11 June 2021: Sham NY Assembly Impeachment Probe Produces No Results Before Legislative Session Ends

Pols go home with Cuomo impeachment up in the air

The NY legislature's 2021 session has ended without any results to show for their three month long "investigation". But they did write themselves a blank check to continue conducting a never-ending and expanding probe of Governor Cuomo's multiple scandals.

Republican lawmakers voiced frustration Thursday that their Democratic counterparts concluded the 2021 legislative session before wrapping up an impeachment inquiry into alleged misconduct by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The Assembly investigation began nearly three months ago, state Sens. Michael Martucci and James Tedisco noted in a letter to the chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, Charles Lavine, D-Long Island: “Impeachment should be due process and not overdue process.”

At a press briefing Thursday evening, Senate GOP Leader Rob Ortt, R-Niagara County, decried the fact Democrats have not stripped Cuomo of his emergency powers even as COVID-19 infections have fallen and with the governor facing probes by federal prosecutors, the state attorney general’s office and the Assembly.

He also cast doubt Assembly Democrats will go forward with an impeachment proceeding, though he argued there is already sufficient evidence to warrant such a move.

“I don’t think they have the guts to do what the people of New York expect them to do,” said Ortt.

Assembly Democrats say Cuomo is entitled to due process while an outside law firm the chamber has retained delves into multiple allegations of sexual harassment against the governor. The Albany Times Union has reported that one married woman employed in the governor’s office alleges she was physically groped by Cuomo after he asked her to meet him at his state-owned residence, the Executive Mansion.

Democrats this week also got bills passed in both the Senate and the Assembly providing what amounts to a blank check in public funds to keep the Assembly investigation going. Previously, the projected legal bill had been set at $250,000 for the impeachment inquiry.

They no longer have the excuse of insufficient funds or resources to conduct a timely impeachment probe. If only they're serious about it.