Friday, April 29, 2022

29 April 2022: Son of Nursing Home COVID Victim Sues Cuomo, DeRosa For Wrongful Death

Son of nursing home COVID victim sues Cuomo, DeRosa for wrongful death

This report from 28 April 2022 indicates New York's resigned-in-disgrace former governor, Andrew M. Cuomo has a new lawsuit to face, the first to directly challenge his deadly 25 March 2020 directive in contributing to excess COVID deaths in New York's nursing homes. The lawsuit also names former Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa and Health Commissioner Howard Zucker. Here's an excerpt:

A man whose Korean War veteran father died after catching COVID-19 in a Brooklyn nursing home has filed a class action wrongful death suit against disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his former top aide Melissa DeRosa.

Daniel Arbeeny, 59, an outspoken critic of Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic, claims his dad contracted the coronavirus and died because of a New York state directive that nursing homes admit COVID-19 patients. The order was implemented in March 2020 by the state health department.

“This policy of mandatory admission, non-testing and comingling of nursing home residents constituted reckless endangerment by all of the Defendants,” according to the suit, filed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.

In a phone interview with The Post, Arbeeny said the suit — which also names the state and ex-Health Department boss Howard Zucker as defendants — was about holding state officials to account. It’s also an effort to get justice for the families who had relatives die in nursing homes....

Arbeeny, a New York native who lives in Cobble Hill, pointed to the fact that a British court ruled this week that the UK’s nursing home policy, which was similar to the Empire State’s, was illegal.

“Cuomo knew what he was doing,” Arbeeny told The Post. “Wrongful death is wrongful death, whether it’s the state or not. It’s wrong. The government needs to make amends for this.”

Cuomo's PR team responded:

In a statement, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said the order had no effect on COVID outbreaks in nursing homes.

“For all the emotion and politics generated around this issue, the facts are that both the AG and the Assembly critically examined this and concluded that the DOH March order had nothing to do with introducing COVID in nursing homes — also, as previously stated, Ms. DeRosa has nothing to do with this directive,” Azzopardi said in an email.

“We expect any fair hearing in a court of law will also bear this out,” he added.

On 16 June 2021, a New York State Bar Association task force determined Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive did contribute to excess COVID deaths in New York nursing homes. Here's more background on that topic from the timeline:

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Thursday, April 28, 2022

28 April 2022: NY Senate Committee Proposes Independent Commission to Probe COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Proposed bill would independently investigate 15,000 COVID-19 nursing home deaths

This report covers developments in the New York's state senate's health committee to create an independent commission to investigate the COVID nursing home deaths that occurred during the period Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. What's most interesting is that the bill is the result of a bipartisan political effort. Here's an excerpt:

The proposed bill comes over two years after the Cuomo administration placed COVID-positive patients into nursing homes — a decision that was not reversed until weeks later.

The investigation, which was gained the support of both Republicans and Democrats, would investigate the fact that the state undercounted the number of nursing home deaths. It would also look into an audit from the State’s Comptroller’s office that claimed the New York State Department of Public Health was unprepared to respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“These are real people, real families who lost their lives during this tragedy,” Republican Assemblymember Philip Palmesano said. “I think it’s definitely necessary given the fact that we lost 15,000 seniors during the COVID crisis. I believe families deserve answers, accountability and transparency.”

There's quite a lot that would need to happen before the proposed commission might be established. The next step for the proposed bill will be consideration by the NY Senate Finance Committee. If approved, it will proceed to be voted upon by the full NY State Senate. After that, it would need to be voted upon and approved by the NY State Assembly before it might be sent to replacement Governor Kathy Hochul to be signed into law.

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Wednesday, April 27, 2022

27 April 2022: High Court Rules Government Dumping COVID Patients from Hospitals to Nursing Homes Without Testing "Unlawful" and "Irrational"

Government broke law discharging care home residents from hospital untested during Covid, High Court rules

This report comes from the United Kingdom, where that nation's High Court has ruled that government's practice paralleling Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive, in which COVID patients were dumped from hospitals into nursing homes without testing to verify if they were still infectious to free up hospital bed space, was both "unlawful" and "irrational". Here's the introduction to the story:

Boris Johnson’s Government broke the law by failing to protect more than 20,000 care home residents who died from Covid-19 during the pandemic, the High Court has ruled.

