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Jul 25, 2007 4:16 pm US/Eastern
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Bruno Wants Spitzer Questioned For Role In Scandal
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (CBS/AP) ―
After two days of apologies, prosecutor-turned-Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Wednesday criticized as "purely partisan" a call for more investigation into his administration's misuse of state police against a political opponent.
The target of the tracking by state police, Republican Senate leader Joseph Bruno, insisted the public needs to know if Spitzer was involved in the plot that has resulted in one top aide suspended and another about to be reassigned.
"I believe for the first time in the history of this state, an executive—the governor's office—has seen fit to abuse the power of that office to spy and track and attempt to really destroy what apparently the governor's office considers a political rival," Bruno told reporters Wednesday. Bruno felt there was an "apparent conspiracy to misuse State resources in an effort to damage [him] politically."
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's report released Monday concluded that Spitzer Communications Director Darren Dopp and William Howard, assistant deputy for public safety, compiled and created records with the direct involvement of the acting superintendent of state police to show Bruno used state aircraft on days he attended Republican fundraisers in New York City. Dopp and Howard planned to release the records to the media, the report concluded.
In the investigation, Secretary to the Governor Rich Baum and Dopp refused to be interviewed by attorney general's office investigators, who did not have subpoena power to compel testimony. Baum and Dopp submitted brief written statements, but didn't mention Spitzer. Howard was interviewed.
Baum and Dopp both served as senior advisers to Spitzer during his two terms as attorney general where the Democrat earned the nickname "The Sheriff of Wall Street" for forcing reforms of conflicts of interest in the financial and insurance industries.
"If there are cover-ups, the public has a right to know what has been covered up," Bruno said. The Senate Committee on Investigations has begun a review and could investigate, using subpoenas that could be issued to the governor, Bruno said.
Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson said Bruno's suggestion that more investigation is needed is "unfounded and serves only to distract state government from the people's business that must move forward."
"Two independent investigatory entities—the state Attorney General's Office and the State Inspector General's Office—just completed comprehensive reviews of the allegation that Senator Bruno had been 'surveilled,"' Anderson said. "Both investigations concluded that no 'surveillance' or criminal or civil illegal conduct had occurred."
"Any new Senate hearings on this same issue would be a complete waste of state taxpayer dollars for purely partisan and political purposes," she said. She also said the Senate has no authority to investigate the governor's office under the state constitution; Senate Republicans say they do.
Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver also made his first comments on the case and said he wouldn't support any joint legislative investigation.
"The attorney general has determined that laws were not broken so any further investigation would be political in nature and would be a distraction from the Legislature dealing with many issues important to New Yorkers," said Silver spokesman Dan Weiller.
Spitzer has said he was never asked to be interviewed or provide e-mails to the investigations. But if he had been, he would have nothing to add because he didn't know of the political scheme.
Two top Spitzer aides who refused to be interviewed in Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's probe of the scandal insisted they were responding to unidentified reporters' inquiries, but acknowledge they should have gone through other channels to avoid "the appearance of impropriety," according to a sworn statement.
"I understand that Darren Dopp was working with the press on a story about the alleged misuse of state aircraft by Senator Bruno," Baum stated in a sworn statement to investigators.
"I did not direct the state police to conduct any surveillance of Senator Bruno, and did not direct anyone else to do so," Baum stated. "I did not direct the State Police to change their standard operating procedures relating to travel record keeping in any way, and did not direct anyone else to do so."
The statement doesn't say when Baum knew of the plan or what, if any, role he played in it.
Calls seeking comment from Dopp, Baum and Howard were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Dopp said he was acting on the spoken requests of unidentified reporters. Cuomo's report makes a point to say the plan to compile and release Bruno's flight records began a month before a written Freedom of Information request was submitted by a reporter in late June.
"I sought information that the public had a right to know," Dopp stated. "Although I never directed the state police to conduct a 'surveillance' program on Senator Bruno, I did receive from William Howard information relating to Senator Bruno's travels generated by the state police.
"I now recognize that any requests for State Police records relating to those travels should have been handled through other channels, and I regret any appearance of impropriety that was created," Dopp said in the statement.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)