Spitzer staffers misused State Police

Senior members of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's staff misused the State Police for political purposes, according to a report by the New York Attorney General's office:

ALBANY, July 23 — Gov. Eliot Spitzer indefinitely suspended his communications director and reassigned another top official today after Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s office issued a scathing report accusing the governor’s staff of using the State Police for political purposes.

The report was a devastating blow to a governor who had promised to bring a new dawn of ethical responsibility to state politics and validated growing outrage among state Republicans about Mr. Spitzer’s politicization of the governor’s office.

The report said that the governor’s staff ordered the State Police to keep special records of Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno’s whereabouts when he traveled with police escorts in New York City and to recreate records if they did not exist. The report said that the acting superintendent of police, Preston Felton, took an unprecedented role in assisting requests from the governor’s staff and the media for information related to the Senator’s whereabouts.

And the report concluded that there was an orchestrated campaign by the governor’s office to obtain and provide information to the news media, with the help of the State Police, to essentially discredit Mr. Bruno, the state’s top Republican.

The findings of the report were endorsed by Mr. Spitzer’s own Inspector General, Kristine Hamann. The attorney general’s report does not say any laws were broken by the governor’s staff.

The governor said he accepted the findings, saying his administration had “grossly mishandled” the situation. [NYT]

Truly disgraceful.

Spitzer claims to have played no part in this gross abuse of power. I would like to believe him, but I find his outright denials implausible.

Spitzer is an incredibly smart, vigilant, and well-connected individual. I can't believe that the governor's senior staffers could have undertaken such a project without his acquiescence. If Spitzer didn't know his administration was misusing the State Police and misrepresenting media freedom of information requests to monitor his main political rival, it was because he didn't want to know.

Update: According to the AG's report (available through the NYT link above), senior officials ordered the State Police to create records of Joe Bruno's travel where none existed. They falsely claimed that they were responding to media requests for this information under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).

Even if the administration had received a genuine FOIL request, they would not have been authorized to order the State Police to create records that didn't exist. The whole point of FOIL and FOIA laws is to make pre-existing records of the people's business available to citizens.

Retroactively creating records goes against the whole purpose freedom of information laws, which is to give the public access to the record as it existed, not a sham paper trail created after the fact.

It doesn't matter that the records generated after the fact are accurate, the government shouldn't be planting information in the public record for its own ends.

Comments

[Soullite]

I could care less. These people have done worse than this for decades. I actually LIVE in upstate NY. I know what it's like here, and you apparently don't. The republicans refuse to hire people for local and county government who aren't registered with their party. They have the police openly harass everyone darker than a paper bag, and anyone with the wrong bumper stickers on their car. They deserve what they get. I'm sick of idealistic and naive people who get in the way of progress. Let's be honest here, these people have told us for decades that you have nothing fear if you have nothing to hide. They should be made to live under that rule themselves. They will never understand why what they are doing is wrong unless they are made to suffer as they have made others suffer. They've had the police spying on us for years, they should have to know what that's like and maybe then it won't be a god damned joke to them.

To put it bluntly, they have it coming to them. Those of us who actually live here feel the same way, we're sick and tired of their party decided how everyone should live. We're sick and tired of their corruption polluting everything around us. This isn't corruption, not as far as I'm concerned. This is well deserved payback. It's Spitzer for President as far as I'm concerned.

[CatManDu]

I think I'm so educated and I'm so civilized 'cause I'm a strict vegetarian.
But with the over-population and inflation and starvation and the crazy politicians,
I don't feel safe in this world no more;
I don't want to die in a nuclear war;
I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an apeman.

/Ray Davies got it right.

[Chris O.]

"To put it bluntly, they have it coming to them."

With that attitude, nothing will ever get better. The Republicans will dig down deeper, and the Democrats will be pathetic facsimiles that might not vote to outlaw abortion. I don't follow politics because I want to see some pathetic tit for tat games amongst the ruling class.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Soullite, I just can't tolerate domestic spying or anything like it. Sure, Bruno has a lot coming to him, as I'm sure you know better than I.