The policy of discharging patients from hospital to care homes at the start of the pandemic was “unlawful” and “irrational”, the court said.

Presiding judges Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham said the Government’s policy was “unlawful” because they failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission of Covid-19.

They added that despite there being “growing awareness” of the risk of asymptomatic transmission throughout March 2020, there was no evidence that then Health Secretary Matt Hancock addressed the issue of the risk to care home residents of such transmission.

The judges suggested the guidance should have required patients to isolate from other patients for two weeks to avoid Covid spreading within the homes and added that these issues were not addressed until a further document in mid-April 2020.

“The common law claim succeeds against the Secretary of State and Public Health England in respect of both the 17 March and 2 April 2020 documents to this extent: the policy set out in each document was irrational in failing to advise that where an asymptomatic patient, other than one who had tested negative, was admitted to a care home, he or she should, so far as practicable, be kept apart from other residents for 14 days,” they concluded.

The ruling opens the floodgates for the families of COVID victims who died in U.K. nursing homes to sue the government for damages resulting from its reckless negligence. In the U.S., the governors of four states, New York's Andrew M. Cuomo, New Jersey's Phil Murphy, Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer, and Pennsylvania's Thomas Wolf implemented and sustained similar policies during the same period the British government did. A fifth governor, California's Gavin Newsom, also implemented a similar scheme at that time, but suspended it after just a few days so it was not sustained as it was in the other four states.

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27 April 2022: JCOPE Hires Lawyers to Fight Lawsuit Over Cuomo Pandemic Book Deal Profits

Ethics watchdog taps outside firm to fight Andrew Cuomo over book deal profits

New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) has hired a law firm to represent it in a lawsuit involving its efforts to force Andrew M. Cuomo to give up the $5.2 million he pocketed for his pandemic "leadership" book deal, which was produced using state government resources.

The embattled public integrity commission — criticized for allowing disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to make millions off a book deal during the deadly COVID-19 outbreak — has retained the global firm Hogan Lovells to defend it in a lawsuit filed by Cuomo earlier this month.

Cuomo claims the ethics watchdog acted with “extraordinary bias” against him by trying to force him to return the profits after initially approving the $5.2 million contract for “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

JCOPE has an existing $300,000 contract with Hogan Lovells.

The firm has been awarded more than $50 million in state government contracts since 2009, including helping CUNY clean up a spending scandal with its research foundation and providing legal services to SUNY’s hospitals and representing the state Assembly.

JCOPE was forced to turn to outside counsel because state Attorney General Letitia James, whose office typically defends state agencies in litigation, declined to represent the commission, citing a conflict, sources said.

Like many of JCOPE's actions, this one is overdue. JCOPE will be replaced by a new ethics commission in July 2022, the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (CELG), which raises the question of how the various legal actions JCOPE is pursuing might proceed when that happens.

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Sunday, April 24, 2022

24 April 2022: Mostly All Quiet on the Cuomo Front

It's not your imagination. There really hasn't been much notable news to document about Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals in the past week!

That's due to the current nature of the main story, which is now mainly set by the pace of legal developments. Sure, Cuomo sometimes makes noise in public on his own, but as we've argued, he is almost certainly doing so in order to tap the funds in his campaign organization's bank accounts for the purpose of influencing the potential juror pools in the various criminal and civil litigations he still faces and to pay his legal and public relations bills aimed at that purpose. Although the latest developments in the Cuomo's ongling self-inflicted saga falls outside the focus of the timeline's usual coverage, here are links to recent opinion pieces and editorials for reference, starting with Cuomo's own op-ed on unrelated topics that appeared in the New York Daily News during the past week:

On the plus side, we also haven't had any reason to cover any stories involving Andrew M. Cuomo's brother, the hapless journalism-ethics challenged Chris Cuomo, which by definition represents the bottom story of the day here at the timeline. He's definitely not being missed!

