AG Andrew Cuomo
ALBANY, N.Y. -- After reviewing materials acquired through subpoenas, the AG said in a letter to the Power Authority, some e-mail records seemed to be missing.
"... We have learned that affirmative steps were taken by NYPA personnel to purposefully destroy responsive information, specifically, e-mails on the blackberry of Daniel Wiese ("Wiese e-mails")."
A former trooper, Weise, used to head up Governor George Pataki's security detail and is currently suspended with pay from his post as Inspector General of the State Power Authority.
The letter says the destruction of the files took place on April 1st, the day the AG announced his investigation. Wiese was suspended shortly after.
During a news conference Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, the man who's State Police travel records were at the center of the Troopergate scandal, says it's all very interesting.
"I wonder why would anybody want to scrub everything that was there? Was there something on a public, with a public purchase that's used dishonestly and illegally?” Bruno said.
In the letter, the AG wants the Power Authority to explain its procedures -- why the documents were destroyed and how they can be retrieved.
The scandal surrounding New York Power Authority Inspector General Daniel Wiese is heating up. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating whether political interference exists within the State Police. Cuomo is looking into whether Wiese used his contacts in the State Police and his position at the Power Authority to inappropriately acquire information about lawmakers. Capital Tonight's Erin Billups reports.
One senator says it looks like a cover-up.
"If this was an effort, which can be easily demonstrated by forensic experts, to determine whether or not this was a specific, deliberate attempt to erase information, it's destruction of state property, obstruction of justice and ought to be looked at from a criminal standpoint," said George Winner.
"What do you need there? You need honesty, you need accountability, you need transparency, you need to know what happened," Bruno said.
Turning Bruno's words toward the Power Authority back at him, a reporter from the Albany Times Union asked, if in the name of transparency, Bruno would finally release records of when he used state aircrafts and why. That's the same paper, the same reporter, that first published the story that started the scandal that Bruno says smeared him.
"Guess what, I haven't used state aircraft since I said I wouldn't, so you want my itinerary, it's zippo, zero,’ Bruno said. “Did you ever put on the front page, we were wrong? We didn't have the correct information, we screwed up? No, what'd you do? Tried to pile on. Thank you for nothing."
Cuomo is also asking for the email records of two other Power Authority employees and that they take all necessary steps to recover any deleted files.