ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo is off the hook when it comes to impeachment — leaving the door open for him to make a political comeback down the road.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) announced Friday that the impeachment investigation into the scandal-scarred governor will be suspended once Cuomo steps down later this month.
The decision came despite the Assembly’s nearly-complete probe uncovering “credible evidence in relation to allegations that have been made in reference to the governor,” Heastie said in a statement.
The five-month investigation included an examination of the harassment allegations deemed credible by State Attorney General Letitia James. The Assembly probe also scrutinized misuse of state resources in relation to Cuomo’s $5 million pandemic book deal and the “improper and misleading disclosure of nursing home data” during the COVID crisis.
Evidence collected by the Assembly Judiciary Committee and independent investigators will be passed along to “relevant investigatory authorities,” Heastie said.
Progressive Democrats said Heastie was allowing Cuomo off way too easy and doing a disservice to those who dared speak out against the once-powerful pol.
“I’m heartbroken, I am sickened, and I am disgusted,” , Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou (D-Manhattan) said in a statement. “The decision to end the impeachment investigation into Governor Cuomo is indefensible…Taxpayers have spent too much money supporting this investigation to have it die in darkness and secrecy.”
“This is incredibly disappointing, and ensures that there will be no accountability or justice for the Governor’s misdeeds,” tweeted State Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn).
The speaker said he and Assemblyman Charles Lavine (D-Nassau), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, simply don’t believe lawmakers have authority under state law to impeach a governor who is no longer in office. Cuomo is expected to hand over the reins to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Aug. 24.
Two members of the committee told the Daily News they were blindsided by the move, only learning of the decision from Heastie’s press release.
The announcement comes three days after Cuomo chose to step down as lawmakers laid out a path that would have likely led to a vote on articles of impeachment by next month. That came in the wake of a bombshell AG report finding Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women and oversaw a “toxic” workplace.
In his resignation speech, Cuomo defiantly maintained his innocence but said that a drawn-out impeachment process would be a “distraction” as the state grapples with COVID and other issues.
“Wasting energy on distractions is the last thing state government should be doing, and I cannot be the cause of that,” he said.
With removal off the table, many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle hoped the impeachment process would continue. That would have paved the way for a public report and give the state Senate the chance to bar Cuomo from holding office ever again in New York, they argued.
“Suspending the work of the committee is premature,” Assemblyman Tom Abinanti (D-Westchester), a member of the panel, told the Daily News. “Gov. Cuomo has not even left office. The committee should continue to meet and then report to the people on the extensive investigation.
“The public deserves a report,” he added.
Others, including Cuomo accuser Lindsey Boylan, argued that abandoning the inquiry allowed the governor to avoid accountability.
“The Assembly’s decision to call off its impeachment investigation is an unjust cop out,” she tweeted. “The public deserves to know the extent of the Governor’s misdeeds and possible crimes. His victims deserve justice and to know he will not be able harm others.”
Earlier this year, Boylan detailed allegations of sexual harassment against the governor from the time she worked for him, setting off a series of accusations from other women in Cuomo’s orbit.
Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay (R-Oswego) called Heastie’s decision a “slap in the face to the people this body was elected to represent.”
Government watchdog Reinvent Albany called on the speaker to make good on promises of transparency by making the investigation’s evidence and findings public.
“New Yorkers have a right to see everything supporting the speaker’s serious claim that the Assembly has evidence against Andrew Cuomo,” the organization said in a statement.
Cuomo was initially given a Friday deadline to present his own evidence and documentation to the Assembly ahead of a Monday meeting where lawmakers were expected to discuss whether to proceed with the probe. That meeting has been cancelled, according to Lavine, who added that future meetings of the committee will take place “as needed.”
Cuomo still faces ongoing investigations from the state attorney general over his $5 million book deal and from federal prosecutors, who are scrutinizing his administration’s handling of data related to COVID deaths in nursing homes. The state’s ethics board is also looking into those issues.
Several women have said the governor touched them inappropriately or made sexual advances, including a current aide who said he groped her breast while the pair were alone in the Executive Mansion late last year.
The aide, Brittany Commisso, filed a criminal complaint in Albany County that could lead to a misdemeanor groping charge and an arrest.
Susan Lerner, executive director of good government group Common Cause NY, called the abrupt end to the impeachment process “shameful.”
“The failure to move forward is setting a bad precedent that elected officials, who abuse the system, can resign on their own terms without facing full accountability,” she said. “New Yorkers deserve the facts and transparency — and right now, they are left in the dark.”
