Gov foe rips privacy ‘breach’
GOP gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro is demanding a federal probe of Gov. Cuomo’s office, saying it violated privacy laws by forwarding the names of college scholarship winners to the governor’s campaign so they could be contacted about appearing in an ad for Cuomo.
Molinaro filed the request with upstate US Attorney Grant Jaquith, citing an online story in The Post about how the Cuomo campaign obtained contact information for SUNY-Albany Excelsior Scholarship student Nikita Losi from the governor’s office — then called to see if he would appear in a commercial.
Losi said he politely declined, noting he was a Republican and a Molinaro backer.
“There’s no explaining this one away,” said Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive.
“Governor Cuomo and his campaign team did something that was wrong, that was creepy and almost certainly illegal.”
“Just imagine being a 19-yearold scholarship kid and getting a call on your private telephone number from the governor’s office asking if you like your scholarship and, by the way, how about appearing in a campaign ad? It’s not just wrong, it’s shameless and coercive.”
But Cuomo counsel Alphonso David said Molinaro was blowing hot air.
“Before throwing around legal conspiracy theories, . . . Molinaro should read the law — or at least retain a lawyer who understands it. [The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act] does not apply to the state government — it only applies to educational institutions, and there is no criminal or civil liability associated with the act,” David said.
“The schools that provided this information did so with express permission of the students and, therefore, cannot be in violation of FERPA,” he said.
Colleges that receive federal funding must comply with FERPA, but the law does not mention other levels of government.