Attorney subpoenaed in Haggerty probe

From the NY Times:

A Manhattan judge on Friday ordered the lawyer for the state’s Independence Party to testify before a grand jury after prosecutors argued that the party was not cooperating with an investigation of a Republican political operative who has worked for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

In court filings and during a hearing on Friday morning, prosecutors said that they had issued three subpoenas seeking documents from the party, but that the party had produced only a “handful” of what was sought. Because party officials who testified before the grand jury could not shed more light on the documents, prosecutors said, they had no choice but to call the lawyer, Vincent J. Messina Jr., to testify because he played a central role in providing the documents.

The subpoenas are part of an investigation by the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., into John F. Haggerty Jr., who has been a close ally of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. The mayor provided more than $1 million to the Independence Party last year, and the party gave $750,000 of that money to Mr. Haggerty for Election Day operations. Prosecutors are now investigating what became of that money.

In the election, the Independence line provided 36,364 of Mr. Bloomberg’s 162,933 votes in Queens.

The conflict over the subpoena is the first public indication of tension between Manhattan prosecutors and the Independence Party, which had previously said it was cooperating with the investigation.