Still, I feel horrible that someone I admire as much as Spitzer wouldn't be a) ethical and b) clever enough to catch a corrupt motherfucker like Bruno fair and square.

We all know how sleazy Albany is. Surely, there was a better way to get at the king himself. Spitzer and/or his advisors just chose to cut corners in a particularly egregious way.

[The Phantom]

Good post.

I wasn't surprised to learn of this abuse of power by Spitzer. He and his staff often abused their power when he was Attorney General. Because his targets were thought to be people or companies who had broken the law, no one felt any sympathy for them. Everyone wanted him to hit them harder, harder.

The ends justified the means-forget about due process.

I could care less about the rich who were victimized by this reign of terror, but there were a lot of small people, good people, who instantly were made unemployed and forever unemployable due to Spitzer's pressure on the company they worked for.

One of them was a 70 year old black woman who worked because she needed to. Soullite, think of her in your calculations if you would. She committed no crime--I would trust her with my life savings--but she was smacked to the curb by an AG running amock, who threatened corporations all afraid to be the next Arthur Anderson. They could not fight back, and did not. If a few $60,000 a year employees had to pay the price, well thats the cost of doing business.

Well, now Mr. Spitzer for the first time has to deal with people who can fight back.

Seven months into his governorship, and there won't be a single member of the NY Senate or Assembly who has any fear of him.

How will this play out?

Maybe Spitzer will learn respect for others for the first time in his life.

Or maybe he will taken from the Governor's Mansion in handcuffs. Don't laugh. This guy's Richard Nixon on steroids. He's a steamroller, baby.

[me]

Yes, this seems to be an abuse of power and should be investigated. But why do people automatically take it in bad faith? Mightn't he have been, in a ham fisted way, trying to find out if the Republican was corrupt in order to stop him from being corrupt? Sure, it'd help him in other ways, but was the motive really all that bad? How do you know? Again, why do you automatically assume bad faith? It's the distrust Republican stooges instil in their opponents' supporters that makes theirs' blind faith so powerful.

Oh, and "The Phantom"-- nice concern troll with unverifiable anecdote.

[The Phantom]

"me"

I really know what I'm talking about. And if someone who I deem credible --that would not be you-- wants to, I would be most happy to introduce them to this person, if she is willing to talk.

Abuse of power and abuse of process has been Spitzer's MO through his tenure as Attorney General. He never won a single case in a courtroom as I understand---it was all threats against individuals and their employers, with no recourse. Only the richest managers with the stomach to take on the resources of the state could fight back against such a "steamroller".

Expect many more revelations about Spitzer the AG as time goes by.

[David L]

Andrew Cuomo sings "I shot the sheriff[of Wall Street]. Cuomo wants to be governnor and is not above abusing power to get it. With this move, Cuomo both dings Spitzer's reputation and wins points with the republicans.

[mudkitty]

I, for one, had high hopes for this dude, and I am sorely disappointed.

*****

Phantom, you are loud, confident, and wrong. You do not know what you're talking about.

[SamChevre]

Abuse of power and abuse of process has been Spitzer's MO through his tenure as Attorney General.

Seconded. Ask anyone who worked int he insurance industry, which Spitzer shook down with amazing chutzpah.

[Randolph Fritz]

Looks like good old-fashioned brass-knuckled NY politics to me; it's hard to call foul when everyone's got the damn things.

[Dave]

Politics as usual in these United States, just check out Mitt and his phony badges:

http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=1012402

[voxpopuli]

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Probably getting so much play due to partisan effort. This goes on EVERYWHERE. It's real real real real bad in Florida. And definitely enhanced in Tampa.
Oh --- good one dane and excellent post. I'm going to closely follow how they garnered proof of this.

[voxpopuli]

Soullite, I just can't tolerate domestic spying or anything like it. Sure, Bruno has a lot coming to him, as I'm sure you know better than I.

Still, I feel horrible that someone I admire as much as Spitzer wouldn't be a) ethical and b) clever enough to catch a corrupt motherfucker like Bruno fair and square.

