31 August 2021: Where Is Cuomo Hiding Out?

Ex-gov Andrew Cuomo has been hiding out at pal’s Hamptons home

After cleaning out New York's executive manion, Andrew M. Cuomo sent his stuff over to his sister's house in Westchester, but he's not staying there. This report indicates the rumors are he's hanging out in the Hamptons.

Speculation is swirling that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been holed up in the Hamptons after leaving the Executive Mansion in Albany.

Multiple sources say he has been staying at the Southampton home of his longtime pal Dr. Jeffrey A Sachs.

It wouldn’t be the first time Sachs has put Andrew — who resigned earlier this month after Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation found that he sexually harassed or mistreated 11 women — up during a crisis.

Sachs, who was an usher during Andrew’s wedding to Kerry Kennedy, also gave him a place to crash at his United Nations Plaza apartment, according to a report after Cuomo and Kennedy split.

Unless some other story comes up involving Cuomo's brother, the ethically-challenged CNN "journalist" Chris Cuomo, we're calling this the bottom story of the day.

31 August 2021: Cuomo Legal Bills to Cost NY Taxpayers $9.5 Million

Cuomo legal woes continue, could cost NY taxpayers at least $9.5 million

This report suggests that New York taxpayers will be responsible for paying $9.5 million of Andrew M. Cuomo's legal bills:

Resigning from office probably didn’t end former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s legal problems, and no matter what happens next, taxpayers are likely to wind up with a hefty bill.

The state has already agreed to pay up to $9.5 million to lawyers representing and investigating Cuomo and his administration over sexual harassment allegations and other matters, according to The Associated Press’ review of available contracts.

That figure — which represents the maximum amount that could be spent, not actual bills submitted so far — includes up to $5 million for lawyers who have represented Cuomo’s office, up to $3.5 million for lawyers hired by the state attorney general to investigate sexual harassment allegations against the Democrat, and at least $1 million in bills for lawyers hired by the legislature as part of an impeachment investigation. It doesn’t include the legal fees of Cuomo’s private attorney, Rita Glavin, whose bills are being paid by his campaign committee.

But the bills could go higher, if New York's new governor finds a reason the state should continue defending Cuomo's actions while he was governor:

Cuomo’s successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul, can decide whether the state will continue to pay lawyers to defend the former governor and his administration going forward.

The report also indicates that Cuomo's accumulated $18 million in campaign donations might be re-tasked to pay his legal bills:

Cuomo could also potentially dip into his $18 million campaign war chest to pay legal costs, including a judgment.

“If a private person sues him and it relates to his public office or his previous campaigns, then he can use campaign funds to pay lawyers,” veteran elections lawyer Jerry Goldfeder, former Special Counsel for Public Integrity to then-Attorney General Cuomo, said.

If Cuomo winds up facing criminal charges over a groping allegation made by a former aide, he would likely have to pay for his own defense lawyer. But under state law, he could seek reimbursement from the state if he were to be acquitted on the grounds that the allegations had to do with his job.

We're not sure how that last part would work with sexual harassment cases, but we'll all find out if and when it might become relevant.

31 August 2021: Subpoenas Issued to Gather Evidence in Cuomo Criminal Sexual Harassment Case

Subpoenas issued in investigation of groping allegation against Cuomo

The Albany County district attorney's office has issued subpoenas to collect evidence related to Andrew M. Cuomo's alleged sexual harassment of Brittany Commisso.

Law enforcement officials are issuing subpoenas to gather records in an ongoing investigation of allegations that former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo groped a female aide's breast at the Executive Mansion in November.

The allegation that the governor had groped the woman, Brittany Commisso, became a focus of the state attorney general's investigation that concluded Cuomo had sexually harassed, touched or acted inappropriately with 11 women.

Sources close to the investigation said that Commisso met with Albany County sheriff's investigators for a second time on Monday for a formal interview about her allegations. The subpoenas will be used to gather any documentary evidence, including material related to Commisso's claim that on the day of the alleged encounter she had helped the governor text a note from his iPhone to Stephanie Benton, one of his top assistants.

The sexual harassment charges aren't our primary focus, but they played a significant role in forcing Andrew M. Cuomo to choose resignation over impeachment. Here's previous coverage from the timeline:

• 29 March 2021: Ninth Woman Alleges Sexual Harassment by Governor Cuomo
• 31 July 2021: Alleged Cuomo Sex Harassment Victim Willing to Take Polygraph
• 6 August 2021: Criminal Complaint Filed by Cuomo Sexual Harassment Victim
• 8 August 2021: Cuomo to Face Criminal Investigation by Albany County Sheriff
• 9 August 2021: Cuomo Sexual Harassment Victim Brittany Commisso's Televised Interview
• 11 August 2021: Criminal Investigations of Cuomo Sexual Harassment To Continue

30 August 2021: Lawmakers Want to Learn What Role SUNY Chancellor Malatras' Had in Drafting Misleading NYDOH Report

Kathy Hochul urged to release James Malatras’ nursing home records

With sexual harassment allegations moving to federal, state, and local criminal investigations, New York officials are turning their attention back toward the Cuomo administration's doctoring of the 6 July 2020 NYDOH report, which concealed the full extent of COVID deaths among New York nursing home residents during the period its deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect.

Gov. Kathy Hochul should publicly release all records regarding SUNY Chancellor James Malatras’ role in preparing a discredited state Health Department report that covered up the true extent of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes, lawmakers said Monday....

“To move forward as a state, we need a full accounting of the disastrous nursing home policies of former Governor Andrew Cuomo, which allegedly lead to thousands of needless deaths,” Queens Councilman Robert Holden said in a letter to Hochul provided to The Post.

“I urge you to make public all records pertaining to the role James Malatras played in handling the New York State Health Department July report that we now know was altered to underreport nursing home deaths,” he said....

In March, Malatras acknowledged he helped edit the Health Department’s nursing home report but denied any role in changing data to cover up the state’s true nursing home death toll from the coronavirus.

“As with many reports, there were back and forth with structure, citations and other language during the process, but to be clear, I included the fatalities data provided by the New York State Department of Health which I did not alter and change,” Malatras said at the time.

Malatras repeated his assertion during an interview with The Post on Sunday saying, “I absolutely did not alter the numbers.”

In the letter, Holden acknowledged that Malatras claimed he wasn’t the culprit in manipulating data. But releasing the Malatras records should reveal who was, he said.

Hochul would do well to continue the strong start she has made in reversing the Cuomo administration's policies of opaqueness and obstruction by making all the related staff records available to the public.

30 August 2021: Analysis - Cuomo Unlikely to Lose License to Practice Law

Law Beat: Can Cuomo's law license be casualty of scandal?

The question has been raised of whether Andrew M. Cuomo's potential conviction on any sexual harassment charges might result in his being stripped of his license to practice law in New York. The following excerpts from this analysis suggests that would be unlikely under New York's current law.

The reason is New York's disciplinary rules for attorneys lack any specific language that makes sexual harassment the type of professional misconduct that can lead to discipline. The court system's Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers address harassment, but only in terms of discrimination - prompting a New York State Bar Association panel to find the rules flawed....

Law Beat found many attorneys, including lawmakers in both majorities in the Capitol, reluctant to publicly speak about the mere possibility of whether Cuomo could lose his license - or if any attorney could lose their law license for alleged sexual harassment.

Elected officials face the same ethical boundaries as New York's other more than 300,000 lawyers. If convicted of a felony, they automatically are disbarred. But it is not automatic disbarment to be convicted of a misdemeanor, nor is the absence of a criminal charge a sign no discipline will be imposed. Many attorneys face discipline for merely ignoring the committee's attempts to reach them.

