LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his aides broke no laws in the Troopergate affair and don’t appear to have even had an organized plot to discredit Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, according to Albany County District Attorney David Soares.
The Times Union reports that Soares, in a 35-page report and a news conference this morning, said the governor and his aides, along with acting State Police Superintendent Preston Felton, acted within their authority when they collected information on Bruno’s state-funded travel and provided it to the press.
“You can have the worst intent in the world,” Soares said, “but if the act itself is not unlawful, and is not unauthorized, then you don’t have a crime.”
Although Bruno and other Republicans have called for Spitzer and his aides to be put under oath and for Soares to invoke subpoena power to obtain documents in the probe, Soares said he did not use such tools. He said his inquiry found no indication that any of the subjects broke the law concerning official misconduct, and that without reasonable cause to believe a crime was committed, he would not invoke a grand jury, put people under oath, or issue subpoenas.
