NY taxpayers footing $20M bill for probes into disgraced ex-Gov. Cuomo

Taxpayers are getting socked with $20 million in legal fees tied to state and federal investigations into ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration, a published report reveals.

The legal bills were submitted by lawyers for Cuomo and other staffers, including his top aide Melissa DeRosa, who is putting out a score settling political memoir.

Aside for bills to help the former governor fend off sexual harassment cases during his term, lawyers billed the state for Cuomo and his team’s response to a federal probe into his handling of nursing homes during the peak of the deadly COVID-19  pandemic, a legal battle over his profit-making $5 million COVID book deal, and an impeachment inquiry by the state Assembly, according to records reviewed by the Times Union.

The legal fees include contracts valued at $13 million to just four law firms, $9 million of which has been paid.

Lawyers for Cuomo and his team responded to investigations conducted by the attorney general’s office, the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, the state Assembly, the state Board of Elections and New York’s ethics agency.

The state comptroller’s office paid out $2.2 million to specifically cover the legal costs of Cuomo’s executive staffers — including DeRosa — in response to harassment accusations brought by former staffer Charlotte Bennett and a state trooper.

Cuomo resigned under the threat of impeachment in August of 2021 after an investigative report released by James’s office concluded that the ex-governor engaged in misconduct — harassing or mistreating multiple women.

He has denied the charges and is fighting a harassment lawsuit filed by a female state trooper in Brooklyn federal court, who claimed the ex-governor inappropriately groped her.

Taxpayers are on the hook for investigations of Cuomo and other staffers tied to their official duties — even if they are no longer in office.

The only exception is if a public official is convicted of criminal corruption, and neither Cuomo or staffers have been charged with corruption, just civil claims.

Cuomo’s spokesman agreed $20 million is a lot of dough, but blamed abusive probers for the massive bills.

“We agree that’s a lot of money for five DAs, the DOJ — twice- several state and federal judges, the Board of Elections Enforcement Counsel and maybe others — I’m losing track — to cut through the politics and find no there, there,” said Cuomo rep Richard Azzopardi.

“Taxpayers can thank Tish James and her corrupt, discredited report that she used to launch her failed campaign for governor. That’s $487,805 for each day she was in the race – not counting the taxpayer money she’s spending on all sizes to defend her office against their own sexual harassment allegations.”

Cuomo is currently using his campaign account to pay some of his legal bills.

But he could end up seeking reimbursement from the state for another $6 million based on payouts from his campaign treasury, the Times Union said.

Aside from the sexual misconduct investigations, Cuomo’s team faced a federal criminal probe for his policies during the pandemic — particularly an edict directing recovering COVID patients discharged from hospitals to be admitted or readmitted into nursing homes, which some studies argued spread the infection and increased the death toll.

He also was accused of undercounting or falsely reporting nursing home resident deaths linked to COVID, at a time he was promoting his own pandemic performance in a controversial $5 million memoir.

Morvillo Abramowitz, the firm hired to defend the administration in the COVID-19 inquiry, was paid more than $2.5 million to respond to the Justice Department’s probe. No charges were filed.