15 September 2021: Hochul Didn't Know Her Pick for JCOPE

Hochul ‘literally’ doesn’t know appointee who let Cuomo keep $5.1M book deal

This report doesn't inspire confidence in replacement NY Governor Kathy Hochul's and her staff's candidate selection process. We find it fascinating that she's claiming ignorance to explain why her pick to JCOPE voted to let Andrew M. Cuomo keep the $5.12 million for his pandemic "leadership" book deal, despite the use of state government resources and personnel to produce it at no cost to himself.

During a news conference in Albany, Hochul was asked by The Post about Monday’s ruling by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics regarding last year’s authorization for then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to sell the lucrative rights to his coronavirus memoir.

An effort to rescind the permission — which was granted in secret by a JCOPE lawyer — failed when newly named Commissioner Randall Hinrichs, a former Suffolk County district administrative judge, sided with Cuomo immediately after Hochul announced his appointment.

“What happened yesterday was as a result of two resignations. In order for there to be any business going forward, I had to appoint somebody,” Hochul said Wednesday.

“I had to find an individual, an individual who is highly recommended, who has credentials, but literally is unknown to me.”

Hochul dug her hole deeper when she continued speaking:

Hochul added: “You know, I want to make sure that we are not stacking these bodies with our friends and with our allies, as had been in the past.”

When pressed by The Post to say where she stood on whether the state should claw back Cuomo’s earnings from last year’s “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” Hochul declined to answer.

“What JCOPE does, I’m not going to comment on their investigation. That’s wildly inappropriate for me to do so,” she said.

“Now, if someone’s gonna infer from that, that I’m trying to cut a better deal for the governor, I think it’s well known that we’ve not been close… So, before people make certain assumptions that are highly erroneous: They are wrong.”

Hochul’s latter remarks appeared aimed at state Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), who on Tuesday told The Post that the JCOPE vote “conveys that Kathy Hochul is not concerned about holding Cuomo accountable or rooting out corruption in Albany.”

Hochul's statement makes the outcome of the JCOPE vote look like an own goal, originating in her incompetence in vetting her first appointee to JCOPE.