Thursday, June 03, 2021

3 June 2021: Editorial - Cuomo Must Release Details of Book Deal

EDITORIAL: Cuomo must release details of book deal

Governor Cuomo played a cynical game for months related to the details of his $5.1 million pandemic "leadership" book deal, promising he would release them when he filed his tax returns.

Tax day has come and gone, and while he provided some additional information, there's a lot we still don't know about it. Many of those questions could be answered by Governor Cuomo releasing his publishing contract to the public. This editorial calls for Cuomo to provide full transparency into the terms he negotiated with his publisher.

Here in New York, the law bends over backwards for the government and against the people. That fact is no more evident than in the media’s efforts to obtain details about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s book deal.

The governor’s office is refusing to release public records relating to Cuomo’s financial deal for his book, “American Crisis,” spotlighting his management of the coronavirus pandemic....

The first reason given for denying the records was that records by state ethics panels are secret. The other was that the records were compiled for law enforcement purposes.

Regarding the first excuse, the Cuomo administration is selective in what it releases from ethics panels, as it has released such information in the past.

Regarding the second, the records weren’t collected for law enforcement purposes, and the records sought weren’t even sought from any law enforcement agency that’s conducting an investigation.

Both denials exploit loopholes in the state FOIL law that have long been used to hide malfeasance and wrongdoing.

And even if you believe these are legitimate reasons for keeping these records secret, which they’re not, there is no requirement that the governor’s office withhold them. Unless specifically prohibited from disclosure, the governor’s office is free to release the documents if it wants.

The logical assumption from the Cuomo administration's position is the public information would either contradict their statements about the Governor's book deal or would negatively impact Governor Cuomo.

Here is related coverage from the timeline:

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