2 July 2021: JCOPE Vote Abstainers Block New Criminal Probe of Governor Cuomo

State ethics panel votes down criminal probe into Cuomo leak

This event stinks to high heaven. Here's the introduction:

New York’s ethics commission voted against seeking a criminal investigation into whether someone from within its own ranks leaked confidential information to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, even as new details emerged about the 2019 incident.

At a Tuesday meeting of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, six members of the body voted in favor of seeking an investigation by Attorney General Letitia James’ office – two votes short of the number necessary to formally pursue such an inquiry.

Four commissioners, all appointed by Cuomo, voted against making the criminal referral, which James’ office would need in order to pursue the matter. None of the Cuomo-appointed commissioners explained their votes opposing the probe, which would have directly touched a governor already facing multiple, unrelated investigations.

The fifth Cuomo commissioner present, Colleen DiPirro, abstained from voting. DiPirro, who has been a JCOPE commissioner for two-and-a-half years, said she didn’t feel “qualified” or “educated” enough on the issue to cast a vote.

It gets worse. Much worse.

Still, the motion could have passed if all eight legislatively appointed commissioners on the panel voted in favor. But two appointees of Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie — James Yates and Richard Braun — likewise abstained from voting.

In explaining his decision, Yates offered previously undisclosed details of events immediately following the apparent 2019 leak. Yates said he was abstaining because he was in fact a witness who’d reported the apparent leak to the state inspector general’s office.

The alleged leak stems from a JCOPE meeting held on Jan. 29, 2019. Commissioners — forced by a court order — held a closed-door vote on whether to investigate complaints filed by Republicans that former top Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco may have violated state law by using state resources while he was managing Cuomo's 2014 re-election campaign, and that Cuomo knew about it....

Braun, the second Heastie commissioner who abstained, said he didn’t have enough information on the two-and-a-half year old matter to make a decision. Heastie's third appointee, Marvin Jacob, voted in favor of making the referral.

If the name Joseph Percoco sounds familiar, it's because he is the highest ranking Cuomo administration official to be charged and convicted of bribery. His case has intersected with the timeline of New York Governor Cuomo's nursing home scandals in two entries:

• 17 June 2021: Opinion - Cuomo's Fictional Victory
• 20 June 2021: Governor Cuomo = Sergeant Schultz?

At this point, it would appear that only James Yates has provided a legitimate reason for abstaining from JCOPE's vote on whether to initiate a new criminal investigation of the Cuomo administration.

Here's the report's background information describing the original event that spurred JCOPE's vote:

The alleged leak stems from a JCOPE meeting held on Jan. 29, 2019. Commissioners — forced by a court order — held a closed-door vote on whether to investigate complaints filed by Republicans that former top Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco may have violated state law by using state resources while he was managing Cuomo's 2014 re-election campaign, and that Cuomo knew about it.

Soon after the 2019 JCOPE meeting, Heastie's top counsel, Howard Vargas, called then-JCOPE commissioner Julie Garcia. She said Vargas told her that Cuomo had complained to Heastie about how the speaker's appointees to JCOPE had voted that day.

Garcia, a Heastie appointee, immediately reported the apparent breach of confidentiality, launching the investigation by the inspector general's office. The probe was kept secret until it was disclosed in late 2019 by the Times Union.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Yates, another Heastie appointee, disclosed that he’d also reported the leak to the inspector general soon after the January 2019 meeting.

Yates said that Cuomo somehow became aware of Yates’ vote within an hour of the meeting’s end.

Reading between the lines, it would appear New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is continuing to protect Andrew M. Cuomo. We think there's little doubt Braun followed his lead in voting to abstain, blocking a referral to the state attorney general's office to start a new criminal investigation. Heastie has a history of such actions at JCOPE that benefit Andrew M. Cuomo's interests.