Perdido Street School

Okay, one more...

As I posted a couple of days ago, the criminal investigation into Bill de Blasio's campaign fundraising appears to be politically motivated, stemming from a "report" written up by a Cuomo appointee at the Board of Elections, Risa Sugarman, that claimed felonious activities in Team de Blasio's 2014 attempts to take the state Senate for Democrats.

Capital NY reported that Cuomo's Luca Brasi, Joe Percoco, was part of that ill-fated attempt by Team de Blasio to coordinate fundraising efforts and help Democratic state Senate candidates around New York win their individual races.

Percoco, Cuomo's "closest and most loyal aide," according to the NY Daily News' Ken Lovett, of course fed back information about the coordinated campaign fundraising efforts to his boss, Andrew Cuomo, and while Cuomo appears to have taken little-to-no action at the time of the efforts, skeptics now see his hand behind Sugarman's BOE report alleging criminal activity by Team de Blasio and subsequent referral of those allegations to Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr. and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

News of that damning BOE "report" was leaked to Ken Lovett at the NY Daily News.

Vance and Bharara have subpoenaed many in de Blasio's circle, including his top aides, while Percoco does not appear to have received a subpoena in the investigation despite being a part of the fundraising effort.

That has raised the thought among cynics like myself that the Sugarman "report" was spurred by Cuomo, aided by information (and perhaps testimony) from Percoco, then leaked by somebody close to Cuomo to the press, all with the intent to irrevocably harm his "friend," Bill de Blasio, with whom he has been feuding for a few years now.

So far, it's been pretty successful.

The NY Post has pictured de Blasio in an orange jump suit on its front cover while the Daily News has hammered de Blasio daily for alleged corruption and malfeasance.

A Team De Blasio campaign lawyer blasted the Sugarman report over the weekend, claiming it was a political hit job and completely misconstrued (or misunderstood) campaign finance law and de Blasio followed that up on Monday by publicly questioning the motivation behind the leak of the report.

De Blasio continued that defense on WNYC today:

ALBANY -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday defended his fundraising efforts to help upstate Democratic Senate candidates in 2014 and questioned the motivation behind the state Board of Elections probe.

De Blasio’s team is under fire for using the county committees in Ulster, Putnam and Monroe counties to pump more money into the Senate candidates' elections.

"Everything was done very carefully, meticulously, with legal guidance – all along the way and consistent with what so many other people have done," de Blasio said on WNYC-AM in Manhattan. "That’s why I’m saying: It’s very interesting that now it becomes subject of these questions, and I think we have to figure out some of the motivations behind this."

Federal and state prosecutors are investigating a report from state Board of Elections chief enforcement counsel Risa Sugarman that charged de Blasio and his team skirted campaign-finance laws by getting donors to contribute to the county committees. Then the committees sent the money directly to four candidates who ultimately lost: then-Sens. Ted O'Brien of Irondequoit, Monroe County; Terry Gipson of Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, and Cecilia Tkaczyk of Schenectady County, as well as Justin Wagner, an attorney from Croton, Westchester County.

In all, more than $1 million in total contributions from New York City-based unions and political donors went to the three county committees in the weeks prior to the 2014 elections.

Sugarman is a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has been in a public battle with de Blasio over myriad issues between the city and the state.

De Blasio stopped short of pointing the finger at Cuomo over the election probe.

"I think people should dig into this question," de Blasio said. "I think they should ask the question of how does a state Board of Elections official single us out, apparently not understanding how state election law works, and then leaked their document to the media – which in and of itself may be a violation of law. I think that needs to be looked at. I find it telling."

Cuomo has not commented about the election probe.

Other observers have noted the selectivity of the criminal referral, pointing out how other politicians use similar tactics to the ones Team De Blasio used in 2014 (like former NYC mayor, Michael Bloomberg in various bids to aid his state Senate Republican allies, for example.)

In any event, de Blasio is the one facing the firestorm in the press, which is an interesting thing, because it all just sort popped up out of nowhere over the past two weeks, almost as if it were engineered by somebody with a grievance against the mayor.

Gee, I wonder who that guy with the grievance against the mayor would be?

Oh, right...  

Funny thing is, this may not be the only criminal investigation that Cuomo is using to settle scores.

The Syracuse paper reported the following this morning:

SYRACUSE, N.Y. Saying he does not intend to assist a "fishing expedition,'' an Onondaga County judge this week delivered a setback to District Attorney William Fitzpatrick and his efforts to investigate alleged wrongdoing at Syracuse City Hall.

County Court Judge Walter Hafner Jr. blocked Fitzpatrick's subpoena for emails, notes, drafts and other communications produced by Syracuse city lawyers, saying the DA made "no showing'' that the documents were part of any crime or fraud.

Hafner's decision was contained in a sealed order issued Tuesday, a copy of which was reviewed by Syracuse.com.

Fitzpatrick said he will submit a motion asking the judge to reconsider, and will appeal the decision if Hafner continues to block the subpoena.

The district attorney, who criticized Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner for bringing a lawsuit against COR Development Co., the Inner Harbor developer, has launched an investigation into Miner and some of her political allies.

Among other things, Fitzpatrick is looking for evidence of alleged wrongdoing connected with what he called "phony affidavits'' filed in the lawsuit by two city councilors who are friendly with Miner.

But in his ruling to decide what documents city hall must turn over, Hafner said Fitzpatrick has not produced evidence of wrongdoing to justify his demand to see communications between city lawyers and other city officials. Most of those records are protected from disclosure by attorney-client privilege, the judge wrote.

In response to the district attorney's request that Hafner review all the city hall materials privately to determine whether any should be forwarded to the grand jury, Hafner called that proposal "patently absurd.''

"It is not . . . the function of this court to assist the district attorney in a fishing expedition,'' Hafner wrote."

Fitzpatrick is an old Cuomo crony, having worked as an apologist for the governor on the Moreland Commission. State of Politics has a little more on the Cuomo-Fitzpatrick connection here. 

Miner, on the other hand, used to be friendly with Cuomo, having worked as the co-chair of the state Democratic Party, but has been on the outs with Cuomo since she publicly criticized him over policy.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of Manhattan is investigating a former Public Employees Federation council leader who was accused of using a union debit card to run up thousands of dollars in questionable purchases at stores and restaurants.

The investigation, which is being led by the U.S. Department of Labor, was revealed last month when a federal grand jury subpoena was sent to the Rockland County PEF union formerly headed by Deborah J. Lee, whose purchases first drew scrutiny within her union's ranks two years ago.

The probe by Bharara's office comes as first-term PEF President Susan Kent, who faced criticism for her handling of Lee's case, is running for re-election to the top post in the state's second-largest public labor union.

Lee, 65, was cleared of wrongdoing last year by a union ethics panel appointed by Kent. The internal review rankled many PEF executive board members who accused Kent of appointing political allies to the ethics panel. The decision was later overturned by PEF's executive board, which voted to remove Lee from their union for at least three years.

Susan Kent lost a re-election bid and no longer runs PEF.

The man who beat her, Wayne Spence, has adopted a more conciliatory tone toward Cuomo.

Now I'm not an expert on PEF internal politics and I'm certainly not out to defend Deborah Lee for improper purchases on her expense account.

Nor am I saying Cuomo was definitely behind the Lee matter and the internecine battles that caused within PEF.

