16 August 2021: NY Assemblyman Says Assembly Will Issue Report on Its Cuomo Impeachment Work

Assemblyman: Report on Cuomo to come

This report indicates the information compiled for the NY Assembly's impeachment probe may be made public:

Assembly Judiciary Committee members were told Saturday morning that, tentatively, a report report on its mostly secretive findings to date on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo would be released to the public, according to a text message sent to them.

"In addition to forwarding all evidence to relevant investigative authorities, the Assembly Judiciary Committee will complete its work and issue a final report," a text message to committee members Saturday at 10:43 a.m. reads, according to member Phil Steck, a Democrat from Colonie who shared the text with the Times Union.

The day prior, Friday, Speaker Carl E. Heastie and committee Chairman Charles D. Lavine declared its investigation over. They did not say they would issue a report.

Heastie's spokesman, Lavine and his spokesman did not return requests for comment Sunday. The status of a report on an investigation that Heastie has said cost millions of dollars remains unknown; investigations into Cuomo are valued at $10.3 million, according to state comptroller contracts, but final numbers are not yet known.

Heastie said in his statement Friday afternoon that the committee would turn over relevant information to investigators, who continue to look into the issues, which include the counting of nursing home deaths, a $5.1 million book deal and political favors to Cuomo's family.

The lack of commitment to issue a report contributed in part to the ire from a wide-ranging group, including politicians on opposite sides of the aisle, advocates and the women who were found by investigators to have been harassed by the governor.

Statements calling for at least a report and, preferably, an impeachment, of Cuomo poured in over the weekend since Heastie and Lavine announced Friday afternoon they were ceasing its impeachment investigation into the governor.

"The speaker can't muster enough courage to simply do his job," said Charlotte Bennett, who was found to be harassed by the governor in the attorney general's report, in a statement Sunday. "After spending millions of taxpayer dollars and issuing lofty statements, he's failed to lift a finger to make clear that New York rejects Cuomo's behavior."

The text promising to deliver a report based on the information collected for the NY Assembly's impeachment probe is being made public to head off criticism like Charlotte Bennett's and to prevent it from being memory-holed.