Gov. Spitzer is being blamed for siccing the FBI on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno – after earlier accusations that he unleashed the State Police, and tried to unleash the Internal Revenue Service, on him as well.
Sources close to Bruno told The Post that Senate investigators probing the Dirty Tricks Scandal have turned up what one called “strong indications” that Spitzer tapped his powerful law-enforcement connections last year while still attorney general to push the FBI into investigating the Rensselaer County-based Bruno’s private consulting business.
“Sure, we think Spitzer was behind it. He’s been behind every other attempt to destroy Joe, and it’s all tied in,” said a source familiar with Bruno’s thinking. Bruno, the state’s most powerful Republican, hastily called a press conference last December to announce the FBI probe after learning The Post was about to reveal that several Albany-area officials and business leaders had received federal subpoenas.
Bruno denied any wrongdoing and has insisted that consulting fees he received from Albany-area businessman Jared Abbruzzese were unrelated to state funds he steered to one of Abbruzzese’s businesses.
The Post revealed in July that the Spitzer administration had used the State Police in a plot to gather damaging evidence about Bruno’s use of a state aircraft.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, in a July 23 report, confirmed The Post’s findings and concluded Bruno had done nothing wrong.
While Spitzer apologized for the anti-Bruno effort and claimed his staff acted without authorization, The Post then disclosed a second plot by the governor to get the IRS to investigate Bruno.
Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson said any claim that the governor was linked to the FBI probe of Bruno “is untrue, and couldn’t be more ridiculous.”
Meanwhile, the Senate GOP is refusing to schedule meetings with lobbyists from Patricia Lynch and Associates (PLA), the firm that hired former Spitzer Communications Director Darren Dopp, a key figure in the Dirty Tricks Scandal, last October, legislative sources say.
The Senate GOP had made clear their unhappiness with Lynch, a former top aide to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), just days after Dopp’s hiring was announced.
But it was not until now that the blacklisting of lobbyists from the firm became known.
“The senate will meet with PLA clients but won’t meet with the lobbyists. The firm has been ‘iced,’ ” one source said.