30 December 2021: JCOPE Tries Again to Get Attorney General to Enforce Its Order to Claw Back Cuomo COVID Book Deal Money

NY ethics chief urges AG James to claw back Cuomo’s COVID book profits

This report covers the contents of a letter sent by New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics to the New York State Attorney General on Wednesday, 29 December 2021:

The head of the state’s watchdog agency urged state Attorney General Letitia James Wednesday to enforce its order to claw back $5.1 million in book profits from disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Jose Nieves, chairman of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, sent a letter to the AG’s General Counsel, Larry Schimmel, claiming James can legally enforce JCOPE’s order for Cuomo to return the book profits for his COVID memoir after violating an agreement not to use state resources — including government workers — to prepare it.

Schimmel previously rejected JCOPE’s order as illegal, saying the AG’s office could not enforce such an order without the ethics agency first conducting a full-blown probe and submitting findings of wrongdoing against Cuomo under the Public Officers Law.

Nieves responded in the letter. He said facts are clear as day that Cuomo violated the agreement and put the issue back in James’ court.

“The Commission is empowered and required to deny or revoke any authorization or approval sought or obtained by a state official, and to order corrective action where, as here, material misrepresentations have been made….,” Nieves said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.

“There is no requirement that a substantial basis investigation be carried out in any or all circumstances as predicate to commission action in response to clearly established conditions imposed in regard to engagement in outside activities.”...

“We request that your office support the efforts of the commission to seek expedient civil process that will hold the former governor accountable for his misrepresentations to the commission [and] for his breach of the conditional approval letter” for the book deal, Nieves said.

We'll see how far JCOPE's commissioners' interpretation of New York's opaque laws regulating public officials goes.

In the meantime, the New York Times reported on events from more than a week ago.

Why the Attorney General Stalled a Move to Collect Cuomo’s Book Profits

As a general rule, unless it involves allegations of sexual harassment, the New York Times has chosen to avoid breaking news that runs afoul of Andrew M. Cuomo's political interests. This story falls into that category. Here's an excerpt that provides what little new information there is in the newspaper's coverage, in the form of a statement issued by a spokesman for the state attorney general's office:

“Since it was established, JCOPE has shirked responsibility and failed to take meaningful action on any issue regarding ethics, and this is just the latest example,” Fabien Levy, a spokesman for Ms. James, responded. “There are rules and laws in this state, and in stark contrast to JCOPE, the attorney general’s office actually follows and enforces those laws universally, not only when expedient.”

In its letter, the attorney general’s office said that the commission’s order was “premature” and directed the panel to “exhaust its own collection activity efforts” before referring the matter again.

As the report notes, JCOPE was established by Andrew M. Cuomo and two other elected state government officials in 2011, all of whose public careers were felled by external ethics and criminal charges, so take that into account in reading the statement.