28 March 2021: The Scandal of Nobody to Investigate Cuomo Testing Scandal

Cuomo's VIP tests may have violated state law. But who should investigate?

This article presents a deeper dive into the subject of who has the authority and sufficient independence from Governor Cuomo's political sway to investigate the governor's alleged diversion of scarce testing resources to unfairly benefit family members and well connected associates.

In theory, the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics would be the appropriate entity to enforce potential violations of the Public Officers Law, while the state Inspector General's Office is also tasked with investigating untoward conduct within the executive branch.

But both entities have significant ties to the Democratic governor that may be disqualifying: Cuomo has appointed a string of loyalists and former employees over the years to chair JCOPE, which has an earned reputation of working at a glacial pace. And Inspector General Letitizia Tagliafierro worked for Cuomo as far back as his days as state attorney general, though she could recuse herself from any investigation.

The inability to investigate alleged corruption by top New York officials appears to be by design:

Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Long Island Democrat who is a former federal prosecutor, said he believes state law is intentionally written in a way to limit who can investigate impartially. State law allows one party's JCOPE appointees to band together to block any investigation, for example.

"There can be a political remedy that could begin with the Assembly, but I think it's troubling that there should always be an ongoing professional entity to take complaints, investigate complaints and act on them, and that does not exist right now," Kaminsky said. "A party can block a JCOPE investigation, which is what's happened many times in the past."

But is there sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation of whether Governor Cuomo violated Section 74 of New York's Public Officers Law?

In this case, Cuomo appears to have violated the public officer's law, said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY.

She noted in the early weeks of the pandemic, people who were sick were encouraged to stay home and leave the tests to those who needed urged medical care — not home visits by state health officials to test Cuomo's family and associates.

"What does that say about the reliability of what the governor is telling the public?" Lerner said. "Is there one rule for the governor’s family and one rule for the public? That is not the way our state should be run."