23 April 2021: Group - NY Assembly Impeachment Probe Wrong Venue for Investigating Cuomo Sexual Harassment Allegations

Group calls on Assembly to abandon Cuomo sexual harassment probe

At least one group in New York realizes the New York Assembly's impeachment probe, as it relates to allegations of sexual harassment against Governor Cuomo, is something of a 'sham'. Here's an excerpt:

The Sexual Harassment Working Group is calling on the Assembly Judiciary Committee relinquish the portion of its impeachment investigation into Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that relates to his alleged sexual harassment and to allow the attorney general's office to handle it alone.

The Judiciary Committee's probe is a first-step toward formal impeachment proceedings against the governor. The committee has employed the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell to conduct the investigation, and the hiring of that firm has drawn fire from some critics for the opacity of the decisionmaking and for some ties from Cuomo loyalists to the firm.

The working group letter says the group is "extremely concerned" over the selection of Davis Polk, and that "the Assembly has repeatedly proven itself uniquely unqualified to conduct sensitive, effective investigations into sexual harassment." The Sexual Harassment Working Group is an influential advocacy group in Albany formed by former legislative staffers who suffered sexual harassment, and they successfully lobbied for landmark new harassment laws in the 2019 session and continue to push for new policies.

As best as we can judge from the available information, the Sexual Harassment Working Group is not wrong in their assessment of the legislature's ability to probe Governor Cuomo's sexual harassment scandals.

Then again, if the Assembly was serious, they have more than enough information to proceed with a vote to launch an impeachment trial in the New York Senate based on the Cuomo administration's COVID nursing home deaths scandals. The whole effort around its 'investigation' of the sexual harassment allegations appears designed to allow Governor Cuomo to serve out his full term without ever being impeached.