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Wednesday, April 20, 2022

20 April 2022: Cuomo Attorney Wants Retaliation Claims Dropped from NY State Trooper's Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Andrew Cuomo’s lawyer wants 2 retaliation claims tossed from NY state trooper’s sex harassment suit

Andrew M. Cuomo's personal attorney, Rita Glavin, is seeking to have two claims of retaliation against Cuomo dropped from the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a female New York State trooper against Cuomo.

If you recall from the timeline, those claims were earned earlier this year by Cuomo's PR team. This report covers Cuomo's legal team's effort to avoid having to pay a larger price in the upcoming civil litigation.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants a judge to toss two claims in a sexual harassment suit filed against him by a New York state trooper.

Cuomo’s lawyer Rita Glavin says her client couldn’t have retaliated against the trooper because he was not governor when she filed her sexual harassment lawsuit, according to legal papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday.

The trooper sued Cuomo in February, alleging he made unwelcome sexual advances while she was working on his personal security detail. She also accused Cuomo of retaliation against her by threatening “criminal charges against his victims and ethics charges against their attorneys,” and claims Cuomo’s spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, retaliated against her by calling her suit a “cheap cash extortion.”

Glavin said the two retaliation claims should be tossed because the trooper “does not remotely come close” to proving them.

The trooper’s lawyer Valdi Licul says otherwise.

“The former governor’s proposed motion is baseless. Our discrimination laws protect victims who have the courage to speak out about sexual harassment,” Liculi said.

Liculi’s client, who is only identified as “Trooper 1” in her legal documents, alleges the governor “violated” her multiple times after she was transferred to his security unit in January 2018.

For more background, here's previous coverage from the timeline:

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Sunday, April 17, 2022

17 April 2022: Opinion - A Non-Fond Farewell to JCOPE

Seiler: A non-fond farewell to JCOPE

Casey Seiler is the editor of the Albany Times-Union. In the following excerpt from his editorial marking the coming end of New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), he underscores the absence of effective ethics oversight, investigations, and prosecutions among the people serving the bodies that are supposed to be watchdogs for the public's interests:

"Uphill" is, of course, the best adjective to define the future course of New York's battle with public corruption, as evidenced last week by the speedy resignation of Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin. The federal indictment unsealed Tuesday morning describes a quid pro quo scheme so transparent that it could have involved the exchange of two burlap bags each printed with a dollar sign.

After no doubt breathing a sigh of relief at Benjamin's hasty exit, Gov. Kathy Hochul defended herself by noting that he had allegedly lied during the vetting process that ended with his appointment last summer as the next in the line of succession to significant executive power — a gig that has given us two of the last three governors (David Paterson and Hochul), and is therefore rather important.

New Yorkers deserve to know more about whether Hochul's administration robustly questioned Benjamin after his benefactor, real estate baron Gerald Migdol, was indicted in November on felony charges of making fraudulent campaign contributions to the former state senator's campaign for New York City comptroller. As recently as two weeks ago, Hochul was expressing "utmost confidence" in her lieutenant even after the Daily News reported he had failed to let her know he had been subpoenaed in the Migdol matter. Loyalty is a wonderful thing in politics as in life, but her failure to extract as much as a public mea culpa from Benjamin was telling.

The case against Benjamin was brought by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, continuing that office's near-total dominance in the field of state corruption prosecutions. Once again sitting on the sidelines was the Northern District (which hasn't brought a notable or even banal corruption case since its pursuit of Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno in 2009), the Albany County district attorney's office, and JCOPE.

The absence of corruption prosecutions in these places, despite multiple federal convictions involving New York state government officials, is an indication that Albany's top politicos have too much influence and control over the legal system in these jurisdictions.

For his part, Seiler rightfully recognizes the Albany Times-Union's coverage of Albany's continuing series of corruption cases involving state and local government figures. Along with the New York Post, the newspaper has done much to break many of the stories the timeline has featured involving Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals and other ethical failures.

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17 April 2022: Editorial - Albany Dems in Ethical Free Fall

Ethically, Democrats in Albany are in free fall

This editorial decrying the repeated ethical failings of the Democratic party majority in Albany appeared in the Watertown Daily Times on 17 April 2022:

How have Democrats in Albany abused the public’s trust? Let me count the ways.