We all know how sleazy Albany is. Surely, there was a better way to get at the king himself. Spitzer and/or his advisors just chose to cut corners in a particularly egregious way.

AMEN!!! I think there's a maxim that covers this, eh??

It is B A D and a true sign of the police state that no one raised an objection.

[The Phantom]

--Phantom, you are loud, confident, and wrong. You do not know what you're talking about--

Wrong on what point of fact?

--

oh, and as respects the --allow me to say more on the "unverifiable anecdote"

The woman concerned is about 70 years old. She's a black woman, I believe from Virginia or North Carolina. She's kind and dignified, as one might expect a black grandmother from the small town South to be. Not rich, she worked because she needed the money. I believe the husband had retired early due to illness.

Spitzer's goons put a great deal of heat on her employer, a financial services company in lower Manhattan. Some heads would have to roll.

No one in the senior management of the company paid any personal price for the misdeeds that supposedly took place.

This woman, and I think she alone ( in the NYC branch anyway ) paid the price.

She was called in to the office and told that she was being terminated. She asked why. They would not say. She was terminated immediately. The severance package was zero. She was escorted to the door.

This being a very small industry, word spread like wildfire that she had been fired, that it had something to do with the Spitzer investigations. This made her unemployable for any good job. Some companies were afraid that she "must have been guilty". All were afraid of retaliation from Spitzer's office.

All this being said, years later, no one has still told her what she did wrong. She's never been charged with a thing. Her career and her business reputation were destroyed in the blink of an eye, and no one said what she did wrong.

I know this woman in excess of ten years. She's kind, gentle, and very honest.

Spitzer took on a lot of bad people when he was the Attorney General, and he directly and indirectly harmed a lot of innocent people too.

This woman had no recourse. What was she going to do, call the Attorney General?

I give you my word that I believe all of this to be true, and have every reason to believe that all or nearly all of it is indeed true.

Lindsay, if you have interest in speaking to this person, you know how to reach me--I'll call her and see if she wants to speak.

There's a lot about Spitzer that I do admire--his brains, his work ethic, and his willingness to tackle the big targets. But there's a personal ruthlessness there that I find despicable.

More will come to light. The Bruno incident is totally in character with the actions of a very bad human being.

[Thom]

Phantom, the more you say, the less it looks like Spitzer has any culpability for this lady's troubles, except insofar as he wasn't aggressive enough in his indictments. It sounds like the company is the one who fired her to avoid an investigation--and being investigated is not a violation of due process.

She's kind and dignified, as one might expect a black grandmother from the small town South to be.

Only if one were to form one's opinions of people by relying on tired stereotypes.

[Dock Miles]

I doubt this eminent, unimpeachable victim-person exists at all except as a way to make phantom the subject of the thread rather than Spitzer. The phantom deals in fantasy-trip posts. Dump-and-ignore city.

This is a crummy, hobnailed-boots moment for Spitzer, and not the first in his career. That said, he's playing in a tough arena and it's early in his term. Lessee how he reacts.

[The Phantom]

Thom

There was an investigation of the company. A large fine was paid.

It's not a "tired stereotype". First, "stereotype" is itself a tired word.

Second, there are archetypes, some varying along regional or ethnic lines, that are easily noticed by someone who observes closely. Do pay attention.

Dock

The subject of the thread is, as you correctly state, Spitzer's hobnailed-boot tendencies. It's certainly not me. I could have written a hell of a lot more, about a number of other persons.

Hers was just the most egregious example of abuse on both Spitzer's part and on her employer's part. Spitzer wanted to punish the company (good) and wanted heads to roll--only he settled here for an innocent person, one who could not possibly fight back in any way.

Yes, I blame the employer big time, especially for giving her zero severance. Most other companies in Spitzer's sights fought back to the extent that they gave employees a decent severance package, paying for an attorney, or in one case I know of, keeping employees who had pleaded guilty on the payroll since 2004. They remain on full salary today, though they have not returned to work in well over two years. ( The company told Spitzer "we'd like to fire these people, but we're afraid of an Employment Discrimination lawsuit, so we can't." The AG's office fell for it. )

So, Spitzer is not the only bad actor here. Corporate Executives who threw underlings to the wolves should burn in hell right next to Spitzer.

