NY1′s Josh Robin caught up today with GOP gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino at Hofstra’s “Renew New York” event and asked the Buffalo businessman about reports that his campaign’s political director, John Haggerty, is the target of a grand jury probe.

Paladino, who apparently took a break from his tugboat Erie Canal tour to travel to Long Island for this event, stuck by the embattled GOP operative, calling him a “very, very talented man.”

“I asked John about it,” Paladino told Robin. “…He told me that it would not interfere in any way with the responsibilities that we hired him for, and I respect that and I’m good with him.”

Asked if it doesn’t concern him that Haggerty has never been able to account for the full $750,000 contributed by Mayor Bloomberg to the state Independence Party and subsequently handed over to him to (ostensibly) pay for poll watcher on Election Day, Paladino replied:

“I’m a lawyer and I have that thing about ‘innocent until proven guilty’…I know with the political world a lot of accusations go out and then they sort of fizzle away by the end of the day.”

“So we’ll see about that. I have all the faith in John. I think he is a very, very talented man and he’s going to be of great assist to us.”

“… I never inquired as to the specifics. I talked just in generalities to him, asked him if he had any problems and he told me the problems would not affect his abilities to work for us, and I’m good with that.”

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