Ever hear of the Moreland Commission or Preet Bharara? The Moreland Commission was an anti-corruption organization set up with great fanfare by New York governor Andrew Cuomo which Cuomo then shut down last Spring when the Commission apparently started getting close to acting on its investigations. Preet Bharara is the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the head representative of the Justice Department in Manhattan. The federal authorities in that office are investigating the circumstances that led to the demise of the Moreland Commission.
Just to put this in context, remember that Andrew Cuomo is a Democrat with national visibility. The Moreland Commission was composed of mostly Democrats who were investigating the New York state government which is, not surprisingly, run by Democrats. Preet Bharara is yet another Democrat who was appointed to the position by president Obama, still another Democrat. In other words, before someone tells you that this is yet another one of those scandals dreamed up by crazies from the Tea Party, remember that there are no Republicans involved in this mess at all.
In any event, in recent days the New York Times (another pillar of the Democrat establishment) reported that governor Cuomo had used his influence to interfere with the work of the Moreland Commission. The article implied (although it never directly stated) that Cuomo pulled the plug on the commission to prevent it from taking actions that would have exposed major corruption in the state government Cuomo heads. It must really have bothered the Times to have to publish such an article, but the paper did so anyway and it deserves kudos for having the courage to do so.
Now, however, there is more news that has come out. The US Attorney's office under Bharara, is conducting its own investigation into the demise of the Moreland Commission. In the last few days, Bharara sent an official letter to Cuomo warning him to stop tampering with the witnesses. Here is the relevant section of that letter as quoted in the New York Times:
“We have reason to believe a number of commissioners recently have been contacted about the commission’s work, and some commissioners have been asked to issue public statements characterizing events and facts regarding the commission’s operation.
Just to put this in context, remember that Andrew Cuomo is a Democrat with national visibility. The Moreland Commission was composed of mostly Democrats who were investigating the New York state government which is, not surprisingly, run by Democrats. Preet Bharara is yet another Democrat who was appointed to the position by president Obama, still another Democrat. In other words, before someone tells you that this is yet another one of those scandals dreamed up by crazies from the Tea Party, remember that there are no Republicans involved in this mess at all.
In any event, in recent days the New York Times (another pillar of the Democrat establishment) reported that governor Cuomo had used his influence to interfere with the work of the Moreland Commission. The article implied (although it never directly stated) that Cuomo pulled the plug on the commission to prevent it from taking actions that would have exposed major corruption in the state government Cuomo heads. It must really have bothered the Times to have to publish such an article, but the paper did so anyway and it deserves kudos for having the courage to do so.
Now, however, there is more news that has come out. The US Attorney's office under Bharara, is conducting its own investigation into the demise of the Moreland Commission. In the last few days, Bharara sent an official letter to Cuomo warning him to stop tampering with the witnesses. Here is the relevant section of that letter as quoted in the New York Times:
“We have reason to believe a number of commissioners recently have been contacted about the commission’s work, and some commissioners have been asked to issue public statements characterizing events and facts regarding the commission’s operation.
To the extent anyone attempts to influence or tamper with a witness’s recollection of events relevant to our investigation, including the recollection of a commissioner or one of the commission’s employees, we request that you advise our office immediately, as we must consider whether such actions constitute obstruction of justice or tampering with witnesses that violate federal law.”
So the Times is now reporting on how the Democrat US Attorney is warning the Democrat governor of New York that he and his people may be committing criminal actions and demanding that they stop immediately. It must be killing the Times to report this but they are doing so in decent detail. The full account is worth reading.
To put this in perspective, I searched the website of MSNBC to see how other Democrat/Progressive media is covering the story. Not surprisingly, there is no mention of the Moreland Commission and Cuomo at the MSNBC site.
The truly strange thing here is that Cuomo is running for re-election this year. He is far ahead and will likely win no matter what the Moreland Commission would have found. It may turn out, however, that interfering with the commission and now with the investigation of the US Attorney as has been alleged will result in Cuomo not even remaining as governor, let alone getting re-elected.
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