Tuesday, August 17, 2021

17 August 2021: Assembly Asked to Review Case JCOPE Dropped

Assembly asked to investigate botched handling of ethics case involving ex-Cuomo aide

In something of a rebuke of both Andrew M. Cuomo and NY Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, three Republican members to New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) asked the NY Assembly's judiciary committee to continue investigating Cuomo's alleged misconduct in office. They specifically asked the committee to investigate a case that JCOPE dropped, which involved the leak of information about a JCOPE probe into a close associate of Andrew M. Cuomo to Andrew M. Cuomo.

The Assembly panel investigating Gov. Andrew Cuomo is being asked to look into more alleged misconduct — this time involving the botched handling of an ethics case involving imprisoned ex-Cuomo fixer Joe Percoco.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics in January 2019 had discussed whether to open a probe into Percoco when word leaked to Cuomo within the hour of how members had voted on the matter.

Cuomo was reportedly not pleased that JCOPE was targeting his own pal for potential violations of the Public Officers Law. Percco at that point had already been convicted of public corruption following a federal trial.

His displeasure had been passed along to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) over how Heastie’s appointees had voted on the matter.

It’s a misdemeanor crime to leak information about JCOPE’s confidential deliberations and investigations.

Here is a description of the request of the three NY lawmakers:

“Recognizing Governor Cuomo’s intention to resign, Joint Ethics Commission members Gary J. Lavine, David J. McNamara and George H. Weissman nonetheless request that the Assembly Committee on Judiciary complete its inquiry into the conduct of the Governor,” the three JCOPE members, appointed by Senate GOP leader Robert Ortt, said.

“We specifically request that the ambit of this inquiry include the illegal breach of confidentiality from the Commission’s meeting of January 2019 to the Executive Chamber and the ensuing cover-up of the wrongdoing by the Office of Inspector General,” the JCOPE members said in the letter provided to The Post.

“It is salient to note that the Inspector General reports directly to the Governor’s Secretary,” the JCOPE members said in the letter to Levine.

They called the IG’s report on the Percoco matter “a sham”, adding, “the apparent cover-up raises the specter of official misconduct.”

“It is likely, in our view, that the Governor and several of his close associates were complicit in the cover-up of the breach of confidentiality,” Lavine, McNamara and Weissman wrote.

Here is related previous coverage from the timeline:

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