Examples in recent years show attorneys have harassed - and physically abused - women in recent years and managed to avoid disbarment, if not suspensions.

The absence of standards for defining abuse or unethical behavior on the part of public officials is a recurring feature in New York's laws. It is as if the public officials are writing the laws to put their interests above those of the public. Or their victims.

30 August 2021: SUNY Chancellor Probed About Work on Cuomo's $5.1M Book

SUNY chancellor James Malatras questioned in probe of Cuomo’s COVID book

The New York state attorney general's investigation of whether Andrew M. Cuomo's diverted state resources to produce his pandemic "leadership" book is making progress. This report focuses on James Malatras, then an employee in the governor's executive office and member of the state's COVID task force, who was subsequently appointed to be a chancellor at the State University of New York (SUNY) following his work on the book.

SUNY Chancellor James Malatras was grilled by investigators for allegedly pitching in on disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $5.1 million COVID-19 memoir during normal work hours, The Post has learned.

Malatras told attorneys for the Assembly Judiciary Committee — whose ongoing probe into Cuomo includes whether he illegally used staff and other government resources to write his self-congratulatory tome — that he helped edit and fact-check the manuscript last summer before he was selected SUNY chancellor, according to sources.

“Malatras admitted to the investigators that he worked on the book during work hours,” said the source familiar with the investigation. “Working on a 300-page manuscript is not a 15-minute job. How can he say no? His jobs were dependent on the governor.”

The report cites Malatras' claims he took personal "time off" to work on the book during work hours.

“I tried to think of it as an extracurricular activity,” he said, insisting that he acted appropriately when it came to Cuomo’s book. “I didn’t work on the book during business hours. I took time off. I testified as such.”

The article also reports the reaction of former New York Governor David Paterson:

Cuomo’s office had insisted all staff who worked on the book did so voluntarily — during off-hours or on their own time, whether they took vacation or personal time allotted them.

But former Gov. David Paterson scoffed at the claim that members of the executive chamber were doing it on their own time.

“It’s a phony argument. If they’re working on the book, they’re working!” Paterson told The Post. “You serve at the pleasure of the governor. If he’s displeased — you’re gone.”

Paterson had passed an executive order when he was governor in 2008 barring the use of government resources for non-government purposes.

More state government employees than Malatras were tasked with production tasks for Cuomo's book, which plays a significant role within Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals.

29 August 2021: A Short List of Who Did Great Reporting on Cuomo Scandals

Jerry Moore: Andrew Cuomo’s supporters are ready to stand by their man

Columnist Jerry Moore wrote his column on a very different topic, namely the responses he has received from his supporters attempting to refute various portions of the 3 August 2021 state attorney general's report on the sexual harassment allegations that ultimately led Andrew M. Cuomo to choose to resign from power rather than face certain impeachment.

But on the way, he identifies many reporters whose work in investigating and reporting on Cuomo contributed as much to Cuomo's resignation as the misconduct in which he and members of his administration engaged. We thought that listing deserves highlighting:

With the focus of my work being more on Northern New York than on Albany, I wasn’t counting myself among these excellent journalists. But they are out there, and they’ve kept people informed about what’s going on in Albany. Individuals who’ve persistently shed light on the Cuomo administration include Brendan Lyons of the Times Union, Bernadette Hogan of the New York Post, Bill Hammond of the Empire Center for Public Policy, Anne McCloy of WRGB-TV, Jimmy Vielkind of the Wall Street Journal, Morgan Mckay of Spectrum News and Kate Lisa of the Watertown Daily Times (my apologies to anyone I didn’t mention who’s kept the pressure on Cuomo — keep it up!)

We'll add a handful of names to Moore's short list: Chris Bragg and Chris Churchill of the Albany Times-Union, Carl Campanile of the New York Post, and Tori Richards of the Washington Examiner come immediately to mind. We'll also note the investigative work of a number of reporters at the Associated Press who contributed high quality reporting on Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals and cover-up.

If you note the news outlets, you'll recognize they span a wide range across the ideological spectrum. What makes their work stand out is their placing facts-based reporting ahead of the modern popular practice of narrative-based journalism that predominates at other outlets with wide reach, such as the New York Times, MSNBC and, most notoriously, CNN.

That's important to understand because the practice of narrative-based journalism is what propelled Cuomo to the heights of his popularity and power in early May 2020. Its propagandistic nature, including the suppression of reporting of objective facts that contradict the pre-determined narrative, helped Andrew M. Cuomo to remain in power for as long as he did. Its why the news outlets that practice narrative-based journalism need to clean house themselves and return to sound journalism practices.

28 August 2021: Daily Show Skewers Chris Cuomo's "Journalism" Career

The Dailyshow-ography of Chris Cuomo: Epic News Bro

This video counts as the bottom story of the day, as does almost every story featuring ethically-troubled "journalist" Chris Cuomo.

It's fun to see the Daily Show's writers take on Andrew M. Cuomo's brother's privileged, self-aggrandizing, and conflict of interest-laden career.

As for Chris Cuomo's current employer, CNN, the news network is best understood as an example of what can happen when a politician's supporters and family members are hired to fill senior management and other prominent positions. CNN's managers and editors are either unable or unwilling to sack the individuals who have routinely advanced the interests of Andrew M. Cuomo rather than tend to repairing CNN's damaged reputation for allowing them to shape and control its news coverage.

That state of affairs is likely to persist into mid-2022, when ownership of CNN is set to change hands from AT&T/WarnerMedia to Discovery, who will need to clean house and bring in new leadership and talent to restore the value to its damaged property resulting from the network's cheerleading for Andrew M. Cuomo's interests.

28 August 2021: Editorial - FOIL Requests for NY COVID Data and Documents Await Action

COVID deaths need more light

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has a unique opportunity to overturn a decade of Andrew M. Cuomo's opaque machinations in state government. As this editorial notes, all she needs to do is to fulfill many of the Freedom of Information Act requests that watchdog organizatoins and members of the public have filed related to the state's public COVID data and documents.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has done the right thing — quickly — in acknowledging the additional 12,000 COVID deaths in New York.

But it is only the first step in untangling the tangled web of what happened in the state’s nursing homes last year. Now that Hochul has shone a light on one of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s worst-kept secrets, it’s time for Hochul to allow a light to be shone on secrets that could help prevent thousands of deaths in the future by approving an Empire Center for Public Policy FOIL request denied by Cuomo’s Health Department on Cuomo’s final day in office.

“One of our FOILs sought details behind the higher death toll of 55,000 — but DOH denied it on Monday afternoon, during the closing hours of the Cuomo administration. Rather than providing an explanation, they directed us to the limited data already available through the state’s data portal, which counts only confirmed deaths in hospitals, nursing homes and adult-care facilities. This is unacceptable,” Bill Hammond, Empire Center senior fellow, said in a statement.

The Empire Center has filed 60 Freedom of Information Law requests in hopes of revealing a clearer picture of the state’s COVID-19 response. Less than 10 have been granted.

Systematically releasing the requested documents and data over a short period of time will be an effective way of proving New York's state government is under new, better management.

28 August 2021: Cuomo Donors Advised to Request Refund of Campaign Donations

Disgraced Cuomo under pressure to refund millions in campaign donations

Elected politicians in New York's state government are advising former donors to Andrew M. Cuomo's political campaigns to seek refunds.

Anticipating that Cuomo won’t relinquish the pile of cash so easily, State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) said donors should contact Cuomo’s campaign and ask for refunds.

“I urge all donors to Andrew Cuomo’s 2022 campaign to request refunds of their contributions. I also urge Mr. Cuomo to close his account and return all contributions voluntarily,” Krueger, chairwoman of the Senate Finance Committee said Friday.

