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.