Good day all. I hope you’ve recovered from the massive overdose of Tryptophan we all received yesterday. There is one group of people who didn’t have a Happy Thanksgiving. No, I don’t mean the moonbats and Liberals, I mean Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “Pals” in the state of New York.
It seems a few of them had their Thanksgiving ruined by being arrested a few days before for corruption. Here are the details from Observer:
An array of figures from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s inner circle—including a confidante so close the governor called him “my father’s third son”—got slapped with a sweeping 14-count federal indictment today, which alleges they colluded in a pair of schemes to solicit bribes for state assistance and to rig economic development contracts for companies that gave to Cuomo’s campaigns.
A grand jury gave crusading U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara the go-ahead to prosecute his case against Joseph Percoco, the governor’s former campaign manager, deputy executive secretary, political fixer and body man, on charges he solicited bribes and a “low-show job” for his wife from two major Cuomo contributors. In return, the federal government alleges Percoco pressured executive agencies and entities to offer assistance and loosen regulations for the companies’ operations in New York State—and lied about the arrangement on disclosure forms.
Preetinder Singh “Preet” Bharara is something of a very pleasant surprise. He was appointed by the SCoaMF, Barack Obama, and is actually a very honest and capable U.S. Attorney. I understand he’s also running an investigation into the Clinton Slush Fund Foundation, and refused to shut it down when confronted by Loretta Lynch.(This is a rumor and I have no citations to present) He’s coming across as the “Incorruptible man” long sought after in government circles. And this is why so many New York Democrats are quaking in terror of him, especially Andrew Cuomo.
“Percoco had a longstanding relationship with the governor and the governor’s family, and was generally seen as the governor’s ‘right-hand man,’ who coordinated access to the governor and often spoke for him on a broad array of substantive and administrative matters,” the indictment reads. “Percoco also served as the ‘gatekeeper’ of opportunities to speak or meet with the governor, oversaw logistics of the governor’s events and travel and supervised appointments and administrative matters for the executive chamber.”
Also among the accused is Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, the former head of the State University of New York Polytechnic. Acting under the auspices of the Cuomo-controlled SUNY system, Kaloyeros ran the governor’s signature economic development initiatives through several semi-private companies, including the Fort Schuyler Management Corporation.
Andrew Cuomo has long had the aroma of corruption around him, going back to his days running the Department of Housing and Urban Development under…wait for it…Bill Clinton!!
The biggest of Cuomo’s revitalization programs was the Buffalo Billion, which Bharara charges became a cash cow for “friends of the administration”—developers who channeled cash into the governor’s campaign. The indictment claims Kaloyeros colluded with mega-donor executives from the company LP Ciminelli to rig the bidding process so their firm received fat contracts for building facilities in Western New York.
In other words, a typical New Your Politician. It’s all about the graft in the Land that Democrats control. An aside. Did you know that the state motto for New York is “Exelcisior”? This means “Ever Higher. What it translates into, apparently, is “Ever Higher” taxes, regulations, graft, corruption and contempt for the law. Pity they ran into one of the few competent and honest members of the Obama Regime.
Asked for comment, Percoco’s attorney Barry Bohrer responded with a string of Thanksgiving puns and an allusion to the Supreme Court’s Skilling v. United States decision, which substantially narrowed the scope of honest services fraud statutes like the one Bharara hopes to convict his client on.
Oh this should be amusing.
“This case is a real turkey. We will knock the stuffing out of it at trial,” Bohrer said in an emailed statement. “We give thanks for a system in which a jury can reject the government’s efforts to criminalize conduct that has been found unworthy of prosecution by the highest court in the land. Mr. Percoco is innocent and will enter a plea of not guilty because he is.”
I wonder if Mr. Bohrer has spoken with the last person who said he was innocent and that everything he did was above board, former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver? You might want to talk with him about how he successfully fought charges brought by Mr. Bharara. Oh Wait! He was convicted and sentenced to 12 years.
And as for Governor Cuomo?
Cuomo, who does not face any accusations of wrongdoing, has maintained that he was utterly oblivious to any nefarious dealings allegedly going on in his administration. He has shifted responsibility for his upstate New York initiatives from SUNY Polytechnic to the Empire State Economic Development Corporation, another entity he unilaterally controls.
“This is a profoundly sad situation for me personally. Now the justice system must take its course, and any of those found guilty of abusing the public’s trust should and will be punished,” the governor said in a statement sent to the Observer, vowing to pursue ethics reform in next year’s legislative session. “Changes need to be made to restore faith at every level of government. My administration has taken a number of steps in the past several months to reform the procurement process, and has proposed additional measures for the Legislature to take up when they return.”
Cuomo talks a good game, but I have no doubt that he wishes he had ordered the brown pants to go with his suit. I don’t know what President-Elect Trump has in store for Mr. Bharara, but I will be surprised if he asks him for his resignation. (Something that happens a lot when a new president comes into office) I do know that if Felonia von Pantsuit had won, Preet Bharara would already be getting ready to look for a new job.
Thatisall
~The Angry Webmaster~
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