The Stonewall Comes Crumbling Down: Secret Spitzer Testimony to Be Revealed

Well, it's about time. Only took about a year, the downfall of his administration and a pathetic attempt at covering up by the Albany County District Attorney. Now we may just get to the bottom of the Dirty Tricks Scandal.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares, threatened with the prospect of legal action by The Post and other newspapers, flip-flopped yesterday and agreed to release thousands of Dirty Tricks Scandal documents.

The hapless Soares was embarrassed last month when an Albany County official overruled his initial refusal of The Post's request for the records. Soares had insisted that releasing the documents could harm investigations of last summer's plot by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer to use the State Police to damage Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno.

Soares' refusal to comply with the Freedom of Information Law shocked officials of the state Committee on Open Government. The Post then began a proceeding aimed at forcing the district attorney to comply with state law.

More here. Still sounds like the timeframe is muddy. No doubt Soares will try and stall.

Soares had initially refused to release the documents but was overruled by Bryan Clenahan, the county's appeals officer on Freedom on Information cases. His office said it will now release thousands of pages of documents sought by several news organizations, including the Times Union, after the material is reviewed.

A Soares spokeswoman could not say when that would occur, but said it would take some time.

Soares' investigation into the matter concluded Spitzer was directly involved in his office's release of travel records on Senate Majority Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, contrary to the former governor's numerous public assertions that he'd been in the dark on what his aides were doing. Soares' probe found that aides to the governor sought to release the records to expose Bruno's use of state aircraft and State Police drivers on days he attended political fund-raisers in New York City.

An earlier probe by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found that Spitzer's aides had improperly used State Police to assemble the travel records from memory and involved the police agency in a political matter. The governor's chief spokesman, Darren Dopp, a key figure in the scandal, was suspended and later resigned. His testimony to Soares revealed that the governor had lied about his involvement.

This pathetic saga never would have occurred has Spitzer not been so outrageously power hungry and threatened to "steamroll" people who got in his way.

Hopefully, we get to the bottom of this sordid mess and he pays the price for his actions.

Nobody should feel sorry for this man.

Previously.