I just think it's interesting that Kent, after a publicly hostile contract battle with Cuomo and subsequent support of a primary challenger against him, got mired in this ethics investigation that helped to bring her down and bring into power a union head more friendly to the governor.

It surely is interesting how some of Cuomo enemies either face criminal investigations themselves or have criminal investigations of people around them that undercut their power.

De Blasio for sure, Miner almost for sure, Kent perhaps...

And of course the whole idea behind empaneling the Moreland Commission was to dig up dirt on his fellow Albany pols, then use it against them to get what he wanted out of them.

No wonder Michael Mulgrew and the UFT bend over backwards to remain on good terms with Cuomo (and yet nonetheless check the office for bugs just in case.)

You don't want to end up on Cuomo's shit list because the next thing you know, the people around you are getting subpoenas and somebody's leaking damaging information about you to the press.

I swear to you I had no plans to come out of retirement and write anything more at Perdido Street School.

But the attacks we've seen the past few days on Bill de Blasio stemming from a Board of Elections "report" that claims felonious activities around de Blasio's campaign fundraising and financing have pulled me back, at least temporarily, because I do not think these attacks should go by without comment.

When the story first leaked that a Board of Elections report alleging felonious activity around Bill de Blasio's fundraising had been sent along to Manhattan D.A Cyrus Vance for further investigation, it came on the heels of the scandal around two de Blasio fundraisers and potential quid pro quo activities with the NYPD.  For days, de Blasio had been getting beaten up publicly around that scandal, as well as one around a Lower East Side nursing home that now is to become luxury condos, so when the leak about the BOE report came, it seemed credible that investigations into de Blasio's fundraising were spiraling into something very big and very potentially damaging to the mayor and his team.

I wrote as much to James Eterno at ICEUFT blog, who posted that comment, but noted this as well:

This was a Cuomo appointee behind the January 4th memo that says felonies were committed by the De Blasio team in their fundraising, so of course it's a political attack from Cuomo.

By Monday, after a lawyer representing de Blasio's campaign apparatus fired back at the BOE claiming a political attack over what he claimed was not illegal activity, I started to see a conspiracy emanating from the governor:

The takeaway: You have a Cuomo appointee writing up a memo claiming felonies committed in de Blasio fundraising, then somebody leaking that memo to the press (as well the news of the Bharara and Vance investigations based upon the memo) so that the tabloids convict the mayor of criminality long before anybody knows if the claims in the memo are fair, accurate or legally sound.

Nice work from Cuomo.

Message: "Don't fuck with me, Billy Boy.  I'll destroy you."

Later, when I saw Fred Dicker's column that with the mayor in legal jeopardy over his fundraising, Cuomo was again reaching out to potential de Blasio challengers for a primary next year, I wrote the following to James which he again posted at ICEUFT blog:

If you read the NY Times piece, it's pretty clear that some of the commissioners on the BOE believe the board has been used as an attack vehicle in the past for Cuomo.  There's one current commissioner on record saying just that.

That makes me wonder, did Cuomo gin this up specifically to destroy BdB, have his hack at the BOE (who has a habit of including Cuomo aides in her email chain despite being "independent" of the Cuomo admin) write it up as a criminal referral, then leak the report exactly as the NYPD scandal was happening in order to do maximum damage to de Blasio.

Knowing what we know with previous interference with the BOE as well as every commission he's ever created (Moreland, LIPA, education, etc.), I would have to say that this is probably another Cuomo machination and so far, it's been pretty effective.

This was a masterful political attack if indeed it was engineered by Cuomo.

Regardless of how the legal inquiries into de Blasio and his team turn out, the political damage is a done deal - the NY Post has already convicted de Blasio of corruption and pictured him in an orange jump suit and handcuffs and the Daily News has jumped on board the "De Blasio's A Crook!" express, hammering the mayor daily with corruption stories.

De Blasio has got an election coming up in a year and a half - this is the very moment when he needs to be ratcheting up his fundraising, amassing a sizeable war chest (a la Andrew Cuomo and his re-election campaign) and scaring off any potential challengers with that.

But with de Blasio under scrutiny for fundraising, it's certainly going to be difficult for him to raise funds, and the political fallout has already been considerable - his poll numbers dropped on the NYPD scandal alone.

What will they look like after daily photos of de Blasio in an orange jump suit on the cover of the NY Post?

I'm no political scientist or polling expert, but the phrase "in the toilet" comes to mind when I think about what de Blasio's approval is going to look like in the next slate of polls to come out post-BOE report leak.

As of yesterday, the feeling I got was, de Blasio was finished, if not legally at least politically, and Cuomo was ascendant, having used his hack at the Board of Elections and a happily compliant media to finish off his former "friend."

All must be well on the second floor, in Cuomo's darkened room, as he contemplated the work he had done to settle his beef with de Blasio.

And then this story came this morning:

A former top aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo was included on a July 2014 memo that outlined a coordinated fundraising effort to help Democratic candidates for the state Senate, and on subsequent email updates about that effort, according to sources who have seen those documents.

The coordinated campaign — spearheaded by Mayor Bill de Blasio and his allies — is now the subject of a criminal inquiry, following a referral by Risa Sugarman, the chief enforcement counsel at the New York State Board of Elections, who was appointed by Cuomo.

The July 2014 memo, written by campaign lawyer Laurence Laufer, who was retained to represent some of the parties involved in the effort, detailed how the coordinated campaign would be structured and run, and how it intended to comply with existing state election law.

The recipients of the memo included Joe Percoco, a longtime Cuomo loyalist who served as a top aide to the governor until last year, and the state Democratic Party Committee, which is effectively controlled by the governor.

The memo was also sent to top de Blasio aides, the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, representatives from key labor unions and consulting firms that were working on the State Senate races, many of whom are now the subject of an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. That investigation followed a criminal referral from Sugarman in January, which alleged that the group had illegally funneled donations to individual Senate candidates through county Democratic committees, which are not bound by the same strict donation limits.

Percoco and the state party were not included in that referral.

... 

Sources familiar with the coordinated fundraising effort said Percoco, who took leave from his administration position to work on the Cuomo re-election campaign in 2014, served as a liaison between the Cuomo campaign and the coordinated effort, and was involved with, and aware of, the efforts to set up the arrangement.

Percoco routinely communicated with members of the coordinated effort and the state Democratic party in the months leading up to the November elections about how to spend the money the coalition raised.

So wait, Cuomo's right hand man, Joe Percoco, was a party to the alleged felonious campaign financing activity but wasn't included in the criminal referral that Cuomo's appointee at the Board of Election, Risa Sugarman, sent along to the Manhattan D.A.?

That is a curious thing, especially since we know that Percoco was closer than close to Andrew Cuomo - described by Ken Lovett at the Daily News as "Gov. Cuomo’s closest and perhaps most loyal aide."

You can be sure if Percoco knew of and was party to the campaign financing scheme Team de Blasio was engaging in with the state Senate races, then Cuomo was aware of it too.  And then there's the state Democratic Party - controlled by Cuomo - also in on the plan.

Why wasn't that campaign financing a problem at time but suddenly is now?  And why is it only a problem for those connected to de Blasio but not Percoco, Cuomo's "closest and perhaps most loyal" former aide, or the state Democratic Party?

