Moreland Commission seeks lawmakers' clients

By Michael Gormley, AP

New York's new corruption-fighting commission is asking all state lawmakers to provide never-before-required details about their outside work — including a list of law clients — prompting the Legislature to lawyer up for a possible challenge to the panel's authority.

The request by the Commission to Investigate Public Corruption comes on the heels of a sordid spring of a half-dozen federal indictments against lawmakers and questions about whether lucrative outside employment could create conflicts of interest.

According to a letter sent late last month and obtained by The Associated Press, all lawmakers must provide data for outside employment that paid over $20,000 in 2012, a description of what work the lawmaker performed, how the wage or salary was determined, and — critical for the many attorneys in the Legislature — "a list of your clients in any civil matters or in any publicly filed criminal matters."

The commission's deadline is Thursday. If lawmakers don't comply, the commission could subpoena people and records.

Read more at http://www.legislativegazette.com/Articles-Top-Stories-c-2013-09-06-85011.113122-Moreland-Commission-seeks-lawmakers-clients.html