Less than eight months on the job, Brian A. Benjamin resigned last week after being arrested on federal charges of campaign finance fraud. He had a questionable background and should not have been appointed. But Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul ignored the red flags and named him to the post anyway....

Seeing how former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo dashed for the exit door under a cloud of scandal, you’d expect Hochul to take necessary precautions while ascending to the top spot. But she and the people surrounding her were careless in their selection process. This was her first major decision as governor, so it reflects very poorly on her record.

This hasn’t been the only blemish that Hochul has displayed. She promised to clean house when she became governor. She also said she would usher in a new era of transparency in the executive branch.

She’s failed on both counts.

For some bizarre reason, Dr. Howard Zucker was allowed to remain state health commissioner for nearly a month after Hochul took over. He should have been the first person she booted. Zucker sat silently by while Cuomo co-opted the state Health Department to conceal data related to the number of nursing home residents who died as a result of COVID-19.

And Hochul permitted James J. Malatras to remain SUNY chancellor for more than three months despite his well-known history of verbally abusing subordinates. Why didn’t she make good on her promise to restore confidence in state government?

Hochul appointed Dr. Mary T. Bassett to succeed Zucker as state health commissioner. She has refused to conduct an internal investigation into why DOH officials and staffers went along with Cuomo’s plan to conceal the truth. How can she expect to improve the agency she now leads when she ignores the ways in which it was corrupted?

Hochul is not the only Democrat to sidestep accountability. While they pressured Cuomo to resign, state legislators refused to carry out impeachment proceedings. This would have brought all the allegations of wrongdoing to light and, if he was convicted, may have prohibited him from seeking elective office again. They chose to sweep everything under the rug.

Indeed they have. For her part, Hochul came into power promising to clean house, but that pledge apparently only applied to members of Andrew M. Cuomo's administration who were named in the state attorney general's report on the disgraced governor's alleged sexual harassment abuses. At this point, she and other officials have utterly dropped the ball for addressing Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals.

From a legal perspective, at what point do elected officials become accessories after the fact when crimes have been committed by their fellow politicians under New York state law?

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Friday, April 15, 2022

A Surge of COVID Nursing Home Lawsuits in NY

Nursing Homes Face Growing Number of Lawsuits From Covid-19 Fallout

This report was originally published on 9 April 2022. It describes a "wave" of lawsuits being filed in New York and other states related to COVID nursing home deaths. Here's the background it provides for New York:

Two years after the coronavirus ravaged through nursing homes, families of residents who died from Covid-19 are bringing a wave of negligence and wrongful death lawsuits against the facilities.

The surge of suits, spurred by a repeal of liability protections and statutory deadlines to file the suits, largely accuses nursing homes of failing to properly curb the spread of disease, identify infected residents and treat their illnesses.

New York’s nursing-home industry says much of the devastation wrought by the virus—particularly in the chaotic early days of the pandemic—was beyond its control, citing staffing shortages, inadequate testing supplies, a lack of masks and other personal protective equipment and a controversial state policy requiring facilities to admit residents who tested positive for coronavirus....

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed in New York over the past month.

The article also provides more background information related to a bellwether case in Buffalo, NY, which the timeline first featured back on 28 March 2022:

Plaintiffs have notched some early victories that could make the lawsuits costlier to defend. A New York Supreme Court judge in Buffalo last month declined to dismiss a lawsuit against an Erie County nursing home, Humboldt House Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, brought by the sister of a 63-year-old resident who died of Covid-19 in April 2020.

The woman died days after New York enacted a health law that gave nursing homes and other healthcare facilities broad immunity from negligence lawsuits related to the pandemic. New York legislators eliminated the shield about a year later, but lawyers for Humboldt House argued in court that the repeal of the liability shield wasn’t retroactive.

The judge disagreed with that interpretation, ruling that the law’s legislative history made clear that the repeal was intended to be retroactive. “We have faith in the judicial process,” said Mario C. Giannettino, an attorney for Humboldt House. He said staff at the facility “risked and sacrificed their lives in a time of international crisis.”

