ALBANY, N.Y. — U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has reportedly stepped us his scrutiny over Gov. Andrew Cuomo's decision to shutter acorruption-busting panel, sending a letter to the panel andthreatening to investigate potential obstructionof justice and witness tampering.The New York TimesreportedThursday that a letter from Bharara's office warned against having Moreland Commission members interfered with by Cuomo's office after several of them Monday came out in support of the Moreland Commission's work.The letter from prosecutors, which was read to The New York Times, said, "We have reason to believe a number of commissioners recently have been contacted about the commission's work, and some commissioners have been asked to issue public statements characterizing events and facts regarding the commission's operation."To the extent anyone attempts to influence or tamper with a witness's recollection of events relevant to our investigation, including the recollection of acommissioner or one of the commission's employees, we request that you advise our office immediately, as we must consider whether such actions constitute obstructionof justice or tampering with witnesses that violate federallaw."There was no immediate comment from Cuomo's office. U.S. Attorney's Office declined comment and declined to release the letter.Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, who was one of three Moreland co-chairs, wrote a three-page defense of the panel on Monday just hours before Cuomo was set to make his first appearance in Buffalo after theTimesfirst revealed last week the involvement of Cuomo's office is pressing the commission to not issue subpoenas to Cuomo's allies.Cuomo has heavily relied on Fitzpatrick's letter since then in arguing that the panel was independent."The real question is was the commission independent in the decisions it made? And sometimes the answer is yes or no and sometimes there isa definitive source," Cuomo said Wednesday on Long Island. "And the co-chair of the committee said definitively (Monday) that he made all the decisions with his co-chairs. Period."Fitzpatrick's comments were followed later Monday by similar statements of supportfrom several district attorneys who served on commission, including the Rockland County district attorney.In an interview with Gannett's Albany Bureau, Broome County DA Gerald Mollen said Monday he believed that he and his colleagues had "absolute independence to go wherever the commission wanted and the governor could not stop us if we choose to go somewhere."Bharara is investigating the commission's work after Cuomo abruptly disbanded it in March, amid perhaps dozens of investigations into corruption in Albany.Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino on Thursday pressed for the state to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the matter, claiming that state laws may have been broken."There were basically threats to pull back subpoenas," Astorino said. "These were investigations that were stopped."
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