Gov. Cuomo is off the hook for his controversial decision to quash the blue-ribbon panel he appointed to investigate political corruption across New York state, Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara announced Monday.
In a surprise statement, Bharara said the feds were unable to build a criminal case over Cuomo’s disbanding of the Moreland Commission on 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.
It subsequently came to light that the panel had turned up evidence of corruption against both former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and ex-state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, which Bharara used to gain convictions against the two leaders of the state Legislature.
And Bharara said Monday that his office was still pursuing further corruption cases that the commission uncovered before Cuomo abruptly shut it down.
“We continue to have active investigations related to substantive inquiries that were being conducted by the Moreland Commission at the time of its closure,” he said.
Bharara’s statement notably didn’t mention his investigation of Cuomo in regards to the state’s “Buffalo Billion” revitalization plan, which has doled out multimillion-dollar contracts to spur development of high-tech, clean-energy and drug-development businesses.
The Post exclusively revealed in September that Bharara was probing possible collusion between state officials and contractors who won lucrative bids as part of the governor’s pet project in western New York.
Cuomo created the Moreland Commission panel in 2013 following a rash of public corruption cases, and he came under harsh criticism for agreeing to close it in March 2014 as part of a deal to pass a package of tepid ethics reforms.
The governor — who was never formally identified as a target of the Moreland Commission investigation — didn’t respond personally to Bharara’s blockbuster announcement, with a spokesman saying only, “The US Attorney’s statement speaks for itself.”
But Cuomo’s lawyer, Elkan Ambramowitz, said in a statement: “We were always confident there was no illegality here, and we appreciate the US Attorney clarifying this for the public record.”
Bharara’s unexpected move came two days before Cuomo’s scheduled State of the State speech on Wednesday.
“I respect the decision of the US Attorney and I guess we can now start focusing on the business of the people,” said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx).
Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse) called Bharara’s action “a good sign” that he hoped would clear the air “so we can start legislating in the right way.”
“The more clouds that are eliminated and investigations are complete without wrongdoing, the better it is for the atmosphere of the state legislature,” DeFrancisco said.
But Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who was Cuomo’s Republican challenger in 2014, noted that Bharara’s announcement was “not the same as finding [Cuomo] innocent.”
“The likelihood that state laws were broken was always the greater possibility,” said Astorino, who has called for an appointment of a special state prosecutor to investigate the shuttering of the Moreland Commission panel.
Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin (R-Troy) also said he was “disappointed” because the Cuomo administration’s alleged interference with the Moreland panel “smacks of obstruction of justice.”
McLaughlin suggested President Obama had a hand in Bharara’s decision, saying that “something of this magnitude goes all the way to the White House.”
Neither Bharara’s office nor the White House responded to requests for comment.