The following is via the Wall Street Journal:
Two groups filed a formal complaint Wednesday asking New York state’s ethics enforcement agency to investigate state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s handling of sexual-harassment complaints against a high-ranking lawmaker.
The National Organization for Women and Common Cause, a government transparency group, submitted the formal complaint, calling for a probe into Mr. Silver’s approval of a secret $100,000 taxpayer-funded payment to settle accusations by female employees against Assemblyman Vito Lopez.
Mr. Silver would be the most powerful figure yet to be scrutinized by the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which wouldn’t comment on the complaint Wednesday. A commission probe would widen the circle of Albany power brokers at risk in a quickly unfolding sexual-misconduct scandal.
A spokesman for Mr. Silver said the speaker had already begun sharing records with the commission. In an email to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Silver said he welcomed an investigation by the joint ethics commission, contending it would show the settlement was “both legal and ethical and made out of deference to the wishes of the complainants.”
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