Joseph L. Ciaccio, a New York malpractice attorney representing the administrator of the deceased woman’s estate, said his law firm, Napoli Shkolnik PLLC, has brought 48 lawsuits against nursing homes, filing most of the cases in the past month. Before pursuing litigation, the firm had to procure medical records and wait for the appointment of estate administrators to act as legal representatives on behalf of heirs of the decedent. He also faced a time constraint. In New York, like in many states, the statute of limitations for wrongful death claims is two years from the date of death.

“We’re trying to preserve the claims for our clients before running out of time,” said Mr. Ciaccio.

How many other attorneys like Ciaccio are out there working to get cases filed before the statute of limitations deadline arrives? And if we really want to have people responsible for what happened with COVID at New York's nursing homes held accountable, how many state government officials and agencies will need to be sued?

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Tuesday, April 12, 2022

12 April 2022: Cuomo Sexual Harassment Victims Upset Disgraced NY Governor Escaped Accountability

‘It must be really sad to be him’: Women who spoke out against Cuomo rebuild as he attempts revival

This report appeared in Politico on 11 April 2022. Here's an excerpt to capture the basic story:

Commisso and Charlotte Bennett, another former aide who accused Cuomo of misconduct, spoke to POLITICO in a series of phone interviews in recent weeks — offering their first substantial public comments about their lives since Cuomo left office. Bennett and Commisso are now reimagining their shattered personal and professional lives, as Cuomo attempts to put back together the pieces of his old identity.

They say they’re not scared of him or his network of supporters any more, and that they’ve learned to tune out frenzied speculation about his future. But they say they’re disappointed that many in state politics — even those who affirmed their allegations and pushed for Cuomo’s resignation — have not dismissed the entire notion he could run again.

“I understand he resigned, but that’s not the point,” Commisso said. “The point is, resignation doesn’t bring accountability. It was his choice. If you or I walked up to someone, grabbed them, touched them inappropriately, we would hopefully be held accountable.”

Much of the rest of the article recaps their experiences in advancing their allegation against Cuomo while he held power in New York as the state's governor.

But the article also covers Cuomo's recent activities, where the following passage caught our attention:

Cuomo is using that money to help shape the collective conversation about his downfall — to even question whether reports of his behavior were serious enough to cause a downfall.

That’s a problem, said Jennifer Freyd, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Oregon. Freyd, who founded a nonprofit focused on institutional courage and betrayal, coined the term DARVO, which refers a reaction shown often by individuals accused of wrong doing, particularly sexual offenders. DARVO stands for “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender” and is what Cuomo — who regularly painted himself an advocate for women and founded the Women’s Equality Party in 2014 — has been doing on a public stage for nearly a year now.

“Every time somebody DARVOs when they’ve got that kind of public platform, it’s not just the individuals involved who get hurt,” she said. “It’s also everybody else who might get scared off from seeking help or telling the truth about what happened to them because they’ve just seen what’s going to happen, which is really bad.”

We were surprised to learn there's an acronym psychologists use to describe how other offenders have behaved after their misconduct was exposed, which fits Andrew M. Cuomo's public conduct since the multiple allegations levied against him began gaining traction in early 2021.

The report doesn't indicate if either Commisso or Bennett might file civil lawsuits against Cuomo.

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Saturday, April 09, 2022

9 April 2022: The Developing Plan to Replace JCOPE

Read: The plan to replace JCOPE

New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) was designed and operated by Andrew M. Cuomo and his allies in the NY assembly for one basic purpose over the first 10 years of its existence. That purpose was to provide the appearance of addressing corruption among public officials in New York's state government while doing almost nothing to restrict their ability to engage in corrupt acts.

While today's JCOPE's commissioners are trying to correct the decade of permissive abuses their predecessors were all too willing to sign off upon to benefit Cuomo and his cronies, they're still hamstrung by the legal structure that Cuomo and his pals established to ensure it would never be meaningfully effective in holding powerful figures like themselves to account. This report describes how lawmakers are trying to fix the hapless ethics commission by replacing it. Here's an overview of their plan:

Since the Times Union reported last week on the outlines of the plan, good-government groups have repeatedly slammed the fact that leading state politicians will continue to appoint the ethics commissioners. During its 11-year existence, a frequent criticism of JCOPE was that the 14-person panel lacked independence from the politicians it regulated.

