Both the Staten Island and Manhattan DAs are moving forward with their respective probes of the state Independence Party and have questioned former party activist, Frank Morano, a source familiar with the investigations confirms.

Morano declined to comment, but also did not deny he had spoken to investigators in both Manhattan DA Cy Vance Jr.’s office and Staten Island Dan Donovan’s office in recent weeks. He did stress that he had not received a subpoena and plans to “fully cooperate” with both probes.

According to my source, the questioning of Morano by Vance’s office related to the structure of the Independence Party.

As you’ll recall, Morano wrote at length about that topic back in July when he publicly announced his decision to resign his state committee and executive committee posts.

At the time, Morano said the state’s third-largest party (or largest third party, depending on how you look at it) no longer offers alternatives to the two-party system and in fact has “become just as bad, if not worse than the two major parties.”

He also said he planned to lodge a complaint with the state Board of Elections in hopes of sparking an investigation into the Indy Party’s expenditures.

Vance’s office has already indicted GOP consultant John Haggerty (now employed by Carl Paladino’s gubernatorial campaign) who was hired by the Indys in 2009 using a more than $1 million contribution from Mayor Bloomberg to provide poll-watching services on Election Day.

After the indictment, Vance made it clear he wasn’t finished with the Indys, even though AG Andrew Cuomo and party leaders had insisted when the Democratic frontrunner agreed to run on Row C that the focus of his investigation was Haggerty and not the party itself.

As for Donovan’s probe, that’s centers around the use of Indy Party cash to benefit state Indy Party Chairman Frank MacKay’s wife’s firm and a $10,000 business loan floated to her business by a NYC Council candidate, John Tabacco. Tobacco lost a nonpartisan special election in 2009.

The investigation caused Donovan to withdraw his name from consideration in receiving the Indy nod for his AG bid.

Things have gotten awfully personal between the two Franks (MacKay and Morano) with verbal barbs traded back and forth. It can’t be a good thing for the Indys to have their disgruntled former member being chatted up by DAs, but the party leadership has repeatedly insisted they did nothing wrong.

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