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Joe Bruno worries over federal probe
BY JOE MAHONEY - The New York Daily  News
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF - Sunday, March 2, 2008

State senate GOP Leader Joe Bruno worries he could have "inadvertently" done something that might land him in the feds' frying pan as a result of the probe he insists was requested by Gov. Spitzer, he tells New York magazine. "Who the hell knows if, inadvertently, there's something there - that they uncovered, that they want to accuse you of," Bruno said of the investigation into his outside business dealings.

"That's on my mind," he said. "I think, 'What the hell could they get somebody to say that I said or did?' I know that's what they try and do. They tried like hell to intimidate a couple of people." Since making the bombshell disclosure in December 2006 that he was under FBI investigation, Bruno, 78, has avoided the topic at press conferences, other than to routinely assert he has done nothing wrong. He broke that silence with New York magazine, however, saying he thinks Spitzer put the FBI on his tail when Spitzer was state attorney general.

"I told the FBI: 'I've got a lot of political enemies that would love to get at me, you gotta understand,'" Bruno recalled. "They said, 'We do, but we have an inquiry from someone with a lot of credibility, and we can't ignore it.'" Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson told the magazine, "There is no truth to this story whatsoever."

Discussing his recently ended role as a paid consultant for a Connecticut firm that handles large investment portfolios for some unions with business before the Legislature, Bruno insisted he did not cash in on his role as majority leader. "I provided the entree," Bruno told the mag in describing how he arranged meetings between Wright Investors' Service managers and union officials interested in investing pension money. "My pitch to them was, 'If you like what they have to say, take it to the next level. If you don't, say goodbye."

Bruno said he did no special favors for the clients he sent to Wright Investors' Service, and some ended up losing money.
"My biggest account invested over $120 million," he said. "They lost the whole thing. Why? Poor performance." A law enforcement source told the Daily News the FBI probe of Bruno is continuing.     jmahoney@nydailynews.com