Andrew Cuomo will face impeachment investigation by New York state lawmakers

The Assembly vowed to look into allegations that the governor behaved inappropriately towards female aides and to examine his administration’s handling of the pandemic.

The fourth aide to accuse Andrew Cuomo came forrward after seeing the New York governor deny allegations brought by others at a press conference. Picture: AFP

The New York State Assembly said on Friday AEDT that it would start an impeachment investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo, vowing to look into allegations that he behaved inappropriately toward female aides and his administration’s handling of Covid-19 deaths in state nursing homes.

After politicians met privately Thursday afternoon, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx, said the Democrat-dominated chamber’s judiciary committee would have authority to interview witnesses, subpoena documents and evaluate evidence as members consider possible articles of impeachment.

Mr Heastie said that “the reports of accusations concerning the governor are serious”.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat from Yonkers, has already called on Mr Cuomo to resign.

Representatives for the Democrat governor didn’t respond to requests for comment on the Assembly’s latest moves.

No New York governor has been impeached in more than a century. After an inquiry, the chamber could consider articles of impeachment that, if approved, would temporarily suspend Mr Cuomo’s authority. The governor would then be tried before members of the Democrat-controlled state Senate and judges of the state’s Court of Appeals, who could remove him from office upon a two-thirds vote.

State officials on Wednesday referred a complaint that Mr Cuomo inappropriately touched a female aide at the Executive Mansion to the Albany Police Department.

The latest complaint, which involves a woman who still works on the governor’s Executive Chamber staff, stems from an alleged incident last year, people familiar with the matter said. She is the fourth woman to accuse the third-term Democrat of inappropriate behaviour or sexual harassment while they worked for him.

On Wednesday, a representative of the New York State Police and Beth Garvey, the governor’s acting counsel, separately reached out to the Albany Police Department, state and police officials said. Ms Garvey spoke with Deputy Chief Edward Donohue on Wednesday evening, they said.

Officer Steve Smith, a spokesman for the Albany Police Department, said that the department hadn’t received a formal complaint from the woman and that there is no active investigation. Officer Smith said Albany Police had reached out to the woman’s attorney to offer police services with respect to her allegation.

Ms Garvey said Executive Chamber officials followed state policy by contacting the Albany Police Department about the allegation after they learned the woman hadn’t filed her own complaint with police. “If they (alleged victims) decline, the agency has an obligation to reach out themselves and inform the department of the allegation,” Ms Garvey said.

A lawyer for the woman said she would speak through the legal process. The woman became upset last week after watching Mr Cuomo give a news conference addressing other allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward female aides, people familiar with the matter said. The woman then told a colleague what happened, and the colleague then alerted members of Mr Cuomo’s senior staff, the people said.

Mr Cuomo’s aides referred the matter this week to independent investigators overseen by Attorney-General Letitia James, the people said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Cuomo said: “As I said yesterday, I have never done anything like this. The details of this report are gut-wrenching. I am not going to speak to the specifics of this or any other allegation given the ongoing review, but I am confident in the result of the Attorney-General’s report.”

At the Capitol Thursday morning, nearly 60 Democratic members of the New York state Legislature called for Mr Cuomo’s resignation and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a news conference that “he can no longer serve as governor” amid the accusations of inappropriate behaviour toward female aides and a federal probe of Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes.

In the statement, the members calling for Mr Cuomo’s resignation cited the governor’s alleged behaviour as well as actions taken by the governor’s advisers to hold back from the public a fuller accounting of the death toll in long-term-care facilities amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Advisers to the governor successfully pushed state health officials to strip a July report of data showing that more nursing-home residents had died of Covid-19 than the administration had acknowledged, the Journal has reported.

“In light of the Governor’s admission of inappropriate behaviour and the findings of altered data on nursing home Covid-19 deaths he has lost the confidence of the public and the state legislature, rendering him ineffective in this time of most urgent need,” the politicians said Thursday.

The statement was signed by 40 members of the 107-person Democratic conference that controls the 150-seat state Assembly. Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, a Republican from Oswego County, has already submitted a resolution to impeach Mr. Cuomo. The chamber has 43 GOP members.

Twenty-one Democratic women in the Assembly said Monday that Ms James should be given the space to complete her investigation.

Assemblywoman Latrice Walker, a Democrat from Brooklyn, said on Wednesday night that she signed that statement because she believed everyone was entitled to due process.

“Political theatre has no place in getting to the justice that everyone deserves — the accused as well as the accusers,” said Ms Walker, who didn’t sign the statement calling on Mr Cuomo to step down.

In a statement on Thursday, Ms James said the Assembly’s actions “will have no bearing on our independent investigation into these allegations against Governor Cuomo. Our investigation will continue.”

The Wall Street Journal