“I suspect he will not, but should he refuse to do this, it is important for those who have supported the former governor in the past to understand that their money will now be used to lie about and attack his perceived enemies.”...

“By rescinding their support, these donors can stand with the victims of the former governor’s harassment and with the family members of those who died of COVID in nursing homes but had to wait months to learn the truth,” Krueger said.

The unanswered question is how many big money donors will request the retired-in-disgrace Cuomo refund their campaign contribution. The report indicates that some donors view the money as a sunk cost, but the following excerpt identifies one donor who will seek a refund:

One hefty Cuomo donor turned critic, Jeff Gural, told The Post Friday “I would love to” get a refund. He declined to elaborate.

Gural is a real estate magnate who also owns racehorses and an upstate casino. He gave the Cuomo campaign $50,000 during the current election cycle and $130,000 during the course of his political career.

In New York, many powerful politicians like Cuomo raised money for their campaigns on a "pay-for-play" basis, where their power to either influence government spending to to influence government approval for business projects has fostered an inherently corrupt political culture.

Senator urges Cuomo's donors: Ask for your money back

This report on the same story presents some additional information:

Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat and chair of the Senate Finance Committee, issued a statement Friday alleging the use of the fund to fuel any "desire for revenge" by Cuomo is not a permitted campaign expenditure. She asserted that the $18.3 million in his campaign account for governor is being used to "lie about and attack his perceived enemies."

Cuomo's former secretary to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, recently said in a recent statement that Cuomo has "no interest" in running for public office again. If he is not intending to run again, Krueger said, then Cuomo is spending his campaign money for "personal use," which she understands is not be permitted under the state's campaign finance laws.

Instead, people should ask for their money back, Krueger said. Cuomo does not necessarily have to return the contributions even if a donor requests he return the funds.

"I didn't think Mr. Cuomo is going to change his behavior because I pointed this out," Krueger said to the Times Union. "I actually thought it was an important thing to get out there so that the press is aware that this is probably an illegal use of those funds."

DeRosa's statement that Cuomo has "no interest" in running for public office again is interesting. If true, Cuomo has no legitimate business in spending any accumulated funds in his campaign accounts.

27 August 2021: Meanwhile, Dark Forces Begin Gathering for a Dark Purpose....

Cuomo Plots His Revenge

Politico reports on sinister developments in the evil clown show taking place in what's left of Cuomoland:

As governor of New York, ANDREW CUOMO was notorious among the Albany press corps for using the media as a tool to inspire fear and sow mayhem. He’d speak to reporters on background as a “senior administration official,” and use that anonymity to defend himself. He’d plant unsavory stories about political opponents. He’d get his aides to carry out his dirty work.

It’s an approach Cuomo plans to continue in life after office.

Playbook has learned that RICH AZZOPARDI — Cuomo’s longtime spokesperson and senior adviser — is the former governor’s first big hire using the $18 million in leftover campaign cash the governor had amassed for his now-defunct reelection campaign — and which he now plans to use to mount a campaign of retribution against his perceived political enemies, including now-Gov. KATHY HOCHUL.

According to a dozen reporters and political aides, during Cuomo’s final two weeks in office, Azzopardi mounted an aggressive last-ditch attempt to salvage the governor’s political career, including:

• Posing as an ally of Hochul’s and suggesting that he was recruiting candidates for her transition — a move that some observers saw as an attempt to test Cuomo aides for loyalty. Senior members of Hochul’s staff say they were unaware of Azzopardi’s outreach and, in the words of one senior aide, view it as “nonsensical.”
• Cold-calling reporters to plant stories about Cuomo’s perceived enemies.
• DMing journalists on Twitter and encouraging them to tweet out messages questioning the veracity of New York A.G. TISH JAMES’ report into the accusations of sexual harassment against Cuomo.
• Serving up background quotes questioning the competence of then-Lt. Gov. Hochul.

“The fever [with] which they are doing this — to relitigate the past and undermine Hochul — is incredible,” said one reporter. “They don’t seem to see that they are out of power and no one cares.”

But it seemed to work just fine when they were in power, which suggests many reporters need to take a hard look at how they chose to let themselves be successfully manipulated by such twisted tactics during the last 10 years.

27 August 2021: Opinion - The Damage in Trust from Cuomo's Undercounts of COVID Deaths

12,000 Forced Errors

The Albany Times-Union is calling for new Governor Kathy Hochul to replace the state's ethically-troubled Health Commissioner Howard Zucker.

How did the state Department of Health miss 12,000 deaths from COVID-19? One thing we can be sure of: It wasn’t by accident.

This undercount was, rather, quite intentional. As for the motivation, there’s no official word from the agency or Commissioner Howard Zucker, for whom this is not the first fudging of data that might have diminished the superstar image Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo enjoyed for his initial handling of the pandemic.

The opinion piece proceeds to recount the nature of the NY DOH's underreporting of COVID deaths in the state's official figures, recognizing the same tactics were used to undercount the full extent of COVID deaths in New York's nursing homes during the period the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. It then gets to the core of the problem:

It does not take a degree in medicine, statistics or political science — or a huge leap of logic — to see the manipulation here. Mr. Cuomo and Dr. Zucker kept the public in the dark about how high the numbers really were at a time when the governor was gaining national attention for his handling of the pandemic and signing a $5.1 million deal to produce a book about it.

We can’t be sure how the true figures might have changed the public’s behavior — whether more people might have taken the pandemic seriously and not now be so resistant to masks and vaccines, or whether some of the politicians who demanded the premature end of public health measures might have thought twice about their recklessness.

But we don’t have to guess what such deception does to the public’s trust in a vital institution like the Health Department, which we need to provide trustworthy information and guidance in such crises, not serve as an extension of the governor’s press office or political campaign.

The piece concludes by calling for Hochul to bring on a new Health Commissioner.

27 August 2021: Howard Zucker Starts Turning on Cuomo

In dig at Cuomo, state health boss Zucker lauds COVID transparency under Hochul

Howard Zucker is New York's Health Commissioner. He has overseen the operations of New York's Department of Health for years, including all the way through the coronavirus pandemic. That includes having a role in developing, implementing and enforcing the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive that led to hundreds, and possibly more than 1,000, excess COVID deaths among New York's nursing home population, not to mention having a direct role in covering up the full extent of those deaths.

This report indicates he has discovered a willingness to turn on Andrew M. Cuomo, we think to preserve his professional career.

Embattled state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker has long been criticized as the point-man in disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s efforts to cover-up the true tally of coronavirus deaths of nursing home residents.

But Zucker on Thursday took a swipe at his old boss and suggested he was just following Cuomo’s orders while also praising new Gov. Kathy Hochul’s commitment to releasing more complete COVID-19 data.

“I’m thrilled Gov. Kathy Hochul has taken the helm in the state … Her leadership allowing me and all of DOH to get the data out is refreshing,” Zucker said.

“And her commitment as she has said to transparency is revitalizing,” Zucker said.

Zucker made the remarks before the Health Department’s planning committee approved an emergency order requiring 450,000 health care workers to get the coronavirus vaccine — or risk being fired.

We would not be surprised if Zucker's remarkable transition in favor of providing transparency on the state's COVID performance is motivated by a desire to remain employed.

That was our initial thought, before we proceeded to read the rest of the article which finds we're not alone in our thinking. Here are some quick excerpts....

Zucker’s post-Cuomo conversion as a data reporting champion provoked outrage and eyerolls from nursing home family advocates. They said he’s beyond a rehabilitation or makeover and his just “following orders” defense won’t fly....

