...

Former Republican Attorney General Dennis Vacco said it was "improper" for Schwartz to get involved in the commission's activities, and believes Schneiderman should have played a more involved role.

"It appeared to me at the time (the panel was announced) that Schneiderman was a partner in this and had appointments on it in order for them to have the clout of a prosecutor," Vacco said Wednesday. "... Because these were his deputies, Schneiderman had a greater responsibility to the investigations than just a passive appointee to the Moreland Commission. He had an obligation to effectively manage them and their investigations. ... If they were being thwarted, he had an obligation to speak up."

Will Cuomo or his aides face criminal charges for tampering?

Even considering the hybrid nature of this Moreland panel, Albany Law School professor Vincent Bonventre said Cuomo and his aides likely won't face legal repercussions for simply trying to steer its work.

"Politics is a lot about giving and taking and compromising and making deals," Bonventre said. "If we're talking just about that, there's no criminal conduct. If on the other hand what the evidence shows is that a politician made a deal to cover up evidence of political corruption that is criminality, then you'd have sufficient evidence for an obstruction of justice charge and other kinds of charges having to do with political corruption."

So it seems that unless Bharara decides to investigate further why Cuomo and his aides put the kibbosh on subpoenas to entities tied to the governor and finds criminality there or if he finds a quid pro quo deal to cover up evidence of legislative criminality in return for, say, an on-time budget, the very act of putting the kibbosh on the subpoenas doesn't necessarily put Cuomo or his aides in legal jeopardy.

That doesn't mean he's not hurt by the scandal already.

From now on, any time he tries to talk about integrity, people are going to laugh at him.

From now on, any time he tries to create another "independent commission" on anything (and remember, he loves commissions), people are going to laugh at him.

From now on, any time he talks about being the most transparent governor in the history of New York, people are going to laugh at him.

And this scandal diminishes whatever chances he had at making a White House run - in fact, even if Bharara decides not to pick up the investigative trail that Moreland couldn't, it's no bet some in the national press won't if Cuomo decides to run for president.

That's where I think things stand right now.

Of course that all changes if Bharara is not only following up on the leads Moreland found on the legislature, but also the ones they couldn't follow on the executive or he finds evidence of a quid pro quo deal between Cuomo and some member of the legislature to cover up corruption in return for something in the budget that Cuomo wanted.

No matter what happens, we now have a governor with a publicly sullied reputation who had to cancel a personal appearance last night because he didn't have the courage to face the press and take questions on the Moreland scandal.

This does not bode well for Cuomo's re-election campaign or, if he wins, his second term as governor.

The Cuomo we saw in the first term, the swift operator who bullied his way over and through people to get his way on pretty much everything he wanted, is now gone.

Now we have a governor in hiding, loath to make personal appearances lest he be forced to face the press and have to go on record about his conduct in the Moreland mess.

Cuomo Takes $60,000 From Charter School Backer On Same Day He Spoke At Charter School Rally

Via State of the Politics, this shows up in the NY Times piece on how much Governor Cuomo has raised for his re-election campaign:

He also got $60,800 from Stanley Druckenmiller, a charter school backer and former hedge manager, on March 4, the day the governor spoke at a pro-charter rally in Albany. By the end of the month, he had pushed through a bill giving charter schools in New York City some of the strongest protections in the country.

The Cuomo camp was dismissive of any sense that the donation was associated with the governor’s advocacy. “It also rained that day,” said Peter E. Kauffmann, a spokesman for the Cuomo campaign. “Are they connected, too? Because one had nothing to do with the other.”

The Cuomo campaign can be as dismissive of this as they want - there is a trail of documentation on how much Quid Pro Cuomo has taken from the charter school industry and education reformers in general.

Here's Gotham Schools in January:

Backers of a top charter school network that Mayor Bill de Blasio has singled out in his plans to curb charter school growth are filling Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign chest.

Cuomo’s reelection bid has so far received  nearly $400,000 from a cadre of wealthy supporters of Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy Charter School network, according to an updated tally of newly-released campaign filings. Some money has even come from Moskowitz’s political action committee, Great Public Schools, which has given $65,000 to Cuomo since 2011.

A broader analysis of the filings shows just how much the charter school sector and its education policy allies have embraced Cuomo, a Democrat, during his first term as governor. It also shows how much support from the state’s powerful teachers union, a more traditional ally, has waned.

By one tally of the 2014 filings, Cuomo racked up at least $800,000 in donations from 27 bankers, real estate executives, business executives, philanthropists and advocacy groups who have flocked to charter schools and other education causes in recent years. 

The totals far exceed what the same group gave him for his first run in 2010: $136,000. The union, meanwhile, has donated one-quarter of the sum it gave Cuomo in 2010.

After having a close friend in City Hall for 12 years, the flood of contributions is a sign that charter school backers in New York City may have found a new powerful ally in government at a time when they need one badly.

And of course the seminal piece in the NY Times in 2010 that chronicled Cuomo's meeting wealthy, well-heeled members of the Democrats for Education Reform in order to raise cash:

When Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo wanted to meet certain members of the hedge fund crowd, seeking donors for his all-but-certain run for governor, what he heard was this: Talk to Joe.

That would be Joe Williams, executive director of a political action committee that advances what has become a favorite cause of many of the wealthy founders of New York hedge funds: charter schools.

Wall Street has always put its money where its interests and beliefs lie. But it is far less common that so many financial heavyweights would adopt a social cause like charter schools and advance it with a laserlike focus in the political realm.

Hedge fund executives are thus emerging as perhaps the first significant political counterweight to the powerful teachers unions, which strongly oppose expanding charter schools in their current form.

After hearing from Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Williams arranged an 8 a.m. meeting last month at the Regency Hotel, that favorite spot for power breakfasts, between Mr. Cuomo and supporters of his committee, Democrats for Education Reform, who include the founders of funds like Anchorage Capital Partners, with $8 billion under management; Greenlight Capital, with $6.8 billion; and Pershing Square Capital Management, with $5.5 billion.

Although the April 9 breakfast with Mr. Cuomo was not a formal fund-raiser, the hedge fund managers have been wielding their money to influence educational policy in Albany, particularly among Democrats, who control both the Senate and the Assembly but have historically been aligned with the teachers unions.

They have been contributing generously to lawmakers in hopes of creating a friendlier climate for charter schools. More immediately, they have raised a multimillion-dollar war chest to lobby this month for a bill to raise the maximum number of charter schools statewide to 460 from 200.

...

Mr. Cuomo also has expressed support for charter schools. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo declined to answer questions about the breakfast at the Regency, but Mr. Williams said it had gone well.

“We said we were looking for a leader on our particular issue,” he said, and as a result, when Mr. Cuomo is next required to disclose his contributors, “You will see a bunch of our people on the filing.”

Yes, it rained on the same day Cuomo got a $60,000 campaign donation and spoke at Eva Moskowitz's charter school rally.

It rained cash for Cuomo.

As it has throughout his tenure for governor, as it did even before he was elected.

Quid Pro Cuomo is squarely in the charter school/education reform camp and they have rained down cash on him in return.