Transparency and Independance

Anytime you see or hear a politician using the phrases transparency and/or independence in the context of ethics you can be sure that they are full of shit.

Governor Cuomo and his lap dogs on the Moreland Commission are no exception.

The more Cuomo said the Moreland Commission was independent the more positive I became that he completely controlled it.

Cuomo claimed that shutting Moreland down was worth it because we got an independent enforcement counsel at the Board of Elections.  Of course that independent enforcement counsel was hand picked by Cuomo from Cuomo's staff but by god she is independent.

I have an easy test to see how independent she is . . . why doesn't she explain why the gov can use his campaign cash to buy hockey playoff tickets for his daughter and girlfriend in a private box.  In a stretch I can understand using your campaign account to but tickets for the gov and some donors to attend the game but how does having his girlfriend and daughter in attendance relate to the campaign?

And this would be a good example of the independent enforcement counsel practicing transparency by telling us all her thought process for this use of campaign funds.

Yup transparency the other term that guarantees whatever comes next is pure bullshit.

Here's another idea for the gov   if you want to prove Moreland and its staff and commissioners were independent why don't you be transparent and summon them all to Albany or New York City for a press conference where you can insist they answer questions related to what happened on the Moreland Commission.  They can all bring their lawyers who in unison can claim that while Moreland was the most independent and transparent body in New York's history they can not answer any questions while a federal investigation is pending.

Right . . . independent and transparent

And now with the gov's dad jumping in to defend junior we can add honest to the lexicon of ethics horseshit.

Enough already!!!!   politicians are a lot of things some of them even admirable but independent, transparent and honest when it comes to ethics are not even in the area code.

Every single commissioner and staff member of the Moreland Commission should be forced to testify under oath about what they knew, when they knew it and what they did about the independent, transparent and honest advice they received fron the governor's office.

And while I'm on the subject of independent, transparent and honest work by ethics agencies I have to go back to JJOKE, JDOPE JCOPE's work on the Boies/Ellenhorn rewriting of the gift ban that resulted in the Ellenhorn settlement agreement announced last week.

I've FOILed the investigation file to see what actual investigation took place.  I'm hearing disturbing rumors that very little to none actually took place.  No sworn testimony, no independent verification of facts relied upon in the settlement agreement and no independent, transparent and honest decisions related to the case.

In fact I hear that LT and the staff at JJOKE felt this was a serious case deserving of a serious fine but commissioners controlled by the governor would not allow it and the best LT could get was the settlement agreement that was announced last week and even that agreement was ghost written by David Boies and David Ellenhorn to cover up their alleged violations of the Public Officers Law.

A careful independent, transparent and honest reading of the agreement is very telling.

For example it lists Ellenhorn's long history of work as an attorney but makes no mention of what happened to the previous private firm that bore his name.   Could the troubling SEC allegations and that firms subsequent demise be the reason?  No mention of Ellenhorns failure to timely file his disclosure reports, no mention of any outside employment by Ellenhorn unreported on those tardy disclosure reports.  Trust me this wasn't Ellenhorn's first ethical rodeo but we are supposed to believe the mere admission of a violation of travel rules was sufficient punishment.

No mention in the report that Ellenhorn attended a deposition of Warren Buffet without disclosing his financial interest in Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway and no mention that said interest was only included in amended reports after a complaint about Ellenhorn was made.

The report does mention that the travel was first raised by different counsel than Mr. Boies four years later.   Let me be independent, transparent and honest I was that counsel and the commission raised the incident with me after it was widely reported in the media.  Why make it seem in the report like it was an afterthought 4 years later?  Ellenhorn wasn't going to report it and neither was Boies because they knew what they did was wrong, very wrong.

Why did the commission limit it's inquiry into the incident as a violation of travel regulations when it was a clear violation of the Public Officers Law?

Why does it matter that Ellenhorn claims he did not know the rules for accepting free travel?

Is JJOKE going to allow the I didn't know the law defense for others in the future?

And I won't bore the readers again with how bogus the Elenhorn didn't fiancially benefit and it didn't cost Boies additional money excuse that the report now incorporates as a JJOKE rule for gifts.  By the way almost identical language Boies used when first questioned by the media.

Speaking of which why no mention that Boies lied to the media when he said he offered the free jet ride because Ellenhorn missed his flight?   Now it is because Ellenhorm would have had a long delay.   Another lie since there were flights available from Omaha to New York all afternoon, a fact JJOKE knew because I gave them the flight schedules.

And what about the ticket Ellenhorn didn't use.  Never returned to the state even though it was refundable.  The report says Ellenhorn didn't know because someone else made his travel arrangements.  Who made those arrangements and did you take that persons testimony to verify.

Speaking of verify who was Ellenhorn's supervisor at the time?  And what did he know and when did he know it?

These are important questions because now governor Andrew Cuomo was AG when Ellenhorn and Boies pulled this little travel stunt.  And you know the governors history of independent, transparent and honest management.

And absolutely no mention of the free limo ride Ellenhorn got from Westchester to NYC after the flight.

Independent, transparent and honest   don't make me laugh

Two things I can guarantee.

One - I won't stop until I find out what really happened inside JJOKE that caused certain commissioners to overrule LT and the staff and,

Two - David Boies needs to be held accountable for what happened and I intend to do just that (by the way what do you think the odds are that Harlan Levy leaves the AG and goes back to work as David Boies partner in the future?)