This story gets more curious by the day, especially since it's a Cuomo appointee at the supposedly "independent" Board of Elections (an appointee who has kept the governor's office "in the loop" via email in the past, btw) writing that report up and sending it along for a criminal referral.

We also have this problem: Team de Blasio's campaign finance plan doesn't appear to be illegal and it appears to be a rather well-worn plan followed by other pols in the state (including former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg), but de Blasio is the only one being investigated for this kind of activity.

That is curious a thing - I wonder if there being a Cuomo appointee behind the criminal referral to the Manhattan D.A. had anything to do with the selectivity of the investigation?

Jim Dwyer wondered something similar in the NY Times today:

Now, bewilderingly, Mayor Bill de Blasio and his crew are said to be in an exotic pile of legal trouble faced by virtually no other politicians who have done just about the same thing.

In 2014, the mayor and allies raised millions of dollars in hopes of giving control of the State Senate to the Democrats. By law, there was a limit of $10,300 that an individual could give that year to a campaign. But the same person could give about $100,000 to larger political organizations, like state and county party committees.

Those committees can spend away on behalf of the candidates, but everyone has to pretend not to coordinate efforts to get around the limits.

A scorching report by Risa S. Sugarman, chief enforcement officer for the State Board of Elections, said the de Blasio team had committed “willful and flagrant” violations of the laws by using those committees. She sent it on to the Manhattan district attorney.

Her document is remarkably assiduous in places, and filled with flagrant, or at least gaping, holes in others.

For instance, Ms. Sugarman managed not to notice that the State Democratic Committee received $766,000 in 12 days in October 2014, much of it from organizations and people linked to Mr. de Blasio, and promptly spent it on a number of the same vendors and on behalf of the same candidates, according to reports filed with the elections board. Not a word appears in her report about the money that passed through that committee. As it happens, that committee is effectively controlled by the governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, who nominated her for her job.

Why was the state committee left out of such a meticulous report?

“I don’t comment on confidential memos,” Ms. Sugarman said.

If we are going to criminalize politics, why spare one committee from the opprobrium heaped on others?

“All my investigations and anything that goes on within my division is confidential,” Ms. Sugarman said.

Dwyer goes on to point out how Michael Bloomberg used a similar scheme to elect Republicans to the state Senate that Sugarman claims is evidence of de Blasio breaking the law to elect Dems to the state Senate:

Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor as mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, sent $75,000 to the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee during the last days before a special election on Long Island in 2007. The check was delivered on Jan. 26, for an election held 11 days later. The money supported a single Republican candidate, in one campaign, with a donation many times the limit Mr. Bloomberg would have been permitted if he had given the money directly to the campaign.

Mr. Bloomberg spent heavily in similar fashion during his time as mayor to prop up the Republican Senate majority, using his own money. Mr. de Blasio has spent heavily in hopes of attaining a Democratic majority, though he has taken the precaution of using other people’s money.

If it seems strange that Mr. de Blasio is now on the griddle when so many others could just as easily have provided fixings for the same meal, it’s important to remember that the corrupting force of campaign money was part of the work of the Moreland Commission in 2013 and 2014.

Would that be the same Moreland Commission that Cuomo shut down in return for a budget deal even though it appeared to have found incriminating evidence on Shelly Silver (who later got convicted, in part, on evidence unearthed by the Moreland Commission?)

It would indeed be just that commission.

I would add that Bloomberg seemingly came right up to the line of campaign finance law with his relationship with the Independence Party as well, a story the Daily News covered back in 2012.

Bloomberg needed the Independence Party ballot line to ensure victory in 2001 and to help out in his 2005 and 2009 races for mayor.

In 2001, Bloomberg got on the Independence Party ballot line and received 59,000 votes - "almost twice the slim margin of victory that put him into City Hall."

In 2005, the Independence Party ballot line gave him 75,000 votes - less than he won by, but a help nonetheless.

Same thing happened in 2009, when Bloomberg got 150,000 votes.

What did the Independence Party get in return for the ballot line?

Money - and lots of it:

$400,000 to the personal accounts of Independence Party figures.

$650,000 in charitable contributions to charities run and/or affiliated with Independence Party figures.

$12.75 million in tax breaks to a charity run by an Independence Party figure.

$1.35 million laundered through the fundraising account of the Independence Party chairman, which the Independence Party used to re-elect three Republican state senators.  The Independence Party chairman paid himself $60,000 for enabling that money laundering scheme by the mayor.

$1.2 million to Independence Party operatives to intimidate voters at the polls - $1.1 million of which was "stolen" by John Haggerty.

John Haggerty was a Republican political consultant hired by Bloomberg for the 2009 race.

Haggerty was eventually convicted of stealing $1.1 million of Bloomberg's money, but his trial laid bare the scheming and games Bloomberg played with that dough, including having money seemingly earmarked for one purpose being used for another instead.

It was all quite unseemly.

As Bill Hammond wrote in the Daily News during the Haggerty trial:

Regardless of the outcome of Haggerty's trial, Bloomberg - who took the stand yesterday - doesn't come off smelling like a rose, either.  According to the prosecution's version of events - which Bloomberg confirmed under oath - the mayor and his campaign knowingly and intentionally exploited loopholes in the state's campaign finance laws to keep the public in the dark about some of their seamier tactics.

If what they did wasn't against the law, it sure as heck ought to be.

But Haggerty was the one convicted for a crime while Bloomberg was the "victim" - even though he was using Haggerty to exploit campaign finance law.

And guess who the Manhattan D.A. behind the indictment and eventual conviction of Haggerty was.

That's right - Cyrus Vance, the guy looking into de Basio now:

The indictment culminates a politically sensitive investigation by Mr. Vance. Before the indictment, there was buzz in the political world about the unusual way that the mayor’s campaign directed the payment, using personal checks from Mr. Bloomberg rather than the campaign’s official account.

Some lawyers and political analysts say the case could prove embarrassing to the mayor, in shining an unwelcome spotlight on one of his least favorite topics: how he spends his own money.

“The mayor filed a statement with the Board of Elections that he would only make campaign expenditures through his campaign committee,” said one lawyer familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the investigation. “But what might have happened here is instead of doing that, he gave personal funds to political parties to make political expenditures for him, and that could be stretching the rules.”

Mr. Vance emphasized that his office had found “no criminal misconduct” on the part of the mayor or his campaign.

Bloomberg used some funky accounting and check writing to skirt the rules, but Vance found "no criminal misconduct."

How open-minded of the Manhattan DA.

You have to wonder, will Bill de Blasio will get the same open-mindedness from Mr. Vance?

In any case, the point around the BOE report leak on de Blasio is this:

De Blasio was playing the same dirty game every other politician in this state plays around campaign finance - including his predecessor Michael Bloomberg and his "friend" in Albany, Andrew Cuomo (who took $250K from politically connected men in the town of Kiryas Joel the same weekend he vetoed a bill those politically connected Kiryas Joel men wanted vetoed.)

Only de Blasio and the people around him are being called to account for this.

That's not defend the process here - just to point out the hypocrisy of only de Blasio going down for it.

To make matters worse, the criminal referral to Vance by the Cuomo appointee Sugarman deliberately leaves out Cuomo's "closest and most loyal aide," even though he was a party to the scheme, and conveniently leaves out how Team de Blasio used the same scheme to send money to the Cuomo-controlled state Democratic Party.

