NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Thursday said he "removed himself" from two ethics probes of state Governor David Paterson.
Cuomo, who is expected to run for governor, named Judith Kaye, the state's former top judge, to oversee inquiries into whether Paterson, a fellow Democrat, illegally intervened into a domestic abuse case against a top aide and whether he illegally solicited and accepted free tickets to baseball's World Series.
"I want to make sure this is an investigation that is as free from political interference as possible," Cuomo told reporters on a conference call.
Cuomo said he determined after a preliminary review that there are "credible issues to resolve" in both investigations.
"If there was no merit to either of these referrals, I could have saved everyone a lot of time and dismissed them," he said.
The attorney general's office has reviewed thousands of e-mails and interviewed dozens of witnesses, he said adding that he believes that a full and thorough investigation of both issues is warranted.
Paterson has insisted he did not abuse the powers of his office and that his name will be cleared.
The governor did, however, abandon his election campaign to run for the job in November, when his term expires.
Paterson became governor in 2008 when former Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal. Paterson has resisted a chorus of calls from Democratic leaders that he step down.
