11 November 2021: Editorial - AG's Release of Cuomo Sex Crime Probe Transcripts Is Good First Step

James opens up: At last, N.Y.’s attorney general releases transcripts in the Cuomo review

This editorial from the New York Daily News provides some context for the state attorney general's office's release of a set of the transcripts it collected during its investigation of Andrew M. Cuomo's alleged sexual harassment incidents with several women:

State Attorney General Tish James was right to publish transcripts of sworn testimony in the independent probe of sexual harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo. The first 11 and most important of these documents, interviews of Cuomo and 10 of the 11 women making complaints, came out yesterday — with the remaining 30 promised shortly. The documents underscore the seriousness of the main accusers’ claims.

This is a welcome move towards transparency that could well have come with the release of the Aug. 3 report by outside lawyers Anne Clark and Joon Kim, which judged that Cuomo had broken the law and led to his decision to resign as governor. As five district attorneys chewed on possible criminal charges against Cuomo and asked her not to release transcripts, James reasonably waited.

Keeping her earlier logic in mind, it is interesting that the attorney general moved the transcripts into the sunlight even as the most significant potential case against Cuomo, in Albany, still messily lurches toward charges (or not). Does this ease or complicate Albany DA David Soares’ decision on Sheriff Craig Apple’s rogue misdemeanor charge filed in court last month?

As the underlying documents that were key to the Cuomo inquiry rightly enter the public realm, it is also welcome that James is standing apart from the report, as her office maintains that the entirety of the work, including investigation, interviews, evidence-gathering, writing and conclusions, had no input from the AG or any of her subordinates.

The editors note that many of the transcripts of other individuals questioned in the probe have yet to be released, calling for that action to follow. Which is to say there's more information to come.