Friday’s Briefing: Troopergate Charges

by Contributor | July 25, 2008 1:27 pm

Four of former Governor Eliot Spitzer’s aides face the first charges — not criminal charges, but civil ones — in the case called Troopergate.  A panel alleges the men broke the rules in order to dig up dirt on one of Spitzer’s enemies.

Two of the four say, yes, they did it[1].  Two others will fight.  One of the two who will fight the charges calls the entire investigation “bogus”[2].

The original allegation is that Spitzer pushed the aides to get negative information about State Senator Joe Bruno’s use of state vehicles for his travels so Spitzer could use it to force Bruno to do what Spitzer wanted done.  But there’s nothing in the panel’s report that links Spitzer[3] to what his aides did.

Spitzer’s testimony to the panel has been released.  You can get a good summary here[4].  His e-mails are also public now, because of the investigation.  He may have called himself a “(bleep-)ing steamroller” in public, but in e-mails, he was “Laurence”[5].  Different name; just as hard-driving.

And Spitzer, in his testimony, denied he ever wanted something…um…placed up the…um…derriere…of Joe Bruno “with a red hot poker”[6].

It’s a light day for news otherwise.

Elsewhere:

• The man who heads the State Liquor Authority’s under investigation for allegedly abusing travel reimbursements[7].
• Congressman John McHugh plans to stay out of the debate[8] over getting rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.

And Finally (told ya it was a light day):

• If your kid gets cut from the college golf team, what do you do?  If you’re Rudy Giuliani, you sue[9].

Happy weekend, all!  Drop a note or a juicy link in the comments.

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/editors-desk/fridays-briefing-troopergate-charges/

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