Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed disbelief that soon-to-be-out-of-office Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be able to collect a $50,000-a-year pension even though he resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment over multiple allegations of sexually harassing much younger female staffers.
“I struggle to see why that’s OK,” de Blasio said during his daily press briefing.
“Lets face it, had he not resigned, he was going to be impeached, so I don’t know how you get to get a pension as part of that,” de Blasio said.
However, under current law, neither resignation nor impeachment for alleged misconduct bars eligibility for obtaining a pension for state service