18 May 2021: Cuomo Book Called "State Sponsored Literature" by NYC Mayor

Bill de Blasio Says AG Will Be Looking at Andrew Cuomo's 'State Sponsored' $5.1M Book Deal

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has long been a critic of Governor Cuomo. In the following interview excerpt, he focuses on the latest revelations of Governor Cuomo's pandemic book deal and emphasizes the role of state government employees in writing and editing it:

During an interview with Errol Lewis of NY1 on Monday evening, de Blasio was asked by the host if Cuomo's book deal was "improper" in his opinion, as several of the governor's employees helped with the creation and promotion of it.

"Well, I can tell you what I think it was. I think it was state-sponsored literature. This guy clearly depended upon public employees to do a lot of the work, and that's not acceptable, I mean that's not even close," De Blasio said on Monday.

"You don't need a lot of ethics training to figure out that's not acceptable. So obviously, the attorney general and the legislator will now be looking at that," the mayor added.

This report notes the Cuomo administration's prior claims on Governor Cuomo's use of state government employees to produce the book:

Although Cuomo has not denied that staff members worked on the book, which was written and published in the space of a few months, Azzopardi has claimed that they helped on it in their own time in a "volunteer" capacity.

That latter claim has been directly contradicted by this 9 April 2021 report. The use of state government employees in Governor Cuomo's pandemic leadership book project is being investigated by New York's state attorney general, following a criminal referral by New York's state comptroller on 13 April 2021.

The interview with Mayor de Blasio took place on 17 May 2021.