With each passing day the news gets worse for the Moreland Commission. The short-lived panel created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to investigate corruption in state government is mired in accusations that it may itself have been corrupted.
And now Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, a co-chair of the commission, is being pressed to make public what she may know about the governor’s alleged efforts to block the panel’s efforts to investigate political groups that had close ties to his office.
The commission was created in July 2013 and was abruptly disbanded by the governor in March without explanation. It’s safe to assume that neither the governor nor the members of the panel believe that the problem of corruption in state government had been solved.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has been investigating the shutdown of the commission since April.
Rice withdrew from the panel in January when she announced that she was running for Congress.
Her opponent in the congressional race, Republican Bruce Blakeman, is calling on Rice to release any emails relating to her time on the commission.
“In our search for the truth, we’re asking Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice … to break her silence and tell the public what she knew,” he said. “If Kathleen Rice knew that crimes were being committed or at the very least allegations of unethical conduct, she as a prosecutor had an absolute, non-delegable legal obligation to disclose that conduct immediately to the state attorney general or the United States attorney. She did neither.”
Eric Phillips, a spokesman for the Rice campaign, said his boss can’t comment because it might interfere with Bharara’s investigation.
How convenient.
The stench from Moreland commission has reached all the way to Long Island, but nobody will know nuthin’ at least until after the November elections.
Although no finger has been pointed at Rice (except perhaps Blakeman’s) the investigative reports in the News York Times have been deeply disturbing.
At the very least Rice should break her silence and say whether or not the commission that she co-chaired operated with integrity and without interference from the very man who appointed her to that commission.
Was she proud of the panel and the work it did?
