Metro

AG using Bain to bury Vito scandal: GOP big

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is trying to drive attention away from his role in the Sheldon Silver/Vito Lopez secret sex-harassment settlement with a “blatantly political” probe of Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, the state GOP chairman blasted yesterday.

“The timing of the release of information on the investigation of private equity firms by someone whose involvement in the Albany Democratic sexual-harassment scandal is going to be investigated by JCOPE is blatantly political,’’ Chairman Ed Cox told The Post, referring to the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

“This issue is something the IRS, which is responsible for tax payments, has looked at. This has been a longstanding practice by almost half the private equity firms out there, and for Schneiderman to do this now is just another example of the attorney general abusing his office for political purposes and harming the economy of New York City and New York state.’’

The New York Times disclosed yesterday that Schneiderman had begun an investigation into whether several major private equity firms, including Bain — founded by Romney and the subject of repeated attacks by President Obama’s campaign — illegally reduced tax obligations by converting management fees into fund investments, which are taxed at a reduced rate.

Schneiderman, an aggressively partisan Democrat who was named by Obama earlier this year to head a national task force on fraud in the home-mortgage industry, initially claimed early last week that his office had no involvement in approving a $103,000 secret deal that was signed by Assembly Speaker Silver (D-Manhattan) to settle claims brought by two women who accused Assemblyman Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic chairman, of sexual harassment.

Lopez paid another $32,000 out of his pocket.

But e-mails and other evidence released later in the week showed lawyers in Schneiderman’s office worked closely with Silver’s staff in developing the settlement.

Silver, who has insisted he did nothing wrong in arranging the settlement but concedes he erred in keeping the details secret, and Cuomo have said they’d welcome an investigation by JCOPE.

The panel is slated to hold a closed-door meeting tomorrow, and an investigation is expected to be authorized.

Even some high-level state Democrats privately accuse Schneiderman of playing politics by launching the investigation.

“Can anybody believe this becoming public at this time was a coincidence with Schneiderman’s other problem, the Shelly settlement? Schneiderman is under assault for having a hand in the Silver deal, and all of a sudden this comes out?” a senior Democrat said yesterday.

Cox, meanwhile, called on Cuomo to apologize for a harsh attack on Republicans by his newly named state Democratic co-chair, Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, who called the GOP “a party of hatred that wraps up their hatred in clever 30-second sound bites.”

“For her to inject that kind of language into the political discourse here is completely unacceptable, and the governor should condemn it,” Cox said.

A request for comment from Cuomo’s office wasn’t returned.