ALBANY County District Attorney David Soares privately ripped the head of the state Public Integrity Commission last week, charging that he interfered with Soares’ criminal probe of the Dirty Tricks Scandal, sources have told The Post.
Soares, in an explosive and unprecedented letter to the 13 commission members, claimed that Executive Director Herbert Teitelbaum acted improperly in trying to obtain confidential testimony given under oath by current and former Spitzer aides to the DA’s investigators, the sources said.
One source said Soares believes that Teitelbaum improperly threatened to use the commission’s subpoena power to obtain copies of the testimony from lawyers representing the aides.
Soares suspected the testimony might be passed on to Gov. Spitzer‘s operatives, who have been trying to “steer” the scandal probe away from any finding that the governor was involved, sources said.
Soares’ letter suggested that members of the Spitzer-controlled commission rein in or oust Teitelbaum, whom he suspects of seeking to place the blame for the scandal on Darren Dopp, the governor’s former communications director, according to the sources.
The governor suspended Dopp last summer in the wake of a bombshell report by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on the plot by Spitzer aides to use the State Police to gather supposedly damaging information on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.
Several commission members said they were offended by Soares’ letter.
“This is seen as Soares’ being insecure about his bumbling on this from the beginning, as well as an effort by him to get in front of the commission when it comes to issuing a report,” one commission member said.
Soares, a Spitzer political ally who issued what was widely seen as a whitewash report on the scandal in September, was embarrassed a month later when Teitelbaum sent him evidence that Dopp may have been pressured to commit perjury in a scandal-related sworn statement.
Soares reopened his investigation, and he has convened a grand jury as part of a criminal probe.
As Soares was accusing him of interfering with his investigation, Teitelbaum was telling associates that he believed the district attorney was “carrying water for Spitzer” and attempting a cover-up of his own, a source close to the commission said.
“It’s reached a point where there’s no respect and no relationship between Soares and Teitelbaum,” the source said.
“Each thinks the other is trying to cover up aspects of the investigation, and neither trusts the other.”
Soares didn’t return calls seeking comment. Teitelbaum has repeatedly refused to speak to the press.