ALBANY — New York Assembly members will meet next week to review the findings of their defunct impeachment probe into ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, including sexual harassment allegations, nursing home data and his controversial $5.1 million pandemic book deal.
“Next week, on Thursday, November 18 and Friday, November 19, members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee have been invited to Albany to review the report by Davis Polk & Wardwell, LLP on the investigation into former Governor Cuomo,” said Judiciary Chairman Charles Lavine (D-LI) Wednesday.
“The investigation included interviews with 165 witnesses, along with the review of hundreds of thousands of documents, recordings, messages, memos, transcripts and other materials.”
Several sources, who requested anonymity, said committee members received a “group text” from Chairman Charles Lavine (D-LI) Wednesday afternoon requesting lawmakers clear their schedules next Thursday, Nov. 18 and Friday, Nov. 19 to potentially meet in Albany and examine a copy of the long awaited report.
“Attorneys will present their report. It’s going to serve to put the facts in place. I don’t know what’s in the report. We haven’t been meeting,” a source told The Post.
The 21-member committee has not met in public session since Aug. 9, but since then, lawmakers have traveled to Albany to review copies of interview transcripts, evidence and other documents compiled by attorneys from Davis Polk & Wardwell, the white shoe law firm hired by the Assembly to handle the investigation.
Pols also have also had the opportunity to review documents in the firm’s New York City offices.
The wide-ranging investigation was announced in mid-March and is expected to contain multiple sections including the allegations that Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women — including current and former staffers, that his administration withheld data pertaining to nursing home resident deaths tied to COVID-19 in long term care facilities throughout the pandemic and that the ex-governor allegedly used state resources to write and produce his pandemic-era memoir, ‘American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis.’
Then, state Attorney General Letitia James released her office’s bombshell sexual harassment report on Aug. 3 which found Cuomo broke multiple “state and federal laws.”
He announced his resignation shortly after, on Aug. 10 and officially stepped down from office on Aug. 24.
Following Cuomo’s resignation announcement, the committee suspended it’s impeachment inquiry but Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-The Bronx) said on Aug. 16 that the committee would issue a report on its findings.
Meanwhile, Cuomo is expected to appear in Albany City Criminal Court on Jan. 7, 2022 after criminal charges for misdemeanor forcible touching was filed against him.
He also faces several separate investigations including one from the FBI/US Eastern District of New York tied to the nursing home data and book deal as well a criminal investigation by James’ office into the book deal.