Wednesday, July 21, 2021

21 July 2021: Cuomo COVID Vaccine Czar Larry Schwartz Being Investigated by JCOPE

Ethics agency investigating Cuomo aide's calls

New York's official ethics enforcer for public officials, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) can charitably be described as hopelessly compromised, which is to say the body has acted as though it is in Andrew M. Cuomo's pocket for nearly all matters it is known to have investigated.

So we're not sure what to make of this story, as JCOPE appears to be investigating Larry Schwartz, Cuomo's COVID vaccine "czar", who is reported to have contacted county executives to determine their level of support for Governor Cuomo at the time when they were seeking COVID vaccines for their residents and he had control over how many doses they might get.

New York’s ethics oversight agency is investigating a series of phone calls made by a former top aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, which some county executives felt improperly mixed politics with vaccine distribution efforts.

An investigator from the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has been contacting Democratic county executives around New York to set up fact-finding interviews concerning their interactions with Larry Schwartz, who is one of Cuomo's most trusted advisers and had served as New York’s “vaccine czar” during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to people familiar with the matter.

The recently initiated JCOPE investigation is notable because the ethics oversight agency has been criticized for being influenced by the Cuomo administration. Investigations into matters touching Cuomo have rarely publicly surfaced, and the recently initiated probe directly touches a matter sensitive to the governor.

It’s unlikely JCOPE staff would have begun the investigation without notifying the panel’s commissioners, including the six members appointed by Cuomo. A JCOPE spokesman declined to comment, citing a law that he said prohibits him from speaking about agency investigations.

It's unclear whether the investigation will result in action against Schwartz or anyone else. Under the state law creating JCOPE, at least two of the three Democratic commissioners appointed by Cuomo would have to vote in favor of issuing a report outlining any civil violations, and the vote would be conducted in secret. During public portions of JCOPE meetings, Cuomo's six commissioners have often voted unanimously against efforts to investigate the governor.

Here's where the timeline has previously covered the curious case of Cuomo enforcer and former COVID vaccine chief Larry Schwartz, whose case began as a footnote, but which has become more significant as more has become known about his ethically questionable activities on behalf of the Cuomo administration:

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