Eliot Spitzer, who was sworn in this year as New York governor with a pledge to “change the ethics” of the state capital, on Monday disciplined two members of his staff found to have used police officers to gather information about a rival politician.

Mr Spitzer suspended indefinitely his long-time spokesman, Darren Dopp, and reassigned another official following the release of a sharply critical report prepared by Andrew Cuomo, Mr Spitzer’s successor as the state attorney-general.