Carl Campanile, Bernadette Hogan
New York PostThu, 11 Mar 2021 03:20 UTC
© APNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo
Democrats in the state Assembly on Thursday gave a green light for an "impeachment investigation" of Gov. Andrew Cuomo by the Judiciary Committee —
the first step toward potentially removing him from office.
Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx) announced the momentous decision following an afternoon meeting of the entire Democratic Assembly conference. Heastie said he was
"authorizing the Assembly Judiciary Committee to begin an impeachment investigation, led by Chair Charles D. Lavine, to examine allegations of misconduct against Governor Cuomo. The reports of accusations concerning the governor are serious. The committee will have the authority to interview witnesses, subpoena documents and evaluate evidence, as is allowed by the New York State Constitution."
Heastie also said the probe "will not interfere with the
independent investigation being conducted by Attorney General [Letitia] James," who on Monday announced the hiring of several outside lawyers, including former acting Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim.
During the Democratic conference meeting and an earlier meeting of select Assembly Democrats, Heastie said the
Judiciary Committee should examine the accusations that Cuomo groped and sexually harassed several female aides as well as his administration's alleged cover-up of the total number of nursing home deaths from COVID-19, a source said.
Heastie also notified James of his plan ahead of time, an insider briefed on their discussion said. "She has no problem with it," the source added.
John Kaehny of the good-government group
Reinvent Albany said that although launching a probe would pave the way for Cuomo's potential impeachment,
"It also gives Heastie more control over the process. It allows him to control the clock, the questions and takes the immediate pressure off him to call for an impeachment resolution because he can hold this up for everyone: both the governor's assistants and defenders."
Heastie's extraordinary move followed a statement issued Thursday morning in which
more than 55 Democratic members of the state Legislature called on Cuomo to resign — in the wake of a report that alleged he put his hands under a female staffer's blouse and groped her inside Albany's Executive Mansion late last year.
Mayor Bill de Blasio also joined the growing bipartisan chorus demanding Cuomo's resignation amid the spiraling twin scandals engulfing him.
Impeaching the three-term governor would require a simple majority vote of the Assembly, which is composed of 106 Democrats, 43 Republicans and one independent. If Cuomo were impeached,
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul would automatically become acting governor pending a trial before the state Senate and the seven members of the Court of Appeals. Under the New York Constitution, both Hochul and Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) would be barred from taking part in the trial.
On Sunday, Stewart-Cousins
called on Cuomo to resign, reportedly after he told her the only way he would leave office was through impeachment. Cuomo has previously said he would seek a fourth term next year, but during a news conference on Tuesday refused to say if that was still his plan. His office hasn't responded to requests for comment since Cuomo issued a statement on Wednesday night denying the groping allegation.
Comment: 11/3/2021: The trickle up effect? As allegations continue to surface,
Cuomo feebly responds:
© New York Post
"It's not one, it's not two, it's not three, it's not four, it's not five. It's six women coming forward," New York Mayor de Blasio told reporters during his daily City Hall news conference.
The incident allegedly took place after the woman was summoned to Cuomo's heavily guarded official residence to help him fix a problem with his cellphone, the Albany Times Union reported.
The paper said it was withholding the woman's name but described her as much younger than the 63-year-old governor.
Cuomo responded: "As I said yesterday, I have never done anything like this. The details of this report are gut-wrenching. I am not going to speak to the specifics of this or any other allegation given the ongoing review, but I am confident in the result of the Attorney General's report."
12/3/2021: Mayor de Blasio is not alone in his reactions. The
majority of NY congressional Dems (59) are calling for resignation:
12 House Democrats from New York — including the chairs of the powerful Oversight Committee and Judiciary Committee — issued statements within minutes of each other on Friday calling for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign. With today's announcement that amounts to nearly three-quarters of New York's delegation, including:
Rep. Kathleen Rice - House Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler - House Oversight chair Carolyn Maloney - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - Rep. Jamal Bowman - Rep. Mondaire Jones - Rep. Grace Meng - Rep. Yvette Clark - Rep. Adriano Espaillat - Rep. Nydia Velasquez - Rep. Anthony Delgado - Rep. Brian Higgins - Rep. Sean Maloney
Holdouts, so far, are: Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Gregory Meeks, Tom Suozzi, Ritchie Torres, Paul Tonko and Joe Morelle.
47 state senators have said Cuomo should step aside, more than the 46 needed to convict the governor if he's impeached by the Assembly. The governor is also facing an independent inquiry from the New York attorney general and a police inquiry in Albany.
12/3/2021: Cuomo aides, running interference, try to
discredit a former employee:
Cuomo's office purportedly called at least six former employees shortly after former economic adviser Lindsey Boylan accused the governor of sexual harassing her. The calls were purportedly to learn whether the ex-staffers had heard from Boylan or get information about her.
Some of the former staffers were purportedly made uncomfortable by the call. "I felt intimidated, and I felt bewildered," said Ana Liss, a former aide to the governor who received one of the calls - who earlier this month accused Cuomo of inappropriate behavior. She said senior Cuomo adviser Rich Azzopardi called her in late December 2020, eight days after Boylan, in a tweet, began alleging the governor sexually harassed her. Boylan has said Cuomo made inappropriate comments at work and kissed her without consent.
The effort to contact former staffers was led by top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa. "As a result we proactively reached out to some former colleagues to check in and make sure they had a heads up," Azzopardi said.
12/3/2021 UPDATE: Cuomo made abundantly clear
he is not going anywhere:
"I'm not going to resign. I was not elected by politicians...I'm not part of the political club and I'm proud of that. I won't speculate about people's possible motives...[but] as a former attorney general who's gone through this situation many times, there are often many motivations for making allegations," Cuomo said.
"You need to know the facts before you make a decision," he went on, adding that "serious allegations should be weighed seriously, that's why they are called serious.
"I won't speculate about people's possible motives...[but] as a former attorney general who's gone through this situation many times, there are often many motivations for making allegations. He went on, adding that "serious allegations should be weighed seriously, that's why they are called serious."
See also:
And speaking of: here's an interesting Google [Link]