ALBANY – Democrats who control the state Assembly, on a hot Friday afternoon when few New Yorkers were paying attention to the news, said they were ending their five-month impeachment investigation of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, saying they don’t possess the legal authority to impeach the governor once he resigns.
Republicans said Democrats were, as Cuomo is packing boxes to move out of the Executive Mansion in Albany, covering for the Democratic governor. They threatened to release their own report – based on the 100,000 pages of documents and interviews Assembly investigators have collected – to provide a full public accounting of the many allegations against the disgraced outgoing governor.
Cuomo's stepped down after a swift and dramatic descent like so many Albany politicians in recent decades: under the weight of personal and governmental scandal.
A GOP member of the Assembly Judiciary Committee said if Democrats don’t produce a public report of their findings against Cuomo that they are considering issuing their own report.
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“One way or another, this information has to get out to the public," said Assemblyman Michael Montesano, a Long Island Republican and the top Republican on the Judiciary panel.
Even some Democrats expressed dismay that Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, an on-again, off-again ally of the governor over the years, would not at least commit to producing a public report on the Assembly Judiciary Committee’s probe into the sweeping allegations made against Cuomo. Those allegations include Cuomo sexually harassing female staffers, including a trooper on his protective detail; that his administration sought to cover up lethal mistakes regarding Covid-19 cases among nursing home residents; and that he misappropriated state resources while writing a memoir of his response to the pandemic, a book deal that paid Cuomo $5.1 million.
Just hours before Cuomo’s lawyers faced a deadline for producing their case to the Assembly Judiciary Committee impeachment investigators, Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, said the Democratic-dominated Assembly is suspending – or ending – its impeachment probe of Cuomo.
The Assembly leader cited the New York Constitution that limits impeachment to ousting those officials who are still in office, not those who resign. Cuomo this week said he is resigning, but delayed the effective date until what most in Albany believed was Aug. 24 and then on Friday suddenly became Aug. 25.
The decision by Heastie does two things:
• It saves Cuomo from going through a protracted process, including an impeachment trial in the state Senate, that would feature perhaps some of his female sexual harassment accusers testifying about Cuomo’s actions.
• It provides the incoming governor, Kathy Hochul, who has served as lieutenant governor since 2015, a less cluttered and messy political environment in Albany as she tries to begin her time as the state’s chief executive.
A defiant Cuomo denied groping any women, but apologized for his actions in a 30-minute resignation speech broadcast exactly a week after Attorney General Letitia James released the scathing results of an investigation into accusations Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women.
“It was ultimately up to the Assembly, and the lieutenant governor respects their decision," a Hochul spokeswoman said in a written statement.
A Cuomo spokesman declined comment.
The Assembly has spent millions of dollars since March – on outside lawyer fees, staff time, per diem and travel costs for Judiciary Committee members – and, Heastie revealed Friday, gathered enough evidence against the governor to likely impeach him. (The process for ousting a governor via impeachment requires a vote first in the Assembly and then, at least 30 days later, a trial in the state Senate.)
Under the state’s various laws, rules and even the constitution, there are many vague aspects about the process of impeaching a governor. One explicit provision in the constitution, though: impeachment proceedings shall be limited to an action to remove someone from office and, if lawmakers choose, to ensure that individual never holds elected office again in New York.
Heastie, in a written statement Friday afternoon, said the purpose of the Assembly Judiciary Committee’s impeachment investigation was to determine if Cuomo should stay in office. That was rendered moot when Cuomo said he was resigning, Heastie said. Also, he cited the constitutional limitations involving an impeachment move against someone who has already left office.
"People will see very early on the kind of person I am and the expectations I have of any team that's ever worked with me," Hochul said. "They know that I always have conducted myself with the highest ethical standards. I believe you lead by example."
The Assembly leader did tease out to the public, without any details, that the Judiciary Committee had collected plenty of evidence against Cuomo – on the sexual harassment and other matters – that “could likely have resulted in articles of impeachment had he not resigned.”
Heastie said he asked Assemblyman Charles Lavine, a Long Island Democrat and head of the Judiciary Committee, to turn over evidence collected in the Assembly impeachment probe to other entities already investigating Cuomo.
Attorney General Letitia James, who produced the recent bombshell report on sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo, is still investigating Cuomo’s Covid-19 book deal. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have a criminal probe underway about the state’s underreporting of nursing home residents who died in 2020 from Covid-19. And several district attorneys across the state are looking into whether Cuomo’s sexual harassment and groping allegations rose to criminal violations.
Reaction to Heastie’s decision was, across the board, negative.
State Sen. Sean Ryan, a Buffalo Democrat and former member of the Assembly, said the Assembly has an obligation to now release its findings against Cuomo.
The Buffalo Democrat said she is already addressing pressing policy matters, working on key staff hirings, and, in a process to be completed within several weeks, preparing to name a new lieutenant governor.
“I think the taxpayers deserve to see what the Assembly has found," he said.
Montesano, the Assembly Republican ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, who has first-hand knowledge of the evidence gathered against Cuomo since last March, said in an interview Friday that there is still plenty of time for the Assembly to impeach Cuomo before he resigns.
“I think the Speaker’s decision was premature," he said, noting the Judiciary Committee was already due to meet next Monday for updates on the probe. Also, the Assembly this week announced public hearings would be held into the allegations against Cuomo.
Montesano said 15,000 people died in New York nursing homes due, in part, to the decisions made by Cuomo and his health department that, among other things, required nursing homes to admit Covid-19-positive patients coming from hospitals. Family members have said the true nature of the Covid-19 pandemic was never provided to the public because the state did not reveal just how many long-term residents died from the virus last year – until the state attorney general released a report in the spring about the undercounting of the deaths.
“He needed to be held accountable to the public, and just resigning doesn’t hold him accountable to the public," Montesano said of Cuomo.
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Montesano said if Assembly Democrats who control the Judiciary Committee don’t authorize release of a report about its findings against Cuomo, he is already under discussions with his fellow Republican committee members, as well as Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, about issuing a GOP-authored report on the evidence.
The criticism against Heastie was pointed. Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, a North Tonawanda Republican, said the decision by Heastie “reeks of a shady deal to protect Andrew Cuomo.”
Sen. James Tedisco, a Schenectady County Republican, said it was a “sad commentary” that Cuomo, even in his final days in office, was “able to roll the majority (Democrats) in the Legislature and make them his lapdog.”
Government watchdog groups condemned Heastie’s decision.
“The Assembly’s refusal to fulfill its constitutionally mandated role is disheartening and unacceptable," said New York Common Cause executive director Susan Lerner. She said it was “shameful” for Heastie to stop the impeachment probe without any public discussion.
“The failure to move forward is setting a bad precedent that elected officials, who abuse the system, can resign on their own terms without facing full accountability. New Yorkers deserve the facts and transparency – and right now, they are left in the dark. Not only must the Assembly immediately release the results of the taxpayer funded outside investigation into Governor Cuomo's conduct, the Assembly and Senate must establish evidentiary hearings immediately in light of the failure to proceed with the impeachment investigation," Lerner said.
Heastie’s decision came via email at 2:19 p.m. Friday. Previously, the Judiciary Committee had given Cuomo’s lawyers until 5 p.m. Friday to turn over any evidence or statements to defend Cuomo against the allegations.
Assemblywoman Karen McMahon, an Erie County Democrat and Judiciary Committee member, said she is hopeful the panel "will share our findings" with the public.
News Staff Reporter Maki Becker contributed to this story.