This is all very complex and it will likely go over the heads of most New Yorkers busy trying to live their lives, something which Cuomo knows and counts on.

Cuomo also counts on the tabloids to do his bidding for him, running pictures of de Blasio in handcuffs and detailing every act from Team de Blasio as if it were a criminal act (see this NY Post piece hammering de Blasio for sending $50K to state Senate candidate Todd Kaminsky days before a special election - a similar act to Bloomberg sending $75K to his candidate in a special election in 2007 that elicited no concern from the Posties.)

The media has dutifully complied with multiple stories daily about de Blasio's alleged criminality.

The political damage to de Blasio is enormous and perhaps mortal.

That was exactly what Cuomo wanted out of all of this.

But sometimes we get more than we want out of things, and while Cuomo has gotten the headlines convicting de Blasio of corruption before any charges are even filed, he may also get something he didn't count on - scrutiny for himself.

Preet Bharara has warned him publicly before about tampering with the Moreland Commission investigations.

You have to wonder what he makes of all this - the BOE report written up by a Cuomo appointee that ignores Cuomo connections to the alleged felonies, the leak of that report to do maximum damage to its target, Bill de Blasio?

If Cuomo's appointee, Risa Sugarman, is right that felonies were committed by Team De Blasio in their financing schemes, why weren't all the people and entities involved referred to the Manhattan D.A. for investigation?  How is it that Cuomo's ties were conveniently ignored and his loyal aide, Joe Percoco, and the Cuomo-controlled state Democratic Party sheltered from scrutiny?

If this sounds a bit like deja vu from the Moreland days, when the Cuomo administration was using the Moreland Commission to investigate others but steering it away from scrutinizing itself (and its donors), you'd be right about that.

It takes a certain kind of chutzpah to use an entity in the regulatory apparatus - in this case the Board of Elections - as a vehicle for a political attack after you've been warned about similar such actions in the past.

It also is a crime.

Cuomo's had his way for the first days after the leak of the report and the criminal referral to the Manhattan DA.

But now as it becomes pretty clear that his fingerprints are all over the BOE "report" and leak and, kinda just like with Moreland, he seems to have engineered it such that he and his people would avoid scrutiny even as he used the legal and regulatory apparatus of the state to attack his political enemies, you have to ask yourself, what will Preet do about that?

Last week, Bharara warned that he's got his sights set on executive branches of government in this state as well as the legislature.

That was taken as a direct warning to de Blasio that Preet's got him in his sights.

But that warning may have also been sent to another executive branch member, this one with a penchant for using commissions and regulatory bodies as political attack weapons while excluding himself and his allies from their scrutiny.

Cynics around the Internet think Bharara has been told Cuomo is off limits by the Obama administration, that they don't want to see a third consecutive Democratic governor go down in ethical flames in New York.

That may be so - it certainly appeared that way when Bharara gave Cuomo a clean bill of health around the Moreland tampering right before Cuomo was set to issue his State of the State/budget address in January.

So maybe Cuomo knows he's got no worries here, that his protectors in Washington will ensure he can act with impunity - take bribes from Kiryas Joel connections and give them a veto in return, for example, or conspire to use the BOE to destroy his enemy de Blasio - and nothing will befall him.

He may be right about that.

Given how Shelly Silver, Dean Skelos and now Bill de Blasio all got mired in corruption investigations (with Silver and Skelos getting convicted) while Cuomo rides high and clear from the mire, well, that is something isn't it?

Game of Thrones indeed.

You win or you die.

Capitol Confidential:

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced Monday that his office has not found sufficient evidence to prove a federal crime was committed in connection with interference with and the closing of the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption. 

“After a thorough investigation of interference with the operation of the Moreland Commission and its premature closing, this Office has concluded that, absent any additional proof that may develop, there is insufficient evidence to prove a federal crime,” Bharara said in a statement. “We continue to have active investigations related to substantive inquiries that were being conducted by the Moreland Commission at the time of its closure.”

“We were always confident there was no illegality here, and we appreciate the US Attorney clarifying this for the public record,” said Elkan Abramowitz, the attorney who has represented the governor’s office amid Bharara’s probe.

Two investigations continue.

The first is, as the US attorney said in the statement, they "continue to have active investigations related to substantive inquiries that were being conducted by the Moreland Commission at the time of its closure.”

The second is into the Buffalo Billion Project - Cuomo's donors and state entities involved in the bidding process were subpoenaed in that investigation.

But Cuomo walks for the Moreland tampering - no "federal" laws were broken.

Rob Astorino, Cuomo's 2014 opponent, has called for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate the case, pointing out that while federal laws may not have been broken in the shutdown, state laws may have been.

But the chances of that happening are slim to none.

The announcement today, coming two days before Cuomo's state of the state/budget address, cetainly should provide some tail winds to Cuomo as he starts his 2016 legislative push.

As Politico NY put it:

The announcement, coming on the heels of a high-profile visit to discuss corruption issues with Kentucky lawmakers and the recent convictions of two of the state’s top legislative leaders, came seemingly without warning from Bharara’s office. The news effectively blows away a cloud of suspicion hanging over the state Capitol since Bharara’s office announced it was investigating the shutdown of the Moreland Commission in July, 2014.

I always thought the Buffalo Billion Project investigation was the bigger problem for the Cuomo administration, but while today's announcement does not relate in any way to that investigation, it does give you pause for what Bharara might (or might not) have.

My gut tells me, if Preet's announcing this Moreland thing now, two days before the state of the state/budget address, he's probably not nailing the governor on that either.  Maybe the SUNY Poly guy, but probably not Cuomo.

I hope my gut is wrong.

But the announcement today on the Moreland investigation, coming when it did, doesn't make me hopeful.

UPDATE - 4:35 PM: The NY Times adds the following to the end of their piece about the Bharara announcement:

Federal prosecutors are also investigating one of Mr. Cuomo’s signature upstate programs aimed at revitalizing Buffalo’s economy. That investigation, led by Mr. Bharara, has been looking at how these government-funded projects were awarded, according to a subpoena reviewed by The New York Times. It is also looking at whether state elected officials played a role in choosing who would benefit from the infusion of government funds.

The statement on Monday did not mention the Buffalo investigation.

I'm pretty sure Bharara's got something in the Buffalo investigation (i.e., Alain Kaloyeros), but does it rise as high as Cuomo?

As I wrote above, today's announcement from Bharara, just kinda dropped into the news, doesn't make me hopeful that he does.

But I've been wrong about politics plenty of times before and I know I'll be wrong again.

Here's hoping this is one of them.

El Chapo used the same communications method as the Cuomo administration pic.twitter.com/gTlHQQsc9v

— Bill Mahoney (@mahoneyw) January 10, 2016

Despite the untraceable communications he used, El Chapo was brought down by arrogance, with authorities tracing him post-prison breakout after the drug lord began holding talks to have a movie based upon his life made.

Similarly, Cuomo may be brought down by arrogance despite the untraceable communications and other games he and his administration have used to avoid scrutiny of their inner doings.

Pro Publica summed up all the shenanigans Cuomo has played here - they include not only using untraceable Blackberry PIN messaging to communicate with aides, but also redacting FOILed documents so heavily as to render them unreadable, a policy that purged emails after 90 days, Cuomo aides using personal accounts to conduct government business (and thus avoiding FOIL issues), and ignoring FOIL requests they don't like (such as around Cuomo's fundraising and donors.)