But there are also a number of significant, if more incremental, changes to how the new commission would operate. A few highlights:

— Three members of the commission would be nominated by the governor, two by the Senate majority leader, two by the Assembly speaker, one by the Assembly minority leader, one by the Senate minority leader, one by the attorney general and one by the comptroller.

Based on who currently holds those offices, Democratic elected officials would collectively make nine appointments and Republicans only two. For Republicans, that might well raise concerns that the panel could engage in partisan inquiries.

— An “independent review committee” made up of New York law school deans or their designees would have 30 days to confirm or deny the qualifications of the nominees based on factors such as their backgrounds and expertise. The review committee would publish on a website the procedures by which its reviewing the nominees. If a nomination was rejected by the committee, the politician charged with making that appointment would nominate a new person as a commissioner.

— Commissioners will by majority vote determine the panel's chair. That is a change from JCOPE, where that power was conferred on the governor. In another shift, members of the commission can be removed by a majority vote of the other commissioners for “substantial neglect of duty,” misconduct, or a violation of confidentiality restrictions.

— The commission shall meet “at least quarterly.” JCOPE holds meetings at least once a month.

— The executive director of the office will be appointed through a majority vote of the commission, another break from JCOPE, which had complex voting and veto rules for hiring the agency’s top staffer. And the executive director, not the commissioners, will hire the rest of the staff.

— Instead of JCOPE’s “special voting rules,” which allowed a small minority of commissioners to veto an investigation into a politician that appointed them, decisions about whether to proceed with an investigation, or accept staff’s recommendations about another form of action, would be made by a simple majority vote.

Based on what we're reading, these changes are little more than changes in the window dressing that do little to correct the incompetence and ineffectiveness that Cuomo built into the the original JCOPE. New York lawmakers really do need to go the extra mile and amend the state constitution to make the ethics commission an independent body.

Beyond that, rather than appointing members or drawing upon individuals who already serving in bureaucratic positions in state-funded institutions, we would argue it would be much more worthwhile to have the state's ethics commissioners be elected by voters in nonpartisan elections every two years from different geographic regions, or districts, in the state. But that's just the way we think, where we want the public to both have ready access to the state ethics commissioners they might choose and to be able to easily replace them if they think their performance in holding state officials accountable falls short.

Knowing New York politicians however, we see little chance of them wanting to be held accountable for their ethical failures. They'll want to continue having influence over who gets to decide how any ethics case against them is judged. Which is why there are only changes in the state ethics commission's window dressing.

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Friday, April 08, 2022

8 April 2022: What Cuomo Missed Deadline to Run as Dem for State Office Says About His Political Future

Five Democrats — but not Cuomo — have filed to run for New York governor

The resigned-in-disgrace former NY governor Andrew M. Cuomo has drawn a lot of speculation as to whether he would spend the $16+ million in his political campaign's bank account on running for statewide office. If he was going to do so as a member of the Democratic party, he had to file to run for state office by the close of business on 7 April 2022. He didn't. The following excerpt from this report covers that development:

At least five Democrats on Thursday submitted the paperwork needed to appear on New York’s gubernatorial primary ballot this June.

One name who didn’t have a filing with the state Board of Elections? Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose potential interest in a comeback campaign a year after he resigned in disgrace has provided grist for the rumor mill for months.

The filings on Thursday were not an absolute guarantee that Cuomo does not run.

If his supporters covertly knocked on tens of thousands of doors in recent weeks and every one of the people they interacted with kept it a secret, then he could still appear on the primary ballot if he put the signatures in a mailbox on Thursday and they arrived at the board by Monday — which is the final deadline. But most observers have thought that the scenario is unlikely.

A spokesperson for Cuomo did not return requests for comment on the former Democratic governor’s plans.

