Spitzer to Talk Dirty to Panel

The New York Post reports:

former Gov. Eliot Spitzer will be subpoenaed within weeks to give his first public testimony in the Dirty Tricks Scandal if, as expected, a state commission charges his former aide Darren Dopp with violating state law.

Dopp lawyer Michael Koenig, a former federal prosecutor, has concluded Spitzer's testimony would be crucial to back up his client's claim that the former governor gave the go-ahead for every step in the plot that used the State Police to gather purportedly damaging information on now-former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer), a source close to the situation told The Post.

"If Dopp is telling the truth, then Spitzer was at the core of the scandal," said an investigator involved in the case.

The state Public Integrity Commission is expected to charge Dopp, Spitzer's one-time communications director, with two civil violations of the Public Officers Law as soon as today in relation to the scandal, sources close to the commission said.

If he is charged, Dopp would be able to challenge the accusation in a trial-like public proceeding that would grant Koenig access to all scandal-related records gathered by the commission, and the power to subpoena witnesses.