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上传时间: 2015-02-11 浏览次数:944次
Preet Bharara promises more corruption probes
Wed, Feb 11, 2015
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on Tuesday promised that more state corruption cases are in the offing after poking fun at Albany’s “three men in the room” decision-making and noting thatSheldon Silver has been deposed as the powerful Assembly speaker.
Bharara sidestepped a question on whether the other two men in the room — Gov. Cuomo and Senate Republican Majority Leader Dean Skelos — would also be knocked out by scandal.
The feds are investigating Cuomo’s abrupt closing of his own Moreland Commission to Combat Public Corruption and Skelos’s dealings with a law firm that paid him between $150,000 to $250,000 last year.
“Membership of the room seems to be changing. It changed last week when a new Assembly speaker was put into power,” Bharara told MSNBC’s Ari Melber.
Bharara filed a criminal complaint alleging Silver used his powerful position to amass millions of dollars in kickbacks through two law firms.
“We have a number of investigations going on. And we’ve had them for a long time,”Bharara said.
“It doesn’t seem like business will be abating any time soon in the public corruption department.”
Bharara also took a jab at Cuomo’s claim last year he couldn’t discuss the Moreland Commission on advice of the US Attorney’s office.
“As I believe the U.S. attorney has made it clear that ongoing public dialogue is not helpful to this investigation,” Cuomo said in July, “ we will have no additional comment on the matter.”
Since then, Cuomo has commented.
But Bharara said the governor had no reason to zip it up last year.
“I don’t think that’s true because I’ve heard comments attributed to the governor,” Bharara said.
He made it clear that Cuomo could have talked all he wanted — as long as he didn’t interfere with potential witnesses.
“People shouldn’t be talking to potential federal witnesses in a case when the prosecutor and the FBI and other investigators are looking at something,” Bharara said.
“But I don’t think I or anyone else ever said any particular person shouldn’t be talking about how he or she made decisions publicly.”