Oh, and I sent an e-mail to the nonexistent person this afternoon. She must still be alive, as it didn't bounce back.

[Thom]

I guess you showed me. You totally didn't just resort to a reductive and patronizing generalization in an attempt to paint a glowing picture of your "friend."

Speaking of, imaginary friend or not, you don't seem to find anything wrong with Spitzer going after this unnamed company (good that heads should roll, says you) but with the fact that the company tricked him.

Look, the (mandatory, if you didn't know) Thompson and McNulty guidelines for avoiding indictment are an outrage, I agree. But what you're claiming doesn't amount to much even for someone who disagrees with the guidelines. Her criminal bosses fired her? Tragic, but not the AG's fault--except insofar as he didn't press harder. But it's that aggression you're complaining about in the first place.

On topic, though, I'm very disappointed to read this. I had high hopes for Spitzer.

[Autumn Harvest]

"me," I think when you find out about abuse of power, by members of either party, it's reasonable to assume bad motives. But more fundamentally, I don't see that it really matters what Spitzer's motives were. The process, and playing by the rules are important, irregardless of the desired end result.

[Dock Miles]

Really. If this is such a burning injustice, why doesn't phantom do the right thing and encourage his friend to talk to a reporter instead of a bunch of internet ghosts?

[cfrost]

I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Phantom here, but fuck Spitzer. If the Democrats want to get serious about winning elections, then anyone within the party with even the faintest whiff of corruption whatsoever should be pushed overboard to the sharks. And if the dumpee’s filthy fingers are seen grasping the gunwales they should be crushed without hesitation. The Democrats will never (nor should ever) get anywhere unless they’re demonstrably not Republicans.

(Re a couple comments above: it may be nit-picking prescriptivism, but “I couldn’t care less” not “I could care less”.)

[Autumn Harvest]

cfrost, I agree with you that the Democrats need to be principled, and root out corruption in their own party. But I'm skeptical about your thought that this will help Democrats win elections. As much as I would like to think that integrity pays off, and blatant corruption and lying are punished by the voters, I'm pretty pessimistic about this, especially given events in recent years.

Again, I do think that the Democrats should get rid of corruption in their own party. But I wonder if blatant denials of reality and covering up the corruption with more corruption might be a better electoral strategy.

[The Phantom]

--why doesn't phantom do the right thing and encourage his friend to talk to a reporter--

I thought of that as far back as 2005, when she was fired without any explanation or severance.

I didn't make the suggestion then, as I was afraid that it would only reinforce the industry blackballing of her.

Bear in mind how powerful Spitzer was two years ago. The corporations were all terrified of him, and the probes by the AG office were still ongoing.

I tried to help her find work with a number of companies. The general reaction- a) Yes, we know her she's great! b) How come she's not been working? from those who few who did not know c) We can't touch anyone tainted by these scandals.

If this isn't a denial of due process by both the AG office and by the employer, I do not know what is. If she was fired for wrongdoing, then she should have been told that. If she was fired for suspicion of doing something, then fine, be decent enough to tell her that.

The AG's office was very aware of the internal reaction their campaign of threats and intimidation was causing. They knew that people would be fired, and they knew who was fired. Their office was the proximate cause of the entire chain of events.

I am not sure that any reporter would have talked to her in 2005. They might now. I may suggest it.

I said 19 months ago that this Spitzer had a glass jaw.

And to he who has shown no mercy, let no mercy be shown.

[Thom]

Then you're right: you don't know what a denial of due process is. We don't usually have trials for firing people--due process isn't implicated here in the way it was in the KPMG case (where the AUSAs pressured the company to cut customary legal aid to employees). Your complaint is with the company, not Spitzer, except insofar as it's convenient to shift the blame for her (allegedly) undeserved firing.