“Zucker is trying to cover his tracks. He’s trying to blame everything on disgraced Cuomo — but he was complicit,” said Tracey Alvino, a co-director of VoicesForSeniors....

Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens) called Zucker’s remarks “a cowardly act to save his own ass.”

“Zucker’s got to go. He’s beyond unethical. He was Cuomo’s enabler, enforcer and executioner,” said Kim, the Assembly aging committee chairman who was one of the first to call for Cuomo to resign, be impeached and investigated by prosecutors.

That brings us to the next featured editorial.

If Hochul really wants transparency, Zucker needs the old heave-ho

This editorial starts by questioning new Governor Kathy Hochul's commitment to transparency, praising her for making a good start, but noting she has a very noticeable hole in her proclaimed policy:

Most conspicuously, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker still has his job, though he was Cuomo’s wingman in the coverup — including the related coverup of the true toll in state care homes. Yet he’s implicitly pleading I was just following orders.

As the state Department of Health planning council moved to emergency regulations requiring all health-care workers get jabbed, Zucker said he’s “thrilled” Hochul “has taken the helm in the state” and praised her leadership and her “refreshing” move of “allowing me and all of DOH to get the data out.”

This is the guy who issued the infamous March 25, 2020, order forcing nursing homes to take in COVID-contagious patients. The one who said that “to the best of the [Health] Department’s ability,” he had provided “the numbers of deaths by facility, by location of death, by whether confirmed or presumed.”

Dozens of top career Health Department officials quit rather than play along. Zucker stayed.

And he’s still stonewalling the Empire Center, refusing to honor its many Freedom of Information Law requests for COVID data that it unquestionably has handy.

That's anything but transparent. What does Hochul gain by keeping Zucker on the state payroll?

27 August 2021: Time's Up CEO Latest To Resign in Cuomo Sexual Harassment Aftermath

Time’s Up CEO Tina Tchen resigns in wake of Cuomo scandal

Choosing to place Andrew M. Cuomo's political interests ahead of your employer's interests is proving to be a fatal career choice. Tina Tchen is the latest example of that kind of poor judgment, where we had anticipated she would face "professional consequences". Those consequences have arrived sooner than we were anticipating.

The chief executive of the sexual harassment victims’ advocacy group Time’s Up resigned Thursday amid outrage over revelations that its leaders advised former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration after he was first accused of misconduct last year.

Time’s Up CEO and president Tina Tchen said in a statement that she’s “spent a career fighting for positive change for women” but was no longer the right person to lead the #MeToo-era organization.

“I am especially aware that my position at the helm of TIME’S UP has become a painful and divisive focal point, where those very women and other activists who should be working together to fight for change are instead battling each other in harmful ways,” she wrote.

The group’s chief operating officer, Monifa Bandele, will serve as interim CEO.

Tchen’s resignation comes after the Aug. 9 departure of the organization’s chair, Roberta Kaplan. Both women had been the target of ire from Time’s Up supporters over the idea they had offered any help to Cuomo, who resigned Monday, three weeks after an investigation overseen by New York’s attorney generalconcluded he sexually harassed at least 11 women.

The rapidity of Kaplan and Tchen's resignations does beg a question. Why hasn't Cuomo's cheerleader news network CNN taken similar actions, given the roles of its Prime Time host, editors, and managers in servicing Andrew M. Cuomo's interests, which have similarly negatively impacted its stated mission?

26 August 2021: NY GOP Lawmaker Wants Update on State AG Probe of Cuomo Book Deal

Top GOP lawmaker calls for update on AG probe into Cuomo’s COVID memoir

Lawmakers are seeking more information about the New York State Attorney General Letitia James' investigation of Andrew M. Cuomo's book deal, which had been referred to her office by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli on 19 April 2021.

State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt (R-Lockport) has called on Attorney General Letitia James to update the public on her investigation into Cuomo’s suspected misuse of state resources in writing and promoting his $5.1 million coronavirus memoir.

In a letter obtained by The Post, Ortt hailed James for her “deliberate and thorough report” on the sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo, which led him to resign and leave office in disgrace at the end of Monday.

Ortt said the findings exposed Cuomo’s “major abuses” and “helped move our state forward.”

“However, New Yorkers are still looking for — and deserve — answers,” he wrote Monday.

“As New York State’s chief legal officer, I respectfully request that you provide the public an immediate update on your ongoing investigation into whether Governor Cuomo did indeed misuse state resources for his own personal monetary gain.”

Unlike the sexual harassment allegations that forced Andrew M. Cuomo's resignation, Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal plays a significant role in his administration's COVID nursing home deaths scandals. Follow this link (and its links) to find out more!

26 August 2021: JCOPE Finally Asks for Criminal Probe of Leak to Cuomo

JCOPE votes to ask AG to conduct criminal probe of alleged leak to Cuomo

Perhaps realizing that putting Andrew M. Cuomo's interests ahead of its own and the public's interests may not be a viable strategy to promote ethical behavior among New York state government officials, New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) has finally made a criminal referral related to a 2019 leak from its own meetings to Andrew M. Cuomo.

In a startling reversal, New York’s ethics oversight commission passed a motion asking state Attorney General Letitia James to investigate whether confidential information was illegally leaked to former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2019.

In a second vote on Thursday, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics authorized James’ office to conduct a criminal investigation into whether the state inspector general’s office, which investigated the alleged leak to Cuomo, intentionally failed to find out the identity of the leaker and instead “covered up” the matter.

By the slimmest margin, JCOPE's commissioners passed the motions to make the criminal referrals to James — actions legally required in order for her office to pursue possible investigations.

It’s not immediately clear if James’ office will indeed investigate the matters.

The motions passed on Thursday direct JCOPE’s executive director, Sanford Berland, to ask James for criminal investigations into the apparent leak of confidential information from the ethics panel, as well as the state inspector general’s subsequent investigation into the matter, and any other illegal leaks since the commission was created in 2011.

Based on their well established track record, had Andrew M. Cuomo not been forced to resign, JCOPE's commissioners, many of whom were appointed by Cuomo, would not have taken this action.

26 August 2021: Cuomo's Legal Defense Contracts Under Review

Hochul Reviewing Legal Bills Racked Up by Cuomo’s Office in Harassment and Nursing Home Probes

New York's new governor is reviewing the legal contracts that Andrew M. Cuomo hired to defend himself at New York taxpayer expense against state and federal investigations of his sexual harassment and COVID nursing home deaths scandals.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is examining some $5 million in pending taxpayer-funded contracts with the law firms and public relations outfit her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, hired to represent his office and staff before stepping down, THE CITY has learned.

“We will be reviewing all legal contracts and making appropriate decisions on the need for legal representation and whether to continue any contracts,” a spokesperson for the governor told THE CITY in response to questions about the outstanding bills.

All told, between lawyers representing Cuomo’s office and outside counsel brought in to investigate him, taxpayers face a potential total bill of $8.78 million based on contracts already signed by Cuomo, Attorney General Letitia James’ office and the state Assembly.

As of this week, one of two prominent Manhattan law firms and a public relations company Cuomo hired several months back had submitted bills to the executive chamber. Before he left office Cuomo signed off on about $785,000 in payments for one of the law firms and the p.r. concern, records show.

That leaves another $4.2 million in potential bills under the contracts inked by Cuomo. Hochul — who in her first day in office pledged a new transparency for state government — will now decide what the firms will be paid going forward.

The two law firms referenced in this excerpt are Walden Macht & Haran and Morvillo Abramowitz. The public relations firm is Innovative Discovery Holdings. A third firm hired by Cuomo, Arnold & Porter, has not submitted any bills and no contract is yet on file with the state comptroller's office.

