The Search for "Finality" in Albany

State Inspector General Kristine Hamann said today for the first time in public that her report on the governor’s aides using state police to track the governor’s Republican opponent would not have brought “finality” to the issue.

Therefore, Hamann told a hearing committee in Albany, she didn’t issue a report on her investigation, nor subpoena any of the top aides to the governor involved. Hamann has been criticized for not issuing her own report or subpoenaing the governor’s aides to discuss the issue, something another investigator, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, was not empowered to do when he released his report on the matter.

Hamann, surrounded by a throng of reporters in the Capitol, was asked why she didn't seek to speak to the aides in question.

“For the very reason I’ve explained at this hearing, [which] is that I felt I could not bring finality to the matter.”

And what does “finality” mean in this instance?

“No matter what I would have said, there still would have been questions raised and the issue still would have gone to the ethics commission and the Albany county DA and I believe we would be in the same issue were are in today.”

And so the saga continues...