When Cuomo created the Moreland Commission:With Albany rocked by a seemingly endless barrage of scandals and arrests, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo set up a high-powered commission last summer to root out corruption in state politics. It was barely two months old when its investigators, hunting for violations of campaign-finance laws, issued a subpoena to a media-buying firm that had placed millions of dollars’ worth of advertisements for the New York State Democratic Party.
The investigators did not realize that the firm, Buying Time, also counted Mr. Cuomo among its clients, having bought the airtime for his campaign when he ran for governor in 2010.
Word that the subpoena had been served quickly reached Mr. Cuomo’s most senior aide, Lawrence S. Schwartz. He called one of the commission’s three co-chairs, William J. Fitzpatrick, the district attorney in Syracuse.
“This is wrong,” Mr. Schwartz said, according to Mr. Fitzpatrick, whose account was corroborated by three other people told about the call at the time. He said the firm worked for the governor, and issued a simple directive:
“Pull it back.”
The subpoena was swiftly withdrawn. The panel’s chief investigator explained why in an email to the two other co-chairs later that afternoon.
“They apparently produced ads for the governor,” she wrote.
The pulled-back subpoena was the most flagrant example of how the commission, established with great ceremony by Mr. Cuomo in July 2013, was hobbled almost from the outset by demands from the governor’s office.
...
The commission developed a list of promising targets, including a lawmaker suspected of using campaign funds to support a girlfriend in another state and pay tanning-salon bills. The panel also highlighted activities that it saw as politically odious but perfectly legal, like exploiting a loophole to bundle enormous campaign contributions.
But a three-month examination by The New York Times found that the governor’s office deeply compromised the panel’s work, objecting whenever the commission focused on groups with ties to Mr. Cuomo or on issues that might reflect poorly on him.
Ultimately, Mr. Cuomo abruptly disbanded the commission halfway through what he had indicated would be an 18-month life. And now, as the Democratic governor seeks a second term in November, federal prosecutors are investigating the roles of Mr. Cuomo and his aides in the panel’s shutdown and are pursuing its unfinished business.
That Fitzpatrick guy is such a kidder!On July 2, 2013, Mr. Cuomo took a seat at a long table in the stately Red Room adjoining his private office on the second floor of the Capitol building. With him were Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and district attorneys from across the state.
Mr. Cuomo said the rash of scandals had shaken the public’s confidence, and he announced he was creating a formidable new commission, investing it with subpoena power and giving it until the end of 2014 to crack down on public corruption as never before.
It was called a Moreland Commission, after a 1907 law that governors had long used to create panels to investigate wrongdoing and recommend legislative improvements.
...
The members included prosecutors, professors and lawyers, some with close ties to Mr. Cuomo. Yet Mr. Fitzpatrick, seated to Mr. Cuomo’s left, said the commission could proceed freely, even if the governor’s own fund-raising came under scrutiny.
“He’s not looking for rubber stamps,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said. “He’s looking for an independent commission, and we’ll do what Deep Throat told Bob Woodward to do: Follow the money.”
Although it enthusiastically endorsed Cuomo in his first campaign for Governor, New York Times snubs Andrew Cuomo with non-endorsement