Despite Cuomo administration attempts to avoid scrutiny of inner administration doings, there are two reported federal investigations related to the governor going on.

The first has the feds reportedly investigating the Cuomo administration for tampering into the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption, including Cuomo administration officials putting the kibosh on subpoenas to or investigations of the governor's donors during the commission's work.

The second has the feds investigating Cuomo's signature Buffalo Billion Project economic development program, with subpoenas having gone out to Cuomo donors and state entities involved in the bidding process.

In addition, US Attorney Preet Bharara, who has taken down both former Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver and former Majority Leader Dean Skelos on corruption convictions, has refused to let Cuomo off the hook publicly, repeatedly refusing to say whether he's targeting Cuomo for corruption. 

Don't think Cuomo's not aware he's got trouble - this Buffalo News piece with a "state official" who sounds suspiciously like Cuomo himself providing hours of interview time and dozens of documents to News reporter Tom Precious in order to defend himself and his administration against charges of a corrupt bidding process (see more here and here) suggests otherwise.

It's also easy to see Cuomo's frenetic January activity, with multiple daily announcements about his 2016 agenda occurring in different parts of the state, as Cuomo looking to distract from the federal investigations into his administration and his donors, as Baruch College political science professor Douglas Muzzio noted on social media:

Cuomo's Moses-like agenda = laying markers in face of Preet threat?

— Douglas Muzzio (@musingmuttering) January 9, 2016

Our friend in Buffalo Sean Crowley had similar thoughts after Cuomo announced multiple gazillion dollar transit projects (if you're scoring at home, Cuomo has proposed $65 billion in transit and transportation projects):

It really does look like this guy is feverishly flailing to establish some good guy cred any and everywhere before Preet drops the hammer on him. Maybe if he hadn't spent the last 3 decades or so as a belligerent prick he wouldn't be playing such a furious game of catch up now. It is fun to watch.

Indeed, it is fun to watch.

For a long, long time he has thought himself untouchable, the Sheriff of Albany who could claim to be cleaning up all the capital corruption while actually residing at the center of it all, sucking up millions in LLC loophole donations and paying back donors with development projects and millions in tax breaks.

But suddenly, after the Silver and Skelos convictions, those activities go from "business as usual" in Albany to perhaps a very big legal problem for the governor.

Thus all this vigorous agenda activity, with Cuomo everywhere and anywhere to announce another goodie for another constituency?

It sure seems like it.

Here was Cuomo yesterday, on yet another imploding the old bandstand at the state fairgrounds, while also announcing $200 million for upstate airports:

Bam. Great use of Vine by @NYGovCuomo for implosion at state fairgrounds in SYR. https://t.co/4OqICIuWvW #PR

— Dave Armon (@daveyarmon) January 9, 2016

If the US attorney follows the pattern with Cuomo that he's used on Silver and Skelos in the past (leak, leak, leak...criminal charges) that video will be a fantastic emblem for the Cuomo administration and Cuomo's political career.

It's hard to say whether Bharara really will take Cuomo down or whether he's just screwing with him, dangling him out there to twist slowly in the wind.

But given the frenetic pre-2016 state of the state/budget address activity Cuomo's engaging in and the $65 billion (yup - that's "billion" with a "b") in transportation and transit projects he's proposing for the state, something weird seems to be going on behind those beady eyes and that glassy stare he's got.

Might it be that soon he and his fellow Blackbery Messenger user, El Chapo, will have more in common than just communication methods?

From the Wall Street Journal:

FRANKFORT, Ky.—Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan who recently secured the convictions of two top New York lawmakers, on Wednesday said the blame for corruption lies not only with bad actors but also with the “good people” who don’t try to stop it.

“People knew, and did nothing,” said Mr. Bharara, referring to the corruption cases in Albany during a speech before the Kentucky Legislature. “This, perhaps, is the most unfortunate feature of the status quo in my home state—the deafening silence of the many individuals who…saw something and said nothing.”

...

Mr. Bharara has made no secret of his intent to clean up Albany, which he has called a “caldron of corruption.”

“What has been going on in New York of late is simultaneously heartbreaking, head-scratching and comic,” Mr. Bharara told the Kentucky lawmakers.

He told the legislators that federal law doesn’t require an explicit quid-pro-quo, that it doesn’t matter if the official act was good for the community, or if it was done for a friend.

"People knew and did nothing" - hmm, that could refer to the guy who shut down the Moreland Commission that was investigating now-convicted felons Silver and Skelos in return for a budget deal.

"Federal law doesn't require an explicit quid pro quo" - that does have some ramifications for any investigations going on, including the one into the Buffalo Billion Project and the governor's donors.

Again, perhaps Bharara ultimately decides that he;s got nothing on the governor and Cuomo walks.

But all that frenetic activity from the governor the past few weeks, criss-crossing the state, imposing mandates, raising minimum wages, declaring major new transportation projects, handing out development millions to Rochester - that has got the deal of a very nervous governor trying to get some positive headlines in case something very negative happens.

Fred Dicker in the NY Post:

Cuomo, meanwhile, was described by one associate as “edgily nervous’’ about the next move to be made by federal prosecutor Bharara, whose successful prosecution of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau) and startling admonition to “stay tuned” has led to widespread speculation that the governor is his next target.

Dicker writes that Cuomo is also obsessed with turning around his poor job approval numbers, which is why he is suddenly changing course on issues from the minimum wage to education reorm:

The governor, the sources said, has begun displaying what many of his own staffers see as “peculiar’’ bursts of energy, in which he abruptly shifts gears on key public-policy positions in hopes of increasing his popularity: first battling and then embracing the teachers unions, opposing and then backing a $15-an-hour minimum wage, and refusing and then granting pardons to thousands of convicted criminals.

“He’s like a chicken without a head; you never know which direction he’s going to turn, and he’s frantic about getting his [polling] numbers up,’’ said a prominent Democrat who has known Cuomo for years.

He ought to be "edgily nervous" about where Bharara goes next.

There are at least two investigations that we know of being conducted by the feds - one into the shutdown of the Moreland Commission and potential tampering by the governor or administration figures, the other into the governor's signature economic development plan, the Buffalo Billion Project, and what appears to be a rigged bidding process for his donors.

As for his trying to turn his numbers around, he's been in the low-to mid 40's or below in the Siena poll for quite a while now despite his frantic attempts to increase his popularity, so good luck with that, governor (see here to here.)

I think the thing that might raise his popularity the most is if he is arrested on corruption charges and faces a criminal trial.

So many of the people I know are looking forward to that possibility.

Of course, the thing that would be popular there is not Cuomo himself but his, you know, arrest.

But hey, it's something.

The Buffalo Chronicle posted last month that Preet Bharara planned "to indict Governor Andrew Cuomo on January 2nd — along with a half dozen associates and former staffers — on public corruption, racketeering, conspiracy, and honest services fraud."

Well, it's January 2 - a Saturday - and the courts are closed, US Attorney Preet Bharara is getting ready to address the Kentucky legislature next week over ethics and Governor Cuomo's schedule reads:

Governor Cuomo is in Albany 

The day's not over yet, of course, but you'd have to be loopy from Easter egg hunts at the governor's mansion to think a grand jury is going to indict the governor on a Saturday, one day after New Year's Day, or that a previous indictment will be unsealed today and revealed publicly.

