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Going Where
the Commission to Investigate Public Corruption & Preet Did NOT: New York's
prosecutorial authorities -- New York's 62 District Attorneys,
see, "On April 2, 2013 and April 4, 2013, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara held press conferences announcing the indictments of two sitting members of the New York State Legislature, Senator Malcolm Smith and Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, and the resignation of a third, Assemblyman Nelson Castro. At the same time, he railed against New York’s 'rampant' and 'pervasive' public corruption, pledging his determination to root it out and urging others to do their part.[fn] On April 9, 2013,
Governor Cuomo responded with his own press conference. Flanked by
five district attorneys – including the President of the District Attorneys
Association of the State of New York, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus
Vance, he stated 'Today, we start at the beginning and we start with
stricter and more effective criminal deterrents. Let us affirm and
expand a simple fact: If you are a public official and if you break
the law, you will get caught, you will be prosecuted, and you will go to
jail' (03:11 mins). To that end, the Governor announced his 'Public
Trust Act', designed to strengthen the ability of New York’s district
attorneys to investigate and prosecute public corruption. In his
words, 'Today we propose measures to ensure that all our 62 district
attorneys have the proper laws to expeditiously investigate and prosecute
public integrity violations.' (at 03:51 mins.)[fn].
What became of the “Public Trust Act”? – which
closed loopholes that gave federal prosecutors the advantage in pursuing
public corruption cases; proposed 'three new laws: bribing a public
official, scheming to corrupt the government, and failure to report public
corruption'; and 'increase[ed] criminal penalties on existing laws in terms
of public officials and public acts.' (at 04:04 mins.) Upon information and
belief, not a single legislator opposed the 'Public Trust Act' – or could
have opposed it, certainly not publicly. We have filed a
Freedom of Information Law request to find out. It appears that
notwithstanding the Governor’s declaration: 'I will seek legislative
approval this session because we need progress and we need progress now' (at
04:48 mins.), he did not promptly send the 'Public Trust Act' to the
Legislature – and when he did, as his
Program Bill #3, he so totally failed
to shepherd it that it had no Senate or Assembly sponsors, was never
introduced in either the Senate or Assembly, and was never assigned a Senate
or Assembly number.[fn] The Governor made no mention of this, two months
later, upon holding a June 11, 2013 press conference, reiterating the
'Public Trust Act' and the key role of district attorneys in investigating
and prosecuting public corruption. He was now flanked by 16 district
attorneys and had a letter of the District Attorneys Association of the
State of New York, signed by all 62 district attorneys of New York’s 62
counties, addressed to Assembly Speaker Silver, and Senate Majority
Coalition Leaders Skelos and Klein, urging enactment of his Program Bill #3.
Yet he never revealed that Assembly Speaker Silver and Senate Majority
Coalition Leaders Skelos and Klein were withholding his 'Public Trust Act'
from legislators to prevent it from being sponsored – which, had he
revealed, they could not have done, aborting the legislative process.[fn] In any event, the 'Public Trust Act' put the
Governor and all 62 New York district attorneys on record that investigating
and prosecuting public corruption in this state is the district attorneys’
job. The Governor’s Moreland Act Commission to Investigate Public
Corruption, which he announced at his July 2, 2013 press conference,
reinforces this. Of its 25 members, 10 are current district attorneys,
including District Attorney Soares and two of its three co-chairs. You head District
Attorney Soares’ Public Integrity Unit – the most important of all such
district attorney units in the state as the state capital is within its
geographic jurisdiction. Consequently,
and in keeping with Governor Cuomo’s assertion at his April 9, 2013 press
conference that 'when it comes to public integrity, you can’t have enough
police officers on the beat, [], you can’t have enough sets of eyes' (at
20:52 mins.), our nonpartisan, nonprofit citizens’ organization, Center for
Judicial Accountability, Inc. (CJA), now files with you the same corruption
complaint for investigation and prosecution as we filed on April 15, 2013
with U.S. Attorney Bharara. Indeed, just as the 'Public Trust
Act' was the Governor’s response to U.S. Bharara’s April 2, 2013 and April
4, 2013 press conferences, so the April 15, 2013 complaint was our response
to those same two press conferences."
STATUS of the July 19, 2013 conflict-of-interest/corruption complaint? (1) How Many D.A.s Does It Take to Confront Evidence & Ethical Rules? (3)
CJA's testimony
at the Legislature's January 30, 2017 budget hearing on "Local
Government Officials/General Government"
click here for:
DISTRICT ATTORNEYS
Manhattan District
Attorney Robert Morgenthau
(former)
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CJA Ho |
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Post Office Box 8101 |
