Darren Dopp

The Eliot Spitzer political surveillance controversy (also known as Troopergate) broke out on July 23, 2007 when New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office admonished Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer's administration for ordering the State Police to create special records of Senate majority leader Joseph L. Bruno's whereabouts when he traveled with police escorts in New York City.

The investigations of the event, dubbed Troopergate by media outlets, have not been affected by Spitzer's resignation. As of March 2008, four probes by the state Attorney General's office, the State Senate Investigations Committee, the Albany County District Attorney's office, and the Spitzer-appointed state ethics board, the New York Commission on Public Integrity, are ongoing.

At the direction of top officials of the Spitzer administration, the New York State Police created documents meant to cause political damage to Bruno. The governor's staff had stated they were responding to a Freedom of Information request from the Albany Times-Union in late June. On May 23, Spitzer's Communications Director Darren Dopp wrote an e-mail to Rich Baum, a senior Spitzer adviser, stating that "records exist going way back" about Bruno's use of state aircraft, and that "also, I think there is a new and different way to proceed re media. Will explain tomorrow." Dopp later wrote another e-mail to Baum after a story ran in the Albany Times-Union about a federal grand jury investigation of Bruno's investments in thoroughbred racing horses, and wrote: "Think travel story would fit nicely in the mix." The first Freedom of Information Act request about Bruno's travel was filed by the Times Union on June 27, nearly a month after.

A 53-page report issued by the Attorney General's office concluded that Spitzer engaged in creating media coverage concerning Senator Bruno's travel before any Freedom of Information Law request was made. The investigation looked into both Bruno's travel and the Senate leader's allegation that Spitzer used State Police to spy on him. Cuomo concluded that "These e-mails show that persons in the governor's office did not merely produce records under a FOIL request, but were instead engaged in planning and producing media coverage concerning Senator Bruno's travel on state aircraft before any FOIL request was made." It noted that the Times-Union's initial FOIL request did not even ask for the records involving Bruno that the paper was later given by aides to Spitzer. It also suggests that the governor's staff lied when they tried to explain what they had done and forced the State Police to go far beyond their normal procedures in documenting Mr. Bruno's whereabouts.

...
Wikipedia