So much for the Buffalo Chronicle story.

That said, this doesn't mean those looking for Cuomo to follow his two amigos, Shelly Silver and Dean Skelos, to criminal court should lose heart.

There are plenty of reasons to keep a close watch on where Preet Bharara goes next now that he's got Shelly Silver convicted on seven corruption counts and Dean Skelos on eight corruption counts.

The first reason is the reported investigation into Cuomo's alleged tampering with the Moreland Commission, for which Cuomo lawyered up, hiring "prominent white-collar criminal defense lawyer Elkan Abramowitz" to represent his office in the investigation.

The second is the investigation into Cuomo's Buffalo Billion Project - with subpoenas having gone out to Cuomo donors and state entities involved in what appears to be a rigged bidding process.

The third is how defensive the Cuomo administration is about the investigation (see here and here).

The fourth is the probability that if the feds start nosing around into Cuomo's donor base, they're going to find an awful lot of interesting stuff there, especially around all that Glenwood largesse.

The fifth is Bharara's refusal to let Cuomo off the hook publicly when asked if he's investigating the governor.

There you have five good reasons to keep watching the news wires for leaks about the Moreland investigation or the Buffalo Billion Project investigation that indicate the governor could have some legal trouble coming down the Thruway.

There are no guarantees on any of this, of course, and Bharara may decide that he doesn't have anything in either investigation and nothing comes of any of this.

But Bharara has a way of working with leaks that tends to set the stage for coming events (i.e., eventual criminal charges.)

He did it with Shelly Silver (leaking news of a federal investigation into the speaker one month before the criminal charges were filed in January), and he did it with Dean Skelos (leaking first in January, then again in May right before the criminal charges were levied against Skelos.)

The September leaks about the Buffalo Billion investigation and the subpoenas to Cuomo's donors and state entities involved in the Buffalo Billion Project bidding process were not good signs for Governor Cuomo's administration, that's for sure.

Those leaks didn't spout up from nowhere and if the pattern in the Silver and Skelos leaks is followed here, they're not the last we're going to get.

So keep hearts, folks - January 2nd may have come without a Cuomo indictment, but the governor's not out of the woods yet by a long shot.

We may have a Merry Preetmas yet.

NY Post with an editorial about how not much has changed in Albany, post-Silver and Skelos, except for this:

But the only change is that everyone in Albany wonders who might be wearing a wire.

The Albany pols are keeping the Glenwood money - even Sheriff Andy, the self-annointed reform-meister of Albany.

Cuomo also says closing the LLC loophole won't do much as long as there is no campaign finance reform at a national level, an indication he's not going to push very hard to close the loophole that has proven very lucrative for him.

The self-annointed reform-meister of Albany also says the legislature must stop standing in the way of ethics reform or there won't be much in the way of reform.

Which is ironic because Cuomo has a way of pushing stuff through the legislature that he really, really wants - you know, like teacher evaluations tied to test scores increased to 50% in APPR, despite opposition to the plan.

So the inkling I get here on ethics reform is, he's not all that down for it.

In addition, it seems the "Three Men In A Room" model of governance is going to continue, with the only change that Carl Heastie has replaced convicted felon Shelly Silver and John Flanagan has replaced convicted felon Dean Skelos.

Indeed, what has changed in Albany?

The cesspool remains as noxious as ever, with Sheriff Andy Cuomo up to his neck at the center of all the filth while claiming he's as clean as can be, it's that nasty old legislature that's dirty.

Cuomo (or the attack monkey who runs his twitter account) made some wishes for 2016 on social media yesterday.

I made a wish too:

.@NYGovCuomo I'm looking forward to seeing how that Buffalo Billion Project investigation turns out.

— rbe (@perdidostschool) January 1, 2016

Here's hoping for an early Preetmas.

From the Associated Press:

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A traditional open house event at New York's Executive Mansion that is typically held on New Year's Day is being postponed until March.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says Wednesday that the event will be postponed until Easter Sunday because Jan. 1 will mark the first anniversary of his father's death. His father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo, died last year at 82.

The governor said in a statement that he wanted to continue the open house tradition but also wanted to commemorate his father's loss with his family.
 
He said the event will instead be held on March 27.

Visitors will be welcome to tour of the mansion in downtown Albany, as well as participate in an Easter egg hunt.

I have some ideas for Sheriff Andy's Easter Egg Hunt:

@CuomoWatch He should switch it to Sandra Lee's house, make it April 15 and open it to the tax assessor.

— rbe (@perdidostschool) December 31, 2015

And:

@CuomoWatch Or, if sticking w/ Easter Egg hunt, have the kids search for donations from Glenwood Management LLC's.

— rbe (@perdidostschool) December 31, 2015

You can add your own ideas to the comments section if you like.

Let's help Sheriff Andy out for his Easter Egg Hunt Open House - unless it's his Easter Egg Hunt Open Prison Cell, that is. 

In the Daily News:

The state legislature wants to hear ethics reform ideas from the corruption-busting U.S. Attorney who got convictions against former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.

Unfortunately for New Yorkers, it's the Kentucky State Legislature who asked to hear from Preet Bharara — not the Empire State's.

The Manhattan U.S. Attorney — who has wrangled convictions against a dozen current and former state officeholders since 2009 — will address Kentucky legislators Jan. 6, the same day New York’s legislature resumes its session.

Bharara seemed to have some fun with the invite on Twitter, writing that he was “(h)onored by invitation to address entire state legislature about public corruption next week," without mentioning where.

Still awaiting word on whether the US attorney personally addresses the proverbial "Third Man in the Room" in Albany if/when he charges him with corruption.

On the road for a bit today, but thought I'd leave you with a couple of seasonal sentiments before I go - the first from Bill Nojay:

"Is the governor on the target list?” asked Assemblymember Bill Nojay about Preet Bharara and @NYGovCuomo. https://t.co/cfM39BfEHv

— Louis Flores ✍ (@maslowsneeds) December 26, 2015

 Which leads to this nice sentiment:

Coming to a precinct near you soon @fud31 @RichAzzopardi @NYGovCuomo @JonCampbellGAN @powellnyt @ZackFinkNews pic.twitter.com/vKUJevcqdM

— Randy Credico (@Credico2016) December 26, 2015

Keep your eye on the investigation into Cuomo's Buffalo Billion Project and donors - with subpoenas having gone out to Cuomo donors and state entities involved in what appears to be a rigged bidding process, that strikes me as the area where has he the most vulnerability.

This was the Buffalo News story into that back in September:

Federal prosecutor Preet Bharara’s investigation into the Buffalo Billion is part of a larger probe into other development projects, including the Buffalo Schools Construction Project, sources close to the investigation said Friday.

The first hint of an investigation by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney came in the form of subpoenas demanding information on several large-scale state initiatives, many of them with close ties to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany.

Sources said the subpoenas went out across the state and seek documents and records regarding the bidding process on those projects, as well as any communication between state officials and private contractors.

...

Bharara’s office declined to comment on the new investigation, but stopped well short of refuting the New York Post’s initial account of the investigation.

“I’m not saying the story is baseless. I’m saying we can’t comment,” James M. Margolin, a Bharara spokesman, said Friday.

The Post, in its story, said Bharara’s office is looking at multimillion-dollar state contracts that led to the construction of high-tech, drug-development and clean-energy businesses.

