By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
The Democratic Assemblyman who has been in the lead on the bridge scandal announced the new round of subpoenas.
“We’ve discussed an executive session, the names and the organizations that will be receiving those subpoenas and I know that the question you all have is who’s getting them and we’re not going to tell you,” Assemblyman John Wisniewski said.
For the moment, the subpoenas are for documents, not testimony, from individuals and organizations.
“I’ll give you a rough breakdown, I think it’s about 17 individuals and about three organizations,” said Wisniewski
The announcement followed an afternoon of drama and partisan bickering, as both the Assembly and the Senate voted unanimously to create select committees on investigations.
Republicans complained that they have been left out of the loop, that they are under-represented on the committees, and that the committee chairs have all the power.
“In order for a proper investigation to take place, we need to be part of the process. We are not merely window dressing,” Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi said.
“What has happened here is a committee of one will decide when subpoenas are issued, in fact minority may not have even be told that they have been issued. I am very concerned, here we are an hour into this process and the bipartisanship is falling apart,” Assemblyman Gregory McGuckin said.
Assembly Democrats have hired as special counsel Reid Schar, an Illinois lawyer who prosecuted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and he was present today.
Republicans want to see his contract.
“What is this going to cost us? How is this going to be paid?” Assemblyman Christopher Brown said.
“There is no price for the truth,because for me there is no price,” Assemblyman Louis Greenwald said.
The Assembly select committee met immediately after its creation this afternoon, then went into executive session to vote on who would get subpoenas.
“I want to be very clear though, those people who receive them, some of them may expect them, some of them may not. I would hate for them to be watching one of the media outlets that are here and find out on national tv that they’re going to be receiving a subpoena. I would rather have them receive it in the appropriate fashion through process server or if they have counsel who’s agreed to except service,” said Wisniewski.
Once this new round of subpoenas is served, the targets will have about 10 days to comply. Wisniewski expects his committee to meet again in about a month. The Senate committee is looking for a special counsel and its chair, Loretta Weinberg, has no timetable yet.