This Thanksgiving I Am Thankful for Ethics Investigations

Well, just kidding, I don't think we'll be seeing many of those. But we are seeing an uptick in ethics stories in the press. Just this week the Washington Post questioning whether Congressmen are swayed by their stock portfolios and the investigation of Representative Mollohan. Now we see Andrew Cuomo taking campaign contributions from attorneys whose clients he is investigating.

Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's campaign fund took tens of thousands of dollars from law firms representing clients his office investigated or accused of wrongdoing, state records show.

Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP, a New York law firm led by David Boies, gave Cuomo $35,000 this year, records show. The firm represents former American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Maurice "Hank" Greenberg in a civil fraud case the attorney general is pursuing. Lawyers defending Dell Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and a former state political party chief in Cuomo cases also contributed to him, records show.

Cuomo's donation forms ask contributors to sign a statement saying they have no "matter" pending with him. That rule "does not extend to attorneys representing persons or entities with matters before the NYS Attorney General's office," the form states, mirroring predecessors' policies. The exception creates the appearance of impropriety, ethics experts said.

"If Cuomo doesn't want to accept contributions that have the appearance of being corrupting, then he would need to include those attorneys as well," said Allison Hayward, a former Federal Election Commission chief of staff and counsel who teaches legal ethics at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia.

Middlemen, such as lawyers, are sometimes seen as a bigger threat to an official's integrity than their clients, because "they are working the political system for a profession, and the public sees them as insincere and manipulative," she said.

See the full story here.