“It’s a comprehensive look at the bidding process,” a source told the Post. “They’re looking at communications between contractors and state officials.”

We haven't had any leaks about the Buffalo Billion Project investigation in a while.

We'll see if the silence continues into the new year or if the leaks come again, signaling a new phase for the investigation.

Again, this may not end in an indictment and perp walk for Cuomo.

But given how defensive the Cuomo administration is about the investigation (see here and here), you know they're worried about something.

Joseph Spector has a piece on US Attorney Preet Bharara in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, including what might be coming next from him:

Bharara’s convictions of Silver and Skelos — two of the three most powerful figures in New York — has led to speculation about his own political future and whether he is targeting the state’s other most powerful leader in New York: Cuomo, the Democratic governor.

Bharara’s office is still believed to be investigating Cuomo and his staff’s role in the demise of — and the potential tampering with — a corruption-busting panel that Cuomo empaneled in 2012 but shuttered a year later.

Bharara earlier this month didn’t let Cuomo off the hook when asked directly whether Cuomo is next on his list. He has criticized Cuomo’s decision to disband the Moreland Commission, but Cuomo has defended the move.

“I’m not going to talk about any investigations that we have open. We have lots of investigations open,” Bharara said on WNYC radio. “I think that people like to talk about what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

...

“Everybody in Albany that I talk to, Democrat and Republican, all the speculation is where does he go next? Is the governor on the target list?” said Assemblyman Bill Nojay, R-Pittsford.

And:

Bharara’s convictions have led to a new round of calls for ethics reform at the Capitol, and Bharara himself has joined the chorus of those clamoring for change.

In the WNYC interview Dec. 14, Bharara talked about the entrenchment of long-serving leaders, such as Silver who was the speaker for more than 20 years. He also mentioned the problem of lawmakers having outside income and the difficulty of trying to recoup their pensions after they are convicted; the pensions are protected by the state Constitution.

“He’s going to turn out to be a major historical figure in New York,” Blair Horner, the longtime legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group. “He may end up single-handedly changing Albany’s political climate.”

Whether Silver and Skelos, who are planning to appeal, are the capstone to Bharara’s corruption crusade or a precursor to more cases remains to be seen.

Bharara’s “stay tuned” line — which he also used in his first Twitter message Dec. 10 — seems to be part joke, part warning.

As he said on the radio: “The first line of defense against bad conduct is the institution itself. And it seems they are doing a pretty poor job of self policing.”

No new ground broken in the piece that I can see, but it does serve to remind us that the Moreland shutdown and Buffalo Billion probes are still ongoing.

With subpoenas going out to both state entities and Cuomo donors involved in the Buffalo Billion Project bidding process, I think the Buffalo Billion and Cuomo donor probe is the bigger problem for the Cuomo administration over the Moreland closure.

Something to watch for as they start the new legislative session in Albany.

Michael Gormley in Newsday:

ALBANY — In the wake of the corruption convictions of two of the State Legislature’s top former leaders, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday he will push a new package of ethics in the coming legislative session.

But Cuomo said he believes that a top reform priority of good-government groups — closing the so-called LLC loophole — would be ineffective, even if passed by the legislature, because of a federal court ruling.

An element of state campaign finance law allows companies to exceed their $5,000 corporate limit by creating limited liability corporations. Through the LLCs, often with names that mask the parent company’s identity, corporations can contribute in total more than $100,000 to candidates and their political parties.

One of the companies that uses this loophole the most — the Manhattan real estate firm Glenwood Management — contributed to former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre). Silver and Skelos were convicted this month on corruption charges. The company and its founder were mentioned in each trial, although they were not accused of wrongdoing.

Glenwood is also one of Cuomo’s biggest donors, providing his campaign with more than $1 million. Cuomo said that he’s never been influenced by donors and that he’s unsure if any legislators were influenced.

How much has Cuomo taken through the LLC loophole?

The NY Times reported that Cuomo received about $1.4 million in donations through LLC's from January 2015 to June 2015 - which, extrapolating out, is a nice chunk of change every year.

Pro Publica reported in July 2014 that Cuomo had raised 6.2 million dollars from LLC's for the first three and a half years of his administration - this, despite claiming more than once that he planned to close the loophole through a push for reform.

One of his flying attack monkeys explained the contradiction between taking millions through the loophole yet claiming to be against it this way:

In a statement, Cuomo spokesman Matthew Wing offered this to explain the apparent contradiction: "The Cuomo campaign is following existing campaign finance laws, while the Governor is leading the charge to reform them, including closing the loophole for LLCs."

This is the same game Cuomo's playing now, claiming to be against the loophole and moving to close it while undercutting those claims with his every action.

Pro Publica reported that the Moreland Commission had been investigating LLC donations until Cuomo closed down the commission in return for a lukewarm ethics reform package and budget deal agreement with then-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and then-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos - now both convicted on corruption charges.

Closing the LLC loophole was of course not part of that lukewarm ethics reform deal Cuomo got in return for closing down the Moreland Commission.

As noted in Gormley's Newsday piece, crooked real estate outfit Glenwood Management was the governor's biggest donor, giving money directly to Cuomo as well as steering it to Cuomo-linked entities like the State Democratic Party and his friends at the shadowy PAC the Committee To Save New York - but Glenwood wasn't the only real estate company to utilize the LLC loophole:

Another real estate developer, the Extell Development Co., has also given extensively to Cuomo through LLCs, including two donations last year that were flagged by the Moreland Commission.

Two LLCs affiliated with Extell gave the governor a total of $100,000 on Jan. 28, 2013—two days before Cuomo signed legislation that granted a tax break to Extell's One57 skyscraper in Manhattan, as well as properties owned by four other developers. Two other LLCs with ties to Extell gave Cuomo another $100,000 six months later. (The contributions were first reported last year by The Daily News.)

Other companies besides the real estate interests have utilized the LLC loophole with the govenror as well:

Since the governor took office, Time Warner Cable has contributed more than $60,000 to him through its LLC; LLCs affiliated with Cablevision have given $110,000. Two liquor distributors, Empire Merchants LLC and Empire Merchants North LLC, have given over $120,000. And two LLCs affiliated with the Ultimate Fighting Championship have contributed $115,000 to Cuomo, plus tens of thousands of dollars more to state legislators and political committees.

Cuomo has not proposed any legislation to legalize professional mixed martial arts events in New York, the only state that bans them. But almost a year after he received a $50,000 check from one of the LLCs, Cuomo seemed to come out in favor of overturning the ban.

"I think we need economic activity, especially in upstate New York," he said in a radio interview in 2013. "I think this is a major endeavor that is televised, that is happening all over the country at this point. You're not going to stop it from happening. And I'm interested in the potential economic potential for the state."

No wonder Cuomo plays this sham with LLC loophole closure - he's sucking up an awful lot of money via the LLC loophole that he wouldn't be able to get otherwise.

It's not like Cuomo, an unpopular governor with a job approval rating below 40%, is raking in millions from little people looking to support a politician.

He's raking in the big bucks from powerful interests looking for influence in Albany and since they can only give so much directly, the rest has got to be steered to him through various LLC's that hide who is giving the money and where it's coming from.

No wonder his actions belie his statements on the LLC loophole - there's just too much money to be made here for the governor to want to truly close the LLC loophole.

