5 April 2021: $4M Book Deal Looks Like Another Crime

Cuomo’s $4M book deal is looking like yet another crime

We've been featuring the book deal scandal much more than the allegations of sexual harassment against Governor Cuomo since it directly relates to the administration's nursing home deaths scandals. Here, the editors of the New York Post makes that connection as they weigh in on Governor Cuomo's $4 million book deal:

The book deal reportedly netted the gov a cool $4 million, even though his 2014 memoir, “All Things Possible,” sold fewer than 4,000 hardcover copies.

Cuomo flak catcher Rich Azzopardi claims that staffers acted voluntarily in helping the gov. Yet no one thinks that anyone in Cuomo World dares to tell the boss “no.”

Plus, DeRosa was helping to edit early drafts and attending video meetings with publishers even as she and other top aides were working to censor the then-pending Health Department report about the virus’ toll on nursing homes by deleting the full death toll. In other words, they were using their official power to protect not just the gov’s image, but his $4 million payment for a project they were intimately involved in....

A full investigation is clearly in order, though at this point the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee already has multiple impeachment-worthy Cuomo activities on its plate. It shouldn’t need to investigate all of them before it reports on any of them.

Clear proof of a single crime should be enough to move rapidly to get Cuomo out of office, before he can again betray the people of New York for his own selfish ends.

There is no question the Assembly can follow multiple, parallel paths forward in its probe toward impeaching Governor Cuomo, allowing the charges with the most complete evidence to proceed faster than others. The question is will they? Holding up any impeachment votes until all scandals have been investigated would define New York's current legislative body as one of the most corrupt and weak in the state's history.

For what its worth, the Cuomo administration's deception of lawmakers and federal government is the most well documented and established of its scandals. So much so that if NY lawmakers were truly serious about pursuing consequences for the Cuomo administration's fatal negligence, impeachment charges related to it could be approved and taken up by New York's senate within a matter of days. But only if they're serious.

The book deal however offers another path to achieve Governor Cuomo's ouster by impeachment. The question for New York's lawmakers is how bad do they think the consequences will be to their own careers if they don't act to impeach the governor after so many have called for his resignation.