26 August 2021: How Cuomo Influence Network Corrupted Time's Up Into Silence

We're continuing to follow this story because a lot of the same players behind the Cuomo COVID nursing home deaths scandals are employing similar methods to advance Andrew M. Cuomo's interests ahead of the public's interest.

Leaders of the ‘Time’s Up’ anti-harassment group worked closely with Cuomo aide after first accusation against him surfaced

This report details how the Cuomo influence network successfully manipulated the Time's Up anti-sexual harassment advocacy group into silence with respect to Lindsey Boylan's allegations of misconduct:

The leaders of Time’s Up, the advocacy group founded by political insiders in Washington and Hollywood to fight workplace sexual misconduct, decided against issuing a statement in support of New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s first harassment accuser in December after consulting with the governor’s top aide, according to people familiar with the matter and text messages obtained by The Washington Post.

The text messages show that Time’s Up chief executive Tina Tchen told her colleagues to “stand down” from a plan to release a public statement supporting Cuomo’s first accuser, Lindsey Boylan, after two people connected to the group spoke with Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s longtime adviser.

A day earlier, DeRosa had briefed Roberta Kaplan, then the chairwoman of Time’s Up, about Cuomo’s plans for an initial response to Boylan, and Kaplan shared the statement with Tchen, according to people familiar with the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose them.

A separate effort by Tchen to pressure DeRosa to oversee an internal investigation into the “workplace culture” in the governor’s office was also abandoned after DeRosa and Kaplan argued that such an effort would lack credibility given that DeRosa was a loyal aide to Cuomo, according to text messages and people familiar with the events.

Roberta Kaplan is a former aide to Andrew M. Cuomo who was embedded within the Time's Up organization, where her actions in this matter revealed her loyalties lay with servicing Andrew M. Cuomo's interests ahead of the organization's stated mission and goals. Once her role as a member of Cuomo's influence network became clear, she was forced to resign from the organization.

The Dec. 15 text message discussion between five senior Time’s Up advisers revealed a far more extensive behind-the-scenes effort to work with Cuomo’s office amid the sexual harassment charges than the group has previously acknowledged. An investigation earlier this month by New York Attorney General Letitia James found that Kaplan had spoken with DeRosa about a separate draft letter responding to Boylan’s allegations, which investigators described as part of an “unlawful retaliation” effort against Boylan. Kaplan had read the letter to Tchen at the time, the investigation found.

Kaplan resigned from the Time’s Up board on Aug. 9, after James’s report was released, amid an outcry from sexual abuse survivor advocates. Tchen has since apologized to survivors and said she does not recall the details of her conversation with Kaplan.

The report continues to detail the internal discussionsat Time's Up and their interactions with top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa. We think its likely that Tchen will face professional consequences for her role in the matter, which is pending the findings of an internal probe by the organization.

Playing along with the Cuomo influence network is proving to not be a good career choice.

26 August 2021: New Governor, NY Lawmakers Discuss Ethics Reform

NYS lawmakers, Hochul talk ethics reform

Some long overdue discussions began taking place on 25 August 2021 in New York:

State ethics reform has been a big topic of discussion in Albany in recent months. On her first day of the job yesterday, Governor Kathy Hochul talked about the changes she’d like to make. And, today the State Senate held a hearing on “ethics oversight and enforcement.”

“We’ll focus on open, ethical governing that New Yorkers will trust,” Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday. She has called for making sexual harassment and ethics training for state workers be done live. She’s also asking state entities to look at compliance with state transparency laws and come up with a public report. And, she said, “I’ve instructed my counsel to come up with an expedited process to fulfil all FOIL requests as fast as possible.”...

Meanwhile, today State Senators held a pre-scheduled ethics hearing where lawmakers criticized the Joint Commission on Public Ethics and its transparency.

“It is no secret to any of us here that Albany has a long history riddled with corruption and abuses of power, and it has long been subject to scrutiny for its failure to implement an effective ethical oversight regime,” said Senator Alessandra Biaggi.

“This is something that I think has been of significant concern to both parties, both sides of the aisle,” said Senator Anthony Palumbo.

Amazing that these things are happening so quickly following the departure of Andrew M. Cuomo and his senior officials from power.

25 August 2021: Local DAs Ask NY Atty General to Delay Releasing Cuomo Sexual Harassment Probe Materials

Multiple District attorneys ask New York AG's office to hold off on publicly releasing Cuomo investigation transcripts

This report, believe it or not, is from CNN.

Three New York district attorneys' offices are urging the state attorney general's office either to delay or withhold from publicly releasing transcripts and other materials from its investigation that found former Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, concerned that doing so now may "hinder" their ongoing criminal investigations, according to documents obtained by CNN.

"While I respect the right of the public to have access to the same materials, I fear that making them available at this time could compromise our investigation," Albany County District Attorney David Soares wrote in a letter dated Monday and sent to New York Attorney General Letitia James' office....

In an emailed request to James' office to withhold the transcripts, Oswego County District Attorney Greg Oakes said he is "still exploring whether it is possible to file criminal charges regarding the alleged conduct" and "concerned that the public release of additional information may hinder or impair any potential prosecution." Oakes did not specify a timeline in his letter for when his office's inquiry would be complete....

"In order to protect the integrity of our investigation and potential prosecution, we ask that the OAG refrain from publicly posting the transcripts," Nassau County's Amanda Burke argued.

This entry was retroactively added to the timeline on 8 September 2021.

25 August 2021: Opinion - Cuomo Still Needs to Answer for COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Cuomo says farewell, but he should still answer for New York’s COVID nursing home calamity (opinion)

SILive columnist Tom Wrobleski recaps Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals in calling for accountability. This is a lengthy excerpt, because it deserves to be read that way:

Cuomo in his farewell aria on Monday said that New York had “faced up to the facts” when dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. We were able to drive down infection rates while other states played politics, he said.

But Cuomo has never faced up to the facts when it comes to the directive issued by his Health Department on March 25, 2020 that forced nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients from hospitals.

The mandate stipulated that the nursing homes couldn’t even ask the COVID status of any incoming patient.

The directive put the most vulnerable COVID patients into the most perilous environment possible. It put COVID sufferers, nursing home residents and staffers at terrible risk.

Attorney General Letitia James in January issued a report that said the Cuomo administration had undercounted the number of COVID deaths in nursing homes by as much as half.

The report said that the March 25 directive may have increased the death count.

Cuomo’s response? People died, the governor thundered. Who cares where they died? They died.

The families cared a lot.

And it turns out that Cuomo may have cared where people died as well, but for a different reason.

Earlier, Cuomo and his top staffers had been lashed for withholding information from the U.S. Justice Department about COVID deaths in nursing homes. They were afraid that the information would be politically weaponized by then-President Donald Trump.

Hogwash. Cuomo knew the nursing home news was bad for him. He knew that it would tarnish the halo he’d been given by the media for his “straight-talk” daily updates during the pandemic.

So the nursing home information was hidden for as long as possible, until even Cuomo’s fellow Democrats were calling him out.

Just because Cuomo has resigned doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t be held accountable for what happened in state nursing homes.

The timeline traces the beginning of Cuomo's cover-up of the full extent of COVID deaths among NY nursing home residents to April 2020. The Trump DOJ first requested COVID death data for New York's nursing homes on 26 August 2020.

By that time, senior Cuomo administration officials had been tampering with the reporting of the state's public data on the full extent of COVID-related nursing home deaths for months, most notably editing a state NYDOH report in July 2020 to reduce its count of deaths in order to absolve themselves of responsibility for the excess COVID deaths that resulted from Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's and Health Commissioner Howard Zucker's deadly 25 March 2020 directive.

