SPITZER AIDES IN MYSTERY MEETINGS

The New York Post reports:

Gov. Spitzer's aides have been holding late-night "black car" meetings to prevent the creation of e-mails or telephone records that could be subpoenaed in the state dirty-tricks scandal, The Post has learned.

The top-secret rendezvous have taken place on a regular basis since Attorney General Andrew Cuomo issued his bombshell report on July 23 outlining a plot by top Spitzer aides to use the State Police to gather supposedly damaging information on Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer), an individual close to the scandal said.

"There are a lot of big black cars driving through neighborhoods lying in wait for people so that messages can be delivered personally and after dark," said the source, an experienced public employee who demanded anonymity.

"This is being done to avoid any phone, e-mail, or snail-mail trails. "Many people have heard about some of these late-night drive-bys," the source added.

The surreptitious contacts have taken place in various Albany-area communities, where all of those so far named in the scandal live, the source said.

The Spitzer aides are "all involved in it," said the source. "The [state] Ethics Commission has been asking people, 'Have you had a telephone conversation with this person, or have you sent an e-mail to that person?'

"What they should be asking is, 'Did you have any late-night meetings with the people involved?' " the source continued.

Reached for comment, Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson insisted, "No such meetings as those have taken place."

Meanwhile, the Spitzer administration is invoking a new claim to fight the Ethics Commission's efforts to obtain private, scandal-related e-mails written by the governor's top aides.

"The governor's claim now is that 'civil liberties' are involved and that he can't be expected to pressure his employees to give up their private e-mails," a source familiar with the situation told The Post.

Eliot Spitzer concerned about civil liberties.This story is not going away.