Dunno if Preetmas is coming this year, next year or ever, but given how criminal and corrupt this governor is, how he plays this sham game of claiming to be a "reformer" on the one hand while taking all these corrupt and/or hypocritical actions on the other, we surely need it to clear away this last man in the room.

Cuomo's facing criminal charges on corruption might not clean up the cesspool that is Albany, but it surely will clean up the part right at the center, where Cuomo himself stands.

Cuomo digs in on the Glenwood money:

Gov. Cuomo said Monday voters will just have to trust him to do the right thing when asked why he won’t return more than $1 million from a real-estate firm involved in two of Albany’s biggest corruption scandals.

“Yes, I received significant funds, donations from that company. And I was their opponent as a matter of policy,” Cuomo said during a WNYC radio interview. “I was advocating for rent reforms.”

He shrugged off the $1.2 million that flowed into his campaign account from Glenwood Management and its employees as irrelevant to his decision-making.

“If I believed that I could be influenced by a million dollars or a thousand dollars or 50 dollars, then I’m in the wrong place and I should resign immediately,” he said.

“If you can be influenced by the money, then forget the denomination. You just have the wrong person in the office.”

Cuomo claims he doesn't know why Glenwood gave all that money to him or to others in Albany:

Cuomo claimed he had no idea why Glenwood would donate $14 million to elected officials and party committees over the past decade, if not to push its agenda.

“Why do people donate? A lot of reasons. They think he’s their best candidate, they don’t like the other candidate. They like the smile. Who knows?” he said.

“You have to do your job and exercise your judgment . . . absent who supports you, who doesn’t support you. If you can’t do that you can’t be in that position in the first place.”

He has no idea why Glenwood donated all that dough?

He should read the NY Times piece by William Rashbaum from Saturday:

The contributions seemed to pay dividends for Glenwood and the real estate industry as a whole in the form of a seat at the table — sometimes quite literally.

With a law that governed rent regulations set to expire in 2011, Mr. Dorego testified that he and other real estate executives were called to two meetings with state leaders in June, one at the governor’s office in New York City and one at his office in Albany.

At the meeting in Albany, Mr. Dorego testified, he and other executives met first with Mr. Cuomo in the governor’s office. And then they were summoned by Mr. Skelos, who sought to reassure them. Everything, Mr. Skelos said, “seemed to be falling in line.”

And:

Mr. Dorego told the jury the company reaped an estimated $50 million to $100 million in savings over an unspecified period from one state program alone, a real estate tax-abatement law called 421-a. The State Legislature must renew the law periodically through a process essentially controlled by the two legislative leaders and the governor.

Mr. Dorego testified that the law’s continued renewal was an “absolute necessity” for Glenwood. Without it, he said, the cost of city real estate taxes — the largest component of a luxury high-rise’s operating budget — would make building such towers unfeasible, in part because lenders would not finance them.

For that reason, Mr. Dorego told the jury, keeping the State Senate in the control of Republicans — who, in his words, “were more business-oriented and had more of an interest in making sure business thrived in the city” — was “the No. 1 priority” for Glenwood’s political strategy and “Mr. Litwin’s No. 1 concern.”

Glenwood also benefited from another state-administered program, using it to obtain more than $1 billion in low-interest, tax-exempt bond financing since 2000, to buy land and construct eight buildings it has put up since 2001, according to testimony at Mr. Silver’s trial. Each application to the program, under which a developer must set aside 20 percent of a new building’s units for low-income housing, must be approved by an obscure state agency, the Public Authorities Control Board.

The three-member board is made up of the governor and the two legislative leaders, or their designees. All applications require unanimous approval, giving each member a potential veto as well as, prosecutors suggested, power and leverage.

Glenwood also depended on the governor and the legislative leaders to renew favorable rent regulations that determine when a developer or landlord can shift rent-stabilized apartments to market-rate rentals.

The governor also makes it sound like he didn't ask for all that Glenwood money - again, he ought to read the Rashbaum NY Times piece so that he can understand that information is already out there publicly:

The biggest beneficiary of Glenwood’s giving: Mr. Cuomo, who, in the last election cycle, received more than $1 million from limited liability companies, or LLCs, connected to the company. 

More:

When it came to the governor, Glenwood was considered such a reliable contributor that his fund-raisers suggested to the developer that it spread what would become a multiyear million-dollar donation “into biannual installments,” according to documents uncovered by investigators from the Moreland Commission, an anticorruption panel that Mr. Cuomo created in 2013, but abruptly disbanded nine months later.

Glenwood also funneled money to Mr. Cuomo indirectly: On a single day in 2011, 10 of the company’s LLCs combined to give a total of $500,000 to the Committee to Save New York, a group of business interests that spent $16 million to support Mr. Cuomo’s agenda during his first two years in office.

Cuomo obviously thinks his excuses will work with voters - many of whom aren't paying that close attention to this anyway - and perhaps he's right about that.

But these excuses aren't working well with at least one editorial board which keeps drubbing him day after day - and that's the NY Post.

Here's their latest editorial:

Gov. Cuomo’s excuses for keeping money from a tainted firm prove one of two things: He’s not interested in cleaning up Albany’s reputation for sleaze — or he’s completely tone-deaf.

Asked Monday if he’d take The Post’s advice and return $1.2 million in donations from Glenwood Management, the real-estate firm implicated in the Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos trials, Cuomo declined.

ADVERTISING

Why?

“If I believed that I could be influenced by a million dollars or a thousand dollars or fifty dollars, then I’m in the wrong place, and I should resign immediately,” he said.

Well, Silver and Skelos claimed they weren’t influenced by Glenwood money, either. But in Cuomo’s case, no one’s even accusing him of that; the question is whether it’s right to keep money from a tainted firm.

Doing so signals a tolerance for corruption — and sends an unhelpful message to Albany’s entire political class.

Officials from Glenwood were said to have conspired with Skelos and Silver in their corrupt schemes, even if they themselves were never indicted. So how can the state’s top pol justify keeping their cash, especially if he hopes to rid the capital of sleaze and restore public trust?

Remember, the gov has more than $12 million in cash on hand. So returning Glenwood’s donations will hardly cripple him.

Nor, by the way, is the issue legislative “reforms,” as Cuomo suggests. One idea has been a ban on lawmakers’ outside income; a city panel Monday backed such a ban for local pols in exchange for higher pay.

But schemers always find ways to skirt reforms. What’s needed are pols who are beyond reproach — and prove it by their deeds. Cuomo so far has little interest in that. So how can he expect anyone to think he’s cleaning up Albany?

Now maybe editorials don't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but news coverage does (just ask de Blasio what he thinks the Post coverage, in part, did to his poll numbers), so if they keep at this they can do some damage to him.

But the real danger is that the guy who took Silver and Skelos down - US Attorney Preet Bharara - is watching this and thinking "OK, I got convictions on two  of the three crooks in a room who ran Albany but now the third one remains as intransigent as ever in his corruption."

Why Cuomo refuses to return the money is beyond me.

He can raise more, it would show a good faith effort toward cleaning up the corrupt culture in Albany and would provide leadership at a time when Albany politics needs it.

Instead he's digging in his heels and saying a) he's not going to give the money back and b) he has no idea why he was Donor # 1 for Glenwood, the firm at the center of the Silver and Skelos corruption cases, but it surely wasn't for any corrupt reasons.

Preetmas can't come soon enough.