19 May 2021: NY Taxpayers Will Pay for Cuomo Lawyers

Taxpayers footing the bill for Cuomo’s lawyer in nursing-home probe

The answer to the question of who is paying Governor Cuomo's growing legal team has now been confirmed. This report indicates it will be New York's taxpayers.

New York state taxpayers will be picking up the tab for the high-powered defense lawyer representing Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his aides in the cover-up of nursing home deaths from COVID-19, the attorney acknowledged Tuesday.

Elkan Abramowitz, a former high-ranking federal prosecutor, declined to say how much he’s billing for his top-tier legal services.

But in 2016, Abramowitz charged the state a “discounted rate” of $937.50 an hour to represent Cuomo in connection with his premature shuttering of the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption.

His firm — Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello — raked in a total of $3.1 million in connection with that case, according to records posted online by the state comptroller’s office....

The comptroller’s office said a copy of Abramowitz’s latest, “sole source” contract with the governor’s office — which isn’t subject to competitive bidding — wasn’t available for public review.

But that's just one of the law firms Cuomo has engaged. There are additional lawyers for whom we still don't have any idea how much they will be paid:

Lawyers from two additional firms have also been hired to represent Cuomo’s staff — Arnold & Porter as well as Walden Macht & Haran.

It would be reasonable to expect they will bill New York taxpayers at rates similar to what Abramowitz' firm has in the past.