9 April 2021: NY Ethics Watchdog Makes Show of Barking

NY ethics panel looks into Gov. Cuomo memoir, testing scandals

New York's official ethics watchdog, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) acknowledged it was reviewing allegations Governor Cuomo misappropriated state government resources to help write his pandemic leadership book and whether the governor misappropriated state government resources to provide special COVID testing privileges to his favored associates and his family members.

The ultra-secretive New York state ethics panel said Friday it is looking into formal complaints that Gov. Andrew Cuomo used government staffers to help write his COVID memoir and administered preferential swab tests to relatives during the early days of the pandemic.

Following a two-and-hour private session, Joint Commission on Public Ethics counsel Monica Stamm issued the statement saying JCOPE “discussed” and authorized” steps into unnamed “investigative matters.”

Stamm declined to identify the target or targets of the probes, but the unusual emergency JCOPE meeting was called following new accusations that Cuomo had abused his power during the pandemic.

JCOPE went into private session just minutes after Commissioner George Weissman read a statement complaining that he and other GOP appointees were denied information about important matters.

“Commissioners are now being told that to be denied information confidential or otherwise, is confidential in and of itself,” Weissman said.

Whether JCOPE can conduct an impartial, independent investigation of these scandals remains an open question. Many of JCOPE's board members were either directly appointed by Governor Cuomo or his political allies in New York's legislature. Its staff's political allegiance is rumored to be similarly biased. The state's ethics watchdog has shown signs it is both ethically compromised and untrustworthy.