ALBANY - Two top aides to Gov. Eliot Spitzer plotted to discredit Republican rival Joseph Bruno by using the state police to recreate and release to a newspaper records that tracked the Senate majority leader's whereabouts, according to an investigative report released Monday.

Spitzer immediately suspended his longtime top media spokesman, Darren Dopp, and reassigned the other, homeland and public security chief William Howard, following Monday's report from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. The report found Dopp and Howard, with the direct, unprecedented assistance of state Deputy Superintendent Preston Felton, conspired to release politically damaging information about Bruno's use of state aircraft, including trips that included political fundraisers.

No one was accused of violating the law, but the report found policies designed to protect public officials' safety were broken for political gain. Spitzer said he knew nothing of the operation.

“Clearly this was not part of a broader package,” Spitzer said. “I will not tolerate this behavior ... I apologize to Senator Bruno, as I did earlier today,” Spitzer told reporters. “I apologize to the people of the state of New York.”

The report is a blow to Spitzer, who was elected in November largely on the strength of his pledge to rid Albany of the corruption and political infighting that led to gridlock and tarnished its reputation nationwide.

When the scandal erupted earlier this month, Spitzer said he believed Dopp and Howard were simply responding to a state Freedom of Information Law request for records by a newspaper. On Monday, however, the governor said he accepts the version of events spelled out in the Cuomo report, including a conclusion that the records against Bruno were being compiled before any Freedom of Information request was filed.