Cuomo could still run as an independent or write-in candidate for the November election, but the rules for ballot access and fundraising are much more stringent than if he ran in the primary. He would have until the end of May to file as an independent candidate.

While the political reporters are still speculating he may run as an independent party or write-in candidate, we think he has no hope of winning a statewide office and he knows it. If he thought he did, he would have filed the necessary paperwork to do so as a Democrat, because that would give him the maximum leverage he needs to call in the political favors he bestowed over the past decade.

But that would only have happened if he thought he could win. He doesn't think he can.

Andrew M. Cuomo's choice to not seek statewide office as the long-standing member of the state's Democratic political party that he is lends support to our main hypothesis about his true ambitions as a man who has access to $16+ million in his political campaign's bank account. We think his true aim is to use that resource to influence the potential pool of jurors who will decide the multiple court cases he faces. Whether related to his alleged sexual harassment episodes or his pandemic book deal, Cuomo's main goal now is to keep what he pocketed.

His real campaign is to present himself as sympathetic victim to benefit his legal defenses. That means means he will periodically meet with pols and will engage in campaign-like activities in ways that spawn speculation about his political future. It's the minimum price he has to pay to use the money that was donated to his political campaign so he could run for elective office in New York before he quit rather than face impeachment.

We think he has no real plan to win any elective office. Insteaad, the evidence indicates he has real plans to spend as much of the money he has stashed in his political campaign organization's bank account as he can with ultimate goal of not having to pay for his legal defenses using any money from his personal bank accounts.

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Tuesday, April 05, 2022

5 April 2022: Hapless Chris Cuomo Quotes Poet in Comparing Himself to a Seed, Exposes His Greed

Fired CNN anchor Chris Cuomo posts cryptic message about his future after fan bemoans 'void' he left

It must be time for the bottom story of the day because once again, the journalism ethics-challenged Chris Cuomo has made the news for something stupid he's either said or done. In this case, it's something he's said, as documented in the following excerpt:

Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo sent a cryptic tweet about his future on Tuesday, possibly indicating that he could seek a return to the news industry after he was fired by the liberal network last year.

"The people who tried to bury you did not know you are a seed," Cuomo tweeted in response to a fan declaring there is a void without his coverage.

Cuomo’s tweet was paraphrased from Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos, according to the BBC.

Cuomo, whose Twitter bio states that he’s a "free agent," has demanded $125 million in arbitration from CNN for "unlawful termination." He was fired in December following a brief suspension over his extensive involvement in helping his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D., combat sexual misconduct allegations. A subsequent outside probe of Chris Cuomo's actions at CNN revealed a separate sexual misconduct charge against him from his earlier tenure at ABC News.

While he was alive, Christianopoulos made a reputation for refusing prizes and awards for his poetry because he felt they diminished human dignity. Since Chris Cuomo is looking collect an award of $125 million from CNN, it seems he's cherry-picking the most significant lesson of the poet he's quoting to suit his own self interest.

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5 April 2022: Cuomo Book Deal Still Under Investigation Despite Suit, AG James Says

Cuomo’s $5M book deal still under investigation despite suit, AG James says

This report reveals the lack of progress that NY state attorney general Letitia James' office is making in probing Andrew M. Cuomo's $5.2 million pandemic "leadership" book deal is drawing attention. The following excerpt describes the main thrust of the report:

State Attorney General Letitia James’ office reaffirmed that it has an active criminal probe into whether Andrew Cuomo illegally used staffers in preparing his lucrative coronavirus pandemic memoir — just days after the disgraced ex-governor sued the government watchdog agency to keep the proceeds.

James launched a probe into the $5.1 million profit-making memoir last April after getting a referral from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who asked her to “investigate the alleged commission of any indictable offense or offenses” related to the book deal.

Her office issued a subpoena to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics last September requesting all records regarding the Cuomo book deal....

A lawyer for one of the witnesses — who requested anonymity — said the AG’s office informed him back in December that the book probe was “completed.”

If that last part is true, the obvious question is why is the state attorney general's office not moving forward on it?

We're not the only ones to whom that question has occurred.

