24 November 2021: What Laws Has Cuomo Broken?

Cuomo faces potential legal hurdles after Assembly report

This report draws on the experience of several attorneys to identify what criminal charges Andrew M. Cuomo might face related to information contained in the New York Assembly's impeachment probe report.

While former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is out of office and impeachment is off the table, members of the State Assembly made it clear in a report released this week that they are sharing the information they uncovered with various law enforcement agencies.

The report found that Cuomo used state resources, and workers, to write his COVID book last year, from which he personally profited. It’s a red flag for legal experts.

“This is a serious violation, the one involving the book,” Columbia Law School Professor Richard Briffault said. “It’s a straightforward violation of the law. He used government resources, he used government time and he used government personnel, on a private project that directly benefited him to the time of $7 million. It’s at the very least subject to fines, and it ought to be subject to disgorgement, giving up the money.”

Cuomo was paid more than $5 million for the book, which was published in October of 2020. Federal prosecutors had already been looking into allegations the former governor deliberately downplayed COVID deaths in nursing homes.

“The question is whether federal prosecutors, in particular in the Eastern District, are going to indict the governor on theft of honest services charges, which is basically enriching yourself using government resources,” said John Kaehny, a member of Reinvent Albany, a non-profit organization.

Experts say there is likely enough evidence to support state charges against Cuomo, including a civil case from a local district attorney or even the state attorney general.

A federal prosecution is trickier, however, with the definition of Honest Services Fraud narrowed by the U.S. Supreme Court. But it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

“There probably are a couple of federal statutes that arguably could come into play, including one that involves essentially theft from a state government,” said defense attorney Joshua Colangelo-Bryan. “The state law analog that is closest is probably defrauding the government.”

We think Professor Briffault misstated the extent to which Cuomo directly benefited from his pandemic "leadership" book, which he identified as $7 million. At this time, we're only aware of the $5.12 million book deal contract, which the report describes as "more than $5 million" in the following paragraph of the above excerpt.

Given the leisurely pace at which law enforcement agencies do their work, it may be several months before we know what, if any, criminal charges Cuomo may face.