Politics on the Hudson

The executive director of the state Commission on Public Integrity should be fired for unlawfully disclosing confidential information about the “Troopergate’’ scandal to an aide to then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the state inspector general recommended today.

The executive director, Herbert Teitelbaum, gave the information to Robert Hermann in 2007, when Hermann was a member of Spitzer’s cabinet. Hermann is a former law partner and “close friend’’ of Teitelbaum, according to the report.

“Herbert Teitelbaum and Robert Hermann betrayed the public trust,’’ Inspector General Joseph Fisch said today. “It is disturbing that while investigating leaks by the governor’s office of confidential information, the commission’s executive director committed a similar offense by leaking confidential information.’’

There was no immediate response from Teitelbaum or the commission, which is the body that would have to move to oust Teitelbaum.

The rare step of the commission calling for the ouster of a public official is the latest twist in the long-running “Troopergate’’ scandal. Several agencies investigated whether Spitzer and his aides had directed State Police to spy on his chief political rival, then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, in 2007.

Last July, the commission found reasonable cause that four Spitzer administration officials had violated the public officer’s law by gathering and disclosing information on Bruno’s travels to “advance their own non-governmental interests.’’

Spitzer denied knowledge of it, but at least one aide said the spying was carried on at the governor’s direction. Spitzer resigned in March of 2008 as the result of an unrelated prostitution scandal.

Bruno, facing federal charges that he used his Senate post to enrich himself, resigned last year.

Last August, Albany County District Attorney David Soares touched off the probe by the inspector general when he told investigators that Teitelbaum had disclosed information to Hermann.