We're covering this story since it looks like it closes the door on a clear ethics violation that occurred within New York's official public watchdog, the hapless Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), which recently punted on recommending a new criminal investigation of the Cuomo administration in a vote that fell short largely because Governor Cuomo's appointees to the commission voted together to block it.
- Ethics commissioners seek reopening of Cuomo leak probe
-
Here's an excerpt describing the impetus for reopening the investigation:
Three state ethics commissioners want an investigation reopened into who illegally leaked confidential, highly sensitive information to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
In a recent Times Union story, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie acknowledged receiving a berating from Cuomo shortly after a Joint Commission on Public Ethics meeting on Jan. 29, 2019. The governor was apparently irate about how Heastie's commissioners had voted in a confidential proceeding that day on whether to investigate the possible misuse of government resources of a former top Cuomo aide, Joseph Percoco.
Following that phone call between Cuomo and Heastie, Heastie called JCOPE Commissioner Jim Yates, a former Heastie counsel who was appointed to JCOPE by Heastie in 2017. The phone call between Heastie and Yates concerned Cuomo's JCOPE-related berating, Heastie confirmed.
And last week, Yates publicly stated for the first time that Cuomo had complained about Yates’ vote following the meeting.
It's a misdemeanor to leak information about JCOPE's confidential deliberations. Yates reported the leak to the state inspector general’s office, as did another Heastie appointee to JCOPE, Julie Garcia, who learned about Cuomo's irritation with her vote after Heastie's top counsel, Howard Vargas, called her the same day.
Now, three Senate Republican appointees to JCOPE, Gary Lavine, David McNamara and George Weissman, say they want the state inspector general’s office to reopen its investigation into the leak – especially since the deputy inspector general who led the initial 2019 investigation, Spencer Freedman, has departed for a position at the State University of New York.
“The speaker’s acknowledgement that the leak actually occurred is incontrovertible evidence that there was a cover-up by the office of the inspector general,” the JCOPE commissioners said. “Now, with the departure of Spencer Freedman from the office of inspector general, the office should immediately reopen an investigation into the leak and conduct a thorough inquiry. The failure of the inspector general to reopen the investigation will simply be a cover-up of a cover-up.”
As you'll see in the next story, their request was quickly shot down by Governor Cuomo's appointed inspected general, Letizia Tagliafierro, with the rejection communicated by a spokesperson:
- Inspector General declines call to reopen Cuomo leak case
-
Here's the main excerpt:
Despite recent statements appearing to confirm that information was illegally leaked to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the state inspector general’s office is declining a request by commissioners on a state ethics panel to reopen an investigation into the matter.
During an initial nine-month investigation in 2019, the inspector general’s office failed to interview key witnesses, including Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, before declaring that allegations of an illegal leak could not be substantiated.
On Tuesday, three Republican-appointed commissioners to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics called for the inspector general’s office to reopen its investigation. Their demand came after Heastie acknowledged to the Times Union that following a confidential JCOPE vote in January 2019, the governor had called him and complained about how Heastie’s appointees to the panel had just voted in a closed-door meeting. The vote concerned whether the panel would investigate Joseph Percoco, a former top Cuomo aide.
“The speaker’s acknowledgement that the leak actually occurred is incontrovertible evidence that there was a cover-up by the office of the inspector general,” the three Republican-appointed JCOPE commissioners said in a Tuesday statement.
But Lee Park, a spokesman for the inspector general’s office, said on Wednesday that the office “will not be bullied or badgered by partisans regarding how it performs its statutorily mandated duties. The office stands by this investigation.”
In his statement, Park suggested that witnesses outside JCOPE itself did not need to be interviewed, since potential criminal liability “pertained specifically to JCOPE officials and whether they illegally disclosed confidential information — regardless of where such information may have ended up. The only legal liability lies with JCOPE officials and no one else.”
The article continues to describe a detailed example of when the inspector general's office previously interviewed withnesses outside JCOPE, directly contradicting the spokesperson's claims. We think the difference now appears to come down to Governor Cuomo's apparently pervasive influence over his appointed officials and also other officials on the committee who expect to benefit from his remaining in office.
