The top aide whom former Gov. Eliot Spitzer blamed and disciplined for a plot to smear his chief Republican nemesis last year won’t face criminal charges in the scandal, the ex-aide’s attorney said Monday.

The former aide, Darren Dopp, was Spitzer’s communications director in the governor’s office and for two terms in the attorney general’s office. Dopp has said he was following orders and the law when he compiled and disclosed to a reporter state police travel records concerning Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno when he used state aircraft on days he attended Republican fundraisers.

Dopp’s attorney Michael Koenig said Albany County District Attorney P. David Soares told him Monday “that all matters between his office and my client are now concluded.”

Soares spokeswoman Heather Orth declined to comment. She said the investigation is expected to be complete this week.

Spitzer’s spokeswoman, Anna Cordasco of the public relations firm of Sard Virbinnen & Co., also wouldn’t comment.

Spitzer resigned last week in an unrelated scandal in which he is accused of soliciting prostitutes. The state aircraft scandal _ which Bruno claimed was political espionage by Spitzer using state police _ had cut into the governor’s popularity months after he won office in a landslide.

In July, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, like Spitzer a Democrat, concluded that Dopp and another aide, William Howard, committed no crime but had engaged in misconduct by plotting to discredit Bruno.

In September, Soares also concluded the aides didn’t commit any crime, but said there was no evidence of a plot against Bruno.

Soares took another look at Dopp’s testimony after there appeared to have been conflicts between what Dopp told Soares and what he told the state Public Integrity Commission in its continuing investigation.

Koenig’s statement Monday came as a published report stated that, contrary to Spitzer’s public comments, the former governor directed and pushed Dopp to compile the travel data about Bruno. The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported Monday that Spitzer ordered Dopp and another aide to release the travel data from state police.

In July, when the scandal broke, Spitzer apologized for what he called overzealous conduct by his two aides. The former governor suspended Dopp and transferred and demoted Howard.