REALITY BASED EDUCATOR ON DE BLASIO SCANDAL: "NICE WORK FROM CUOMO" (UPDATED)

This is straight from RBE.

When I saw that the BOE memo claiming de Blasio committed felonies in his fundraising came from a Cuomo appointee, I thought Cuomo was, at least in part, behind the attack on de Blasio.

It's looking a little more like that today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/25/nyregion/lawyer-for-fund-raisers-tied-to-de-blasio-fires-back-at-elections-board.html?hpw&rref=nyregion&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

The takeaway: You have a Cuomo appointee writing up a memo claiming felonies committed in de Blasio fundraising, then somebody leaking that memo to the press (as well the news of the Bharara and Vance investigations based upon the memo) so that the tabloids convict the mayor of criminality long before anybody knows if the claims in the memo are fair, accurate or legally sound.

Nice work from Cuomo.

Message: "Don't fuck with me, Billy Boy.  I'll destroy you."

I dunno if the lawyer defending de Blasio's fundraising is accurate or bullshitting, but I know one thing:

No matter how this turns out legally, the political damage to de Blasio is extraordinary.

Meanwhile Sheriff Andy, who vetoed a bill some politically connected people in Kiryas Joel wanted vetoed the same weekend those same politically connected people sent him $250,000 dollars in campaign contributions through 10 different LLC's, suffers no political damage for his own ethical lapses and/or criminal fundraising:

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/07/8572342/filings-show-kiryas-joel-money-flowed-cuomo-after-veto

Nice work from Cuomo.

A refrain I'm sick of repeating.

UPDATE FROM RBE
Add Fred Dicker's column to your post, James - he writes that Dems and Republicans are saying Cuomo is behind the leak of the report (I would argue, as one of the commissioners from the BOE hints in the Times article I sent you, that Cuomo was BEHIND the report too!):

http://nypost.com/2016/04/24/de-blasios-imminent-demise-sparks-hunt-for-a-challenger/

Cuomo is looking for either Diaz or Stringer to primary BdB.  Jeffries appears to want to stay in Congress (I would add, Dems have outside shot to take back the House, which might help keep Jeffries there as well), though that could change as this scandal progresses.

Diaz is a criminal himself from a criminal family, so it's beyond me how Cuomo would get him to run a "We need to clean up City Hall" campaign against BdB.  But Stringer is aching to run and has been sucking up to Cuomo for a couple of years now.  So that's a possibility.

If you read the NY Times piece, it's pretty clear that some of the commissioners on the BOE believe the board has been used as an attack vehicle in the past for Cuomo.  There's one current commissioner on record saying just that.

That makes me wonder, did Cuomo gin this up specifically to destroy BdB, have his hack at the BOE (who has a habit of including Cuomo aides in her email chain despite being "independent" of the Cuomo admin) write it up as a criminal referral, then leak the report exactly as the NYPD scandal was happening in order to do maximum damage to de Blasio.

Knowing what we know with previous interference with the BOE as well as every commission he's ever created (Moreland, LIPA, education, etc.), I would have to say that this is probably another Cuomo machination and so far, it's been pretty effective.

But Bharara is not unaware of Cuomo's games.  He warned him over Moreland.  So Cuomo plays a dangerous game here if he ginned this up and left any kind of trail that can connect back to him.

That's a big if, of course.

In the meantime, the tabloids have BdB convicted of felonies already and de Blasio's poll numbers are sure to plummet in the wake of the report leak. 

That should get Cuomo the challengers he wants to take on de Blasio - both a Dem for the primary and a reasonably strong Republican for the general.