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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bill O'Reilly, 212-396-9117
Statement on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Questionable Independence from
the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics
March 28, 2016
"The appointment of a third former Cuomo staffer to run day-to-day operations at JCOPE makes it hard for any reasonable person to believe that Gov. Andrew Cuomo played no role in JCOPE's controversial new fiat forcing public relations professionals to register as lobbyists and, ultimately, to report communications with editorial writers to state government.
"It is our suspicion that Mr. Cuomo played a significant role in orchestrating this action behind the scenes. We believe that is a reasonable supposition based on Mr. Cuomo's well established reputation for Machiavellianism. We will not speculate on why Mr. Cuomo would seek to chill interactions between editorial writers and communications professionals who regularly challenge state government.
"The November Team has issued three Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests seeking communications between JCOPE and the governor's office -- one to JCOPE, one to the Office of the Governor, and one to the New York Department of State.
"JCOPE rejected the request out of hand, saying it is exempt from FOIL requests; the governor's office sent back a single unrelated email, and the Department of State notified us that it needs more time to parse records.
"Noting Mr. Cuomo's penchant for communicating with his staff and other government officials via untraceable Blackberry Messenger, we are less than sanguine that a smoking gun will be produced. We will continue to press for records nonetheless.
"One final thought: If Governor Cuomo thinks that JCOPE's decision infringes on the First Amendment, as his spokespeople have suggested, why isn't he doing anything about it?"
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The above statement is jointly issued by William F. B. O'Reilly, Jessica Proud, and Jerry McKinstry of The November Team, LLC. The November Team is a plaintiff in a First Amendment legal challenge to JCOPE's binding "advisory opinion." This statement was issued expressly by The November Team and without consultation or knowledge of anyone else involved in the pending litigation. |
