Mr. Bharara goes to Albany
As the city of Albany bustled with excitement over Monday night’s Bruce Springsteen concert at the Times Union Center, New York politicians may have been excited (though probably less so) for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s visit to talk about the public corruption issues that plague the Capitol.
Bharara’s busy day include a speaking engagement at the New York Conference of Mayors’ winter conference, attending the swearing-in ceremony of the state’s new chief judge, Janet DiFiore, and a live interview at a public forum hosted by WAMC.
Starting off at the NYCOM event, Bharara took a serious tone and stressed the importance of public officials’ duty to their constituents. Although he alluded to his office’s high-profile corruption convictions of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, Bharara never specifically discussed the two cases during his speech.
“Politics may be inevitable, but corruption need not be,” Bharara said. “Indeed it must not be. So, I only have one brief point to make here today and it’s about the basic right of every mayor and a basic right of every mayor’s constituents, and that right, essentially, is the right not to be ripped off.”
Bharara, whose jurisdiction is technically limited to parts of New York City and several nearby downstate counties, has had an outsized presence in Albany, especially with the arrests and convictions of Silver and Skelos last year. Additionally, Bharara’s office has investigated – and he has publically criticized – Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s shutdown of the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption in 2014, but last month the prosecutor released a statement saying his office found “insufficient evidence” of illegal wrongdoing.
During his address to the gathering of mayors from around the state, Bharara, nicknamed the “Sherriff of Albany,” stressed that Albany’s “culture of corruption” negatively impacts their constituents and urged officials to fight corruption at the local level, as well.
“You just want your legislators to be on the level. That should not be too much to ask,” Bharara said. “When bids are rigged, your people suffer. When cronyism reigns, your people suffer. When transparency takes a back seat to backroom deals, your people suffer.”
After his NYCOM speech, Bharara went directly to the state Court of Appeals to watch DiFiore’s swearing-in ceremony. Despite the hype around Bharara and Cuomo attending the same event, the two public figures never directly interacted during the ceremony.
Afterward, Cuomo told reporters that he was not meeting with Bharara while he was in town.
However, Bharara was seated in the second row behind former top Cuomo aide Larry Schwartz, who voluntarily agreed to meet with federal prosecutors over the shutdown of the Moreland Commission, and in front of former state Sen. Nick Spano, who was prosecuted by Bharara and pleaded guilty in 2012 to filing fraudulent tax returns.
Later in the afternoon, during WAMC’s hour-long broadcast at The Linda WAMC’ Performing Arts Center in Albany, Bharara spoke more openly about corruption in state government and the corruption cases of Silver and Skelos. Bharara’s opening remarks were a condemnation of Albany, a plea for lawmakers to do better and a warning that he is still watching.
“What has been going on in New York state government lately is simultaneously heartbreaking, head scratching and almost comic. Albany is unquestionably suffering from a crisis of corruption, and that’s part of the reason I’m here talking to all of you,” he said. “The simple fact is that the people in the best position to do something about it work in this town.”
Bharara’s remarks at times seemed like a victory lap following his successful prosecutions, although the event also allowed for Bharara’s humor and personal opinion of the goings-on of Albany to show.
Political observers have wondered whether Bharara may run for public office, given his focus on rooting out corruption in Albany. When asked if he was interested in doing so, Bharara, who is known to be a Springsteen fan, replied, “So let me put it this way, since Bruce Springsteen is in town: I was not born to run.”
Bharara spoke broadly about the need for change in Albany, but a key message was aimed at those serving in the state Legislature. Bharara urged state lawmakers to speak up when they see misconduct among their colleagues. According to the federal prosecutor, there was a “deafening silence” from legislators during the investigations of Silver and Skelos.
“People knew before the prosecutors showed up. People always know. Do you think no one knew Sheldon Silver was corrupt before he was put in handcuffs? Not a chance,” Bharara said. “Good people knew and yet they didn’t do anything. A lot of pain and suffering and loss of reputation could have been saved in each and every one of those cases if the good people had done something. If the good people had just sounded the alarm.”
And, of course, he reminded lawmakers to “stay tuned” for more potential arrests at the state Capitol. However, he would not discuss his ongoing investigation into the Buffalo Billion or his past probe into the Moreland Commission.
“As I’ve said a number of times before, we have a lot of prosecutors in our public corruption unit, we have investigators who support them, we have FBI agents who work along their side and we’re not closing up shop anytime soon,” Bharara said. “I think (this is) the best job I've ever had. I think it'll be the best job I'll ever have.”