NBC’s Winter: Cuomo Was Trying to Appoint His Own Investigator, That Did Not Go Over Very Well With State Lawmakers

EXCERPT:

WINTER: "Right, Steph. Well the governor was trying to do what everybody who’s ever been under investigation has wanted to do, which is appoint their own investigator and in lieu of that have somebody else who’s an ally of them appoint that investigator as well. That did not go over very well with state lawmakers. They were upset about it, the attorney general did not want that to happen. The attorney general wanted a referral under New York executive law 63, paragraph 8. And so that’s eventually what ended up happening after calls for an independent investigation. So what will happen now, Steph, is the attorney general has the power and has said that they will appoint, she will appoint, Letitia James will appoint somebody to oversee this investigation. Under law that person is required to report back weekly to the attorney general. That person has subpoena power. If somebody doesn’t comply with the subpoena request, either for interviews or for documents then that person is guilty of a misdemeanor under New York state law. If somebody discloses who are the witnesses or what information that person has obtained under this AG’s investigation they are also guilty of a misdemeanor under law. At this point there’s no indications that this has any sort of a criminal angle but we’ll have to keep watching it, Steph."