23 October 2021: Can Cuomo Still Be Impeached?

Debate over impeaching Cuomo centers on whether it can be done

This article considers the debate among members of the state legislature on whether they can still act to impeach Andrew M. Cuomo, despite his having resigned from office.

Lawmakers in Albany are continuing to spar over whether to impeach former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, with much of the debate focused on whether the Legislature has the constitutional authority to remove someone who has left office.

The initiative began in March when Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, in the of of mounting allegations of misconduct against Cuomo, directed the Judiciary Committee to conduct an impeachment inquiry. Eight months and a projected $5 million later, a damning investigative report was released Monday that affirmed many of the earlier findings of misconduct against the governor by the state attorney general's office.

But many lawmakers believe the 45-page report issued by a private law firm that was hired to conduct the Assembly's investigation establishes the thresholds necessary to impeach Cuomo — a politically posthumous effort that would potentially dim the chances — but not block them — of his return to public office. The impeachment debate was further clouded because the report included a section detailing why the attorneys say impeachment is not an option after Cuomo's resignation.

Lawmakers have differed, not along typical party lines, on the best way to seek recourse for the injustices they believe Cuomo committed while in office. That debate became the focus of the report's aftermath on Monday as lawmakers focused their energy on whether to impeach spent less time debating how to reform a system some good government groups view as broken.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles D. Lavine acknowledged that the conduct of Cuomo is "indicative of someone who is not fit for office," he stopped short of a renewed call for impeachment.

If you're interested to learn more, please do click through to review the arguments advanced in the article, where we find the lawmakers who have ranked Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals highly at the center of the "pro" impeachment movement. The question is whether they can overcome the reluctance of Democratic party leaders in the New York State Assembly and Senate to have a vote on Andrew M. Cuomo's impeachment.