“The conventional wisdom in Albany is she’s doing nothing and the investigation has stalled. But we don’t know,” said John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany.

“If this is an ongoing investigation it’s reasonable to say when it’s going to be closed and what’s the timeframe on this? Especially because she’s been criticized for this being politically motivated against Cuomo.”

Indeed. The leisurely pace of the AG's office in conducting its probe seems far from appropriate and demands explanation.

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Sunday, April 03, 2022

3 April 2022: Will NJ Governor Murphy Ever Live Up to His Pledge to Prove "Full Accounting" for COVID Nursing Home Deaths?

Two years since veterans home Covid disaster, Murphy's promise of 'full accounting' has gone nowhere

This report was originally published on 28 March 2022. It documents the continuing stonewalling of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy's administration to release documents related to COVID nursing home deaths in New Jersey's nursing homes and veterans homes. Here's an excerpt:

Despite repeated promises to conduct an independent investigation and develop a "full accounting" of his administration's handling of the pandemic — and in particular what happened in the veterans homes — Gov. Phil Murphy has not provided any substantive explanation for why so many men and women died in the three nursing homes his administration operates.

In fact, his administration has fought against the release of key veterans home documents for more than a year.

NorthJersey.com sued the Murphy administration last year after it denied a public records request for emails between top officials at the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs over management at the homes during the first wave of the pandemic in the spring of 2020.

After months of legal wrangling and court hearings, the administration turned over 147 pages of documents. Almost all of them were completely redacted.

It was the second time in a year that the Murphy administration blacked out documents NorthJersey.com had sought regarding the veterans homes. The first came in December 2020, when the administration redacted a key email that tied Murphy's office to a controversial policy to discipline nurses and aides who used the Menlo Park home's supply of protective masks without permission.

"Overall, when it comes to anything relating to COVID or other public health issues, the Murphy administration has been super tight-lipped," said CJ Griffin, a Hackensack attorney who focuses on public records access and represented NorthJersey.com in its lawsuit. "I have had to write many objection letters and to sue multiple times on behalf of various requestors just to get some basic transparency.

Needless to say, that's not the kind of proactive compliance that would confirm the Murphy administration isn't trying to hide damaging information about its version of New York's Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive. Along with New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, New Jersey was one of just four states to force nursing homes to admit COVID patients being dumped out of hospitals to free up their bed space during the most dangerous phase of the coronavirus pandemic.

There's quite a lot more information in the article, which provides a good overview of some of the worse abuses that took place at New Jersey's nursing and veterans homes during hte pandemic. That anybody knows about at this writing, in any case.

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Friday, April 01, 2022

1 April 2022: Cuomo Sues JCOPE in Bid To Keep $5M Book Deal Profits

Cuomo sues Albany ethics commission in attempt to keep $5M book profits

Andrew M. Cuomo sued New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) in a bid to keep the $5.2 million he gained from his pandemic "leadership" book deal. That follows the 19 March 2022 vote JCOPE's commissioners had to order Cuomo to repay the publisher after revoking the permission a lower level staff member granted to Cuomo back in June 2020. Negotiations for Cuomo's book had begun as early as 19 March 2020.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo hit Albany’s ethics watchdog with a lawsuit Friday, accusing it of “extraordinary bias” against him as he seeks to hold onto proceeds from his $5.1 million book deal.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics voted overwhelmingly in November to rescind its decision that allowed Cuomo to write “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” arguing state resources were used to write the book, which it said contained “serial omissions and misrepresentations” about New York’s pandemic response.

Cuomo’s lawyers argued that he complied with JCOPE’s original parameters for writing the book and asked the state supreme court to overrule the agency’s decision and allow him to keep the millions he earned from the book.

The former governor claimed that staff members who worked on the book did so on their own time, and said the agency’s ruling amounted to “flagrant violations of the due process rights secured to him by the United States Constitution.”

“Simply stated, never in the history of New York State has an agency so breathtakingly and irresponsibly prejudged a matter on which it is the final decisionmaker,” the lawsuit filed in Albany County claimed.

Here is background on Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal from the timeline:

We think its funny that April Fool's Day figures so prominently in Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal scandal.

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