There's a lot of answering that needs to be done for Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals. Much of it by the state officials who developed, implemented, and enforced the policies that made COVID deadlier in New York than it would have been without them.

25 August 2021: How NY's Official State Count of COVID Deaths Changed

State Health Dept. finally reports New York’s true COVID death toll

This report describes how New York's official number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 changed after Governor Kathy Hochul ditched the Cuomo administration's deceptive practices in reporting the public data:

The new state figures show the number COVID-related deaths in New York State as of Tuesday totaled 55,395.

It’s a significant jump from the 43,415 that would have been reported under the old system, which only tallied deaths in hospitals, nursing homes and adult care facilities.

The Cuomo administration’s decision to only release those partial tallies in its daily public summaries of COVID-19 data had come under increasing fire in recent weeks.

Those reports did not include New Yorkers who died from the pandemic at home, or in jails or prisons or in other non-hospital settings, or doing the early days of the pandemic when testing was not available, providing an incomplete picture of the true toll COVID-19 took on the Empire State.

However, state officials did quietly provide the total count to the federal authorities at the CDC, which began providing them in its own datasets — raising rounds of questions about the information published locally by the Cuomo administration.

The report recognizes the Cuomo administration's tactics to underreport the number of COVID deaths in New York is similar to those they used to cover-up the full extent of COVID deaths at NY nursing homes:

The Cuomo administration used similar tactics to make the number of nursing home deaths caused by the coronavirus appear dramatically smaller, tallying just those residents who died in nursing homes and not those who were taken to the hospital before passing away.

It only released the true figures after Attorney General Letitia James released a damning report that highlighted the vast discrepancies between the figures published by the Cuomo administration and information tallied by compiling death certificates.

The report also indicates Hochul plans to identify and sack state officials involved in Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID deaths underreporting and cover-up scandals.

25 August 2021: Hochul Breaks with Cuomo COVID Death Reporting Practices

NY COVID Deaths Soar Above 55,000 as Hochul Adds CDC Data to Daily Report for Transparency

It's a small, easy to implement move on Hochul's part, yet one that breaks with the Cuomo administration's practice of either misrepresenting or concealing the full extent of COVID deaths in New York. Here's an excerpt from the report:

Hochul, who vowed to improve transparency in state government as she took the reins from her controversy-embroiled predecessor, included New York state's total COVID-19 death toll as reported to the CDC in her release -- a count that is more than 10,000 deaths higher (55,395) than the state's report (43,415) and includes the nursing home deaths Andrew Cuomo's office said it excluded to avoid double-counting them.

Hochul can address the potential double counting issue by devoting resources in the state government to identify duplication in the death records. The kind of method that might be used would be similar to the exercise investigative journalists conducted in Michigan, which revealed the state's official COVID death counts are significantly undercounted. Other states routinely review their COVID deaths data to minimize the amount of double counting.

25 August 2021: Cuomo Insider Resigns from State Government Job

Linda Lacewell, top Cuomo confidante, quits state government job

Another day, another member of Cuomo's influence network resigns from their job:

Linda Lacewell, an attorney and former chief of staff for ex-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, resigned from her job Tuesday as superintendent of the state Department of Financial Services.

Lacewell, who also had headed Cuomo's coronavirus task force, had directed many of the administration's work dealing with the pandemic, including decisions on the reporting of nursing home fatalities that sparked an investigation by the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, according to state health department sources.

Lacewell also had been integral in the response of Cuomo's office to the sexual harassment allegations that engulfed him during the past nine months and led to his resignation this week.

A 165-page report issued by the attorney general's office that concluded Cuomo sexually harassed or inappropriately touched multiple women listed many instances in which Lacewell had apparently been involved with researching and strategizing how to respond to the accusers. Lacewell's role included researching the administration's ability to leak copies of personnel records on Lindsey Boylan, one of the governor's accusers.

Lacewell almost certainly crossed multiple ethical red lines in serving Andrew M. Cuomo's interests. Her choice to resign avoids the penalties that would come from being fired under New York's replacement governor Kathy Hochul.

The report also describes Lacewell's role in establishing a network of officials embedded throughout New York's state government that would enable Cuomo administration officials to suppress negative news in support of Cuomo's political interests:

In 2015, Lacewell established a program embedding attorneys in two dozen state agencies to monitor activities for the administration, including flagging potentially troublesome Freedom of Information Law requests.

The program was framed as an "ethics, risk and compliance initiative" used to bring a private-sector risk management model to state agencies and public authorities. But the effort also included managing negative information about the administration.

Their efforts would have contributed to the success the Cuomo administration had in stonewalling requests for public data on COVID nursing home deaths occurring during the period its deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect, which enabled the administration to conceal the full extent of those deaths for as long as it did.

Lacewell's resignation is a start in cleaning up Cuomo's legacy of anti-transparency in government. There are at least two dozen additional state officials who should follow her example. The resignation was announced on 24 August 2021.

Update: Richard Azzopardi is also no longer employed by New York's state government.

24 August 2021: Cuomo Stripped of International Emmy Award

International Emmys Takes Back Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Honorary Emmy Award

This report may qualify as the bottom story of the day. Here's a Twitter post covering the statement from the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences:

NEW: Andrew Cuomo has been stripped of his International Emmy. pic.twitter.com/gJHNY26hZ8

— Jon Campbell (@JonCampbellGAN) August 24, 2021

And here's deeper coverage from Variety, which tries to justify why the International Emmys awarded politician Cuomo with its top honor:

The award was given to acknowledge Cuomo’s use of television to provide information and a sense of calm to viewers during the early outbreak of the pandemic. The award was created to recognize individuals for their ability to transcend cultural divides in connecting to a “common humanity.”

“The Governor’s 111 daily briefings worked so well because he effectively created television shows, with characters, plot lines, and stories of success and failure,” Bruce L. Paisner, International Academy president and CEO, said at the time. “People around the world tuned in to find out what was going on, and New York tough became a symbol of the determination to fight back.”

Others previously honored with the Founders Award include Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams and Norman Lear.

The question of whether the International Academy would rescind the Emmy grew louder in recent weeks, after state Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation found that Cuomo had sexually harassed multiple women. The investigation, released on Aug. 3, found that Gov. Cuomo “sexually harassed a number of current and former New York State employees by, among other things, engaging in unwelcome and nonconsensual touching, as well as making numerous offensive comments of a suggestive and sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women.”

In truth, questions of whether the International Academy should ever have presented Cuomo with an Emmy have been voiced from the very moment the body awarded Cuomo with an Emmy. Here is previous coverage from the timeline:

• 21 November 2020: News/Entertainment Industry Sucks Up to Governor Cuomo With Emmy Award
• 21 November 2020: Backlash For Governor Cuomo's Emmy Award
• 13 February 2021: Emmy Awards Association Silent on Scandal
• 20 April 2021: Mobile Billboard Campaign to Revoke Governor Cuomo's Emmy Award
• 30 April 2021: British Equivalent of Oscar/Emmy Award Revoked Over Sexual Harassment Allegations
• 20 August 2021: Analysis - The Media's Role in the Cuomo Myth

24 August 2021: Federal Probe of COVID Deaths at NJ Nursing Homes Progresses

Federal investigation into NJ veterans homes moves ahead with family interviews

This report was first published on 13 August 2021. It provides an update on the status of the federal government's continuing probe into the COVID-related deaths at state government operated veterans homes.

Families of residents who died from COVID-19 at the Menlo Park and Paramus veterans homes have begun to be interviewed by federal prosecutors as part of the Justice Department's investigation into the high death toll at the state-run facilities, sources said.

The interviews come as the Justice Department confirmed in a July 23 letter that the probe into the two homes was still active despite the agency's decision to drop a wider investigation launched under the Trump administration into public nursing home deaths in New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Families have also been interviewed in a separate investigation by the state Attorney General's Office.

Few nursing homes in the nation were as devastated by COVID-19 as those in Paramus and Menlo Park, with 192 resident deaths along with two staff members during the height of the pandemic in spring 2020. A third state veterans home in Vineland has had only 11 resident deaths. Poor decisions and questionable policies may have contributed to the high death toll.

The report describes examples of exceptionally deficient care at the state government-operated nursing home facilities for veterans, including the deliberate mixing of COVID patients with non-infected patients, which contributed to the spread of infections and deaths at them.

This federal investigation is one to watch because of the general position of the DOJ under the Biden-Harris administration. The department has demonstrated a strong desire to drop civil rights probes involving COVID deaths at nursing homes started by the DOJ under the Trump administration in the four states that adopted similar policies as New York's deadly 25 March 2020 directive.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the DOJ dropped its probe in New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania, but not New Jersey, which indicates it has a level of official misconduct and deficient care that could not be swept under the rug, even though President Biden has repeatedly signaled his willingness to look the other way at excess COVID nursing home deaths in these states.

13 August 2021 also saw a request by Republican members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings into the civil rights of senior citizens in Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania who lost their lives to COVID during the periods their state governors sustained policies forcing nursing homes to admit COVID patients during the pandemic. Independent analysis indicates the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive in New York contributed to hundreds, and possibly more than a thousand excess COVID deaths in the state's nursing homes.

24 August 2021: Post-Cuomo, Will JCOPE Stay Impotent?

As JCOPE eyes Cuomo, will his appointees remain?

This report seeks to answer two questions. First, with Cuomo out of office, will his appointed lackeys to JCOPE continue protecting his interests? Second, how long will they remain on the impotent body?

We'll have a chance to find out, because on Thursday, 26 August 2021, the normally secretive Joint Commission on Public Ethics will meet to consider whether they should revoke the green light the body's unappointed staff gave to Andrew M. Cuomo to engage in his pandemic "leadership" book deal. The following excerpt explains what they could do if the appointed commissioners revoked their staff's choice:

At a special meeting on Thursday, New York's ethics commission is expected to vote on whether to revoke its staff's approval of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's lucrative book deal last year.

Gary Lavine, a Senate Republican appointee to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, plans to introduce the motion revoking Cuomo's permission to write "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic," which was published in October 2020 and recounts the governor's early handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lavine believes that JCOPE staff never had the authority to approve the outside income request without seeking JCOPE commissioners' approval. In addition, Lavine says that Cuomo's special counsel, Judith Mogul, made material misrepresentations by promising that Cuomo would not use his government staff to help produce the book, when in fact, Cuomo had already been doing so when she sought the approval in July 2020. If the motion passes, JCOPE could try to force Cuomo to return the millions in proceeds from the $5.1 million publishing deal.

The report goes on to recognize that Cuomo's resignation sets a 1-year time limit on JCOPE to act to refer a criminal investigation to the state attorney general. In that sense, unless Cuomo's appointees break their loyalty to Cuomo, it is likely they'll ride out the clock and ensure JCOPE remains an impotent ethics watchdog overseeing New York state government officials.

24 August 2021: Hochul Promises Post-Cuomo New York Will Come Clean on COVID, Nursing Home Deaths

Hochul promises her administration will be ‘transparent’ with nursing home, pandemic data

In a welcome development, newly sworn in New York Governor Kathy Hochul is attempting to break with the Cuomo administration's practices of either concealing or deceptively representing New York's public data on COVID deaths.

“My administration will be very transparent with respect to documents pertaining to nursing homes and anything related to the pandemic,” Hochul pledged — without elaborating further — during a closed-door, virtual meeting held last Thursday with the state’s congressional delegation, according to audio obtained by The Post.

The declaration followed a question from upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik, who raised the importance of starting a “new chapter in transparency and accountability,” probing the new governor over what her plan is when it comes to fixing the Empire State’s marred nursing home record.

“I know many of us represent families who have lost loved ones in our nursing homes, and I just want to reiterate the importance, I believe, of turning the page and having a new chapter in transparency and accountability when it comes to our nursing home crisis,” said Stefanik.

“I want to just call on you to have an independent review of our nursing home pandemic response to ensure that we can protect our elderly in future outbreaks. We want to make sure the data is released and it’s transparent.”

“Again, this is a nonpartisan issue I have spoken with families who are heartbroken,” she added.

Around 15,000 residents of nursing homes and other elder care facilities have died in the state due COVID-19 since the pandemic’s start, according to state Health Department records.

In addition to following through on her pledge, we think both Hochul and the people of New York would benefit from establishing a commission with subpoena powers to fully investigate the experience that nursing homes and group homes had under Andrew M. Cuomo's policies during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. That investigation should also probe the role that state government officials in the Executive Office and the New York Department of Health had in developing, implementing and enforcing those policies.

We think that without such a commission, Hochul will have an uphill battle to restore trust in New York's state government. It's also a much needed precursor to developing effective reforms to prevent similar deadly outcomes in the future, which would be the next step after the investigation commission completes its limited task. Since Hochul plans to run for election as NY governor in 2022, it would be to her advantage to run on a reform platform based on her commission's findings.

It would also help identify which officials will need to be replaced in the full housecleaning that's desperately needed in these state government bodies in Albany after nearly 11 years of Andrew M. Cuomo's tenure in office.

Regardless of whether she adopts these suggestions or not, we'll soon know how truly serious Hochul is about cleaning up the mess Andrew M. Cuomo left behind.

24 August 2021: Ding Dong, Cuomo's Gone!

It's a brand new day in New York!

His final farewell: Cuomo submits his resignation letter

It's official.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo submitted his letter of resignation Monday night, after more than a decade of control in Albany.

The 63-year-old kept it simple in his letter to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers), who is serving as temporary president of the chamber due to the elevation of Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul to the governor’s office.

“I hereby tender my resignation for the office of Governor of the State of New York. This resignation will be effective at 12:00 a.m., August 24, 2021,” the soon-to-be-former governor wrote before concluding: “It has been my pleasure to serve with you both.”

Cuomo announced he would step down on Aug. 10, one week after an independent report commissioned by state Attorney General Letitia James detailed his sexual harassment of 11 women — including nine current or former state employees — in violation of federal law.

All that remains now is all the work to clean up the messes Andrew M. Cuomo left behind.

23 August 2021: Cuomo Claims To Be Victim

Disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo decries ‘unfair’ treatment as he bids farewell

Andrew M. Cuomo claimed to be the victim of a "political firecracker" in his farewell address as he resigns in disgrace, prematurely choosing to resign rather than face impeachment. In the following excerpt, we've focused on Cuomo's comments related to his newly asserted victim status.

Cuomo started his address by declaring there would be another time to “talk about the truth” before launching into how he believed the handling of allegations leveled against him was “unjust.”

He also insisted that the “intense political pressure and media frenzy” surrounding the allegations had resulted in a “rush to judgment.”

“When government politicizes allegations and the headlines condemn without facts, you undermine the justice system. And that doesn’t serve women, and it doesn’t serve men, or society. Of course, everyone has a right to come forward and we applaud their bravery and courage in doing so,” he said.

“Allegations must still be scrutinized and verified, whether made by a woman or a man, that is our basic justice system.

“Facts still matter.”

He said the AG’s report that triggered his resignation was “designed to be a political firecracker.”

“And it worked. There was a political and media stampede. But the truth will out in time of that, I am confident,” he said.

“I am a fighter and my instinct is to fight this because it is unfair and unjust in my mind, but you also know that I love New York, and I serve you. That is the oath that I took.

“In this moment, I believe the right thing is that my service come first. Prolonging this situation could only cause governmental paralysis. That is just not an option for you and not an option for the state, especially now.”

Left unspoken was Cuomo's dimishing power in the face of the multiple scandals for which he is now under multiple criminal investigations by local, state, and federal prosecutors.

‘Disgusting display’: Critics blast Gov. Cuomo’s self-pitying farewell speech

Cuomo's farewell address went over like a tone-deaf lead balloon with the multiplying critics of his performance in office.

23 August 2021: Cuomo to Resign on Schedule

Calm After the Storm: Cuomo to Step Down on Schedule Monday Night

Some observers have questioned whether Andrew M. Cuomo would seek to rescind his announced resignation rather than relinquish power in New York. This report indicates Cuomo will be out as scheduled at 11:59 PM on 23 August 2021.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo still plans to leave office Monday, Aug. 23, despite ramping up his public presence in the lead up to Tropical Storm Henri.

“Yes, my final day is tomorrow, Tuesday morning,” said the outgoing governor in response to a question from amNewYork Metro during a virtual storm press briefing Sunday morning.

The governor is officially scheduled to leave by 11:59 p.m. Monday, but appeared to misspeak, referring to Tuesday, Aug. 24, when Lieutenant Gov. Kathy Hochul is slated to replace him as New York State’s chief executive....

Hochul will officially be sworn in as New York state’s 57th — and first female — governor a minute after midnight on Tuesday, Aug. 24, and will hold a ceremonial swearing-in at 10 a.m. at the State Capitol in Albany.

Cuomo announced on Aug. 10 that he would resign two weeks later, after the revelations of a bombshell investigation by state Attorney General Letitia James, which found accusations of sexual harassment by 11 women, along with a toxic work culture in the Executive Chamber.

The clock for Cuomo is continuing to tick down....

23 August 2021: Cuomo Leaving NY DOH Staffing Mess Behind

Cuomo leaves Hochul with staff crisis at Health Department amid COVID

In a sign of how Andrew M. Cuomo's multiple scandals negatively impacted his ability to perform in office, New York's incoming replacement governor Kathy Hochul is inheriting a major staff crisis at the New York Department of Health.

Disgraced outgoing Gov. Andrew Cuomo is saddling successor Kathy Hochul with a major staffing crisis at the state Health Department when she takes the reins Tuesday, personnel records obtained by The Post reveal.

The records that show 58 DOH employees who made more than $100,000 — including those in top policy positions and scientists tasked with fighting the unrelenting COVID-19 crisis — have fled the agency from Jan. 1 through Aug. 11 this year.

Two more top health officials have submitted resignations since then, bringing the total to 60. One of them is Richard Becker, the governor’s deputy secretary for health and human services who was hired last August.

“Hochul has been handed a depleted and demoralized health department. It’s going to be Hochul’s problem to rebuild DOH,” one former veteran Health Department official told The Post.

The report notes that current department head Howard Zucker's ethical problems and involvement in Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals may be a contributing factor in the departures of senior staff:

Zucker signed off on the controversial DOH directive during the early days of the pandemic that ordered nursing homes to take in recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals without prior testing, which critics claimed contributed to the spread of infections and deaths among the elderly in those facilities. Cuomo and Zucker defended the policy, which was later rescinded.

Zucker and DOH also was implicated in Cuomo’s cover up of the true number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes and for attempting to absolve the administration of wrongdoing in an in-house report issued last year....

More than 54,000 people have died of COVID-19 in New York State, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. About 16,000 fatalities were residents in nursing homes and other adult care facilities.

The report does not mention the DOH's role in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic in New York under Zucker in diverting scarce DOH resources to provide VIP priority care and testing for Andrew M. Cuomo's family members, such as CNN host Chris Cuomo, and other politically-connected associates of the disgraced and soon-to-be former governor.

23 August 2021: DNC Associated Firm to Continue Providing Party Voter Database Access to Cuomo

Democratic National Committee’s Top Data Firm Stands by Cuomo

Despite the multiple scandals that forced his premature resignation from office in disgrace, Andrew M. Cuomo will continue to benefit from access to services provided by the firm the Democratic National Committee provided with a monopoly over the Democratic party's voter database.

Democratic Party data behemoth NGP VAN has given Cuomo a platform to collect donations from supporters through his official campaign website. NGP VAN is a major player in liberal politics, serving as the sole proprietor of the Democratic National Committee's voter database. Its relationship with Cuomo stands in contrast, however, to the Democratic power players, including President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who abandoned him after a state report called sexual misconduct accusations against him credible.

The firm has a history of providing access to its data to organizations mired in scandals:

NGP VAN has leveraged its relationship with the DNC to work with virtually every major Democratic campaign, as well as hundreds of labor unions. Cuomo paid NGP VAN at least $12,000 this year, according to campaign finance documents reviewed by the Free Beacon. The firm has built a reputation on working with Democrats who face misconduct allegations. In addition to its ongoing support for Cuomo, the platform still works with the Lincoln Project even after media reports revealed that the organization's top brass knew that cofounder John Weaver preyed on boys as young as 14.

The report also addresses what Cuomo may do with the $18 million his political campaign organization holds in its bank accounts:

New York election law allows Cuomo, who is set to leave office on Aug. 25, to spend his $18 million war chest on another gubernatorial run in the future or on donations to other candidates who seek office. According to several reports, some in Cuomo's inner circle say he may mount another run for governor in 2022.

Since pending legal actions involving Cuomo's scandals may keep him otherwise occupied well through 2022, we think that's unlikely except as a means to spend the funds on things that somehow personally benefit Cuomo or members of his family, where he could put his children and other family members on his campaign organization's payroll while going through the motions of campaigning. As for the potential of being elected as NY governor in 2022, Cuomo would have to overcome the earned reputation of being just another New York governor who quit after scandals forced him from office when the going got too tough for him.

23 August 2021: Cuomo's Last Day in Office Arrives

Cuomo pretends he’s NY’s ‘hero’ during final days in office

At 11:59 PM, Andrew M. Cuomo's announced resignation will take effect, making current Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul New York's governor. According to this report, as he exits, he isn't doing her any favors in terms of helping her transition into the job.

Disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo is milking his final days in office, keeping his successor at arm’s length and capitalizing on his final performance as man-in-charge as the state gets pounded by Tropical Storm Henri, according to political observers.

With just over 36 hours remaining in office, Cuomo used the storm to hog the limelight Sunday morning, reprising a familiar role that garnered him national attention before his career was torpedoed by a series of sexual harassment allegations substantiated by the state’s attorney general.

“He’s doing his best to keep a veneer as if the world hasn’t imploded on top of him,” said John Samuelsen, president of the Transit Workers Union, a former ally.

“His ego, every single time, is going to be the biggest thing in the room.”

During a 32-minute press briefing Sunday morning — and with his successor Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul nowhere in sight — a white polo-clad Cuomo delivered an update about the storm and the state’s efforts to handle it, sprinkling in trite wisecracks and even a head-scratching parable.

We think the displayed combination of strangeness and narcissism is attributable to the bunker mentality that has characterized Cuomo's tenure in office during most of 2021, which is shared by himself and his dead-ender loyalist staffers.

Speaking of which, if Hochul has any political survival instinct, she'll start clearing out Cuomo's embedded loyalists serving in appointed positions at all levels within New York's state government as soon as she's sworn in.