Top Cuomo aide’s father lobbied the governor’s office earlier this year as probes were ongoing

Susan Lerner, the executive director of watchdog Common Cause/New York, told CNBC in a phone interview on Friday that after she and her group initially called on Melissa DeRosa to be more transparent, she got a phone call from the secretary to the governor. “She refuses to provide a list of the matters that she has recused herself from. When she was first appointed we raised this issue and she said she was going to recuse herself,” Lerner said. “We said, ‘OK, let the public know which of those clients you will not be participating in discussions with.’ She refused and called to yell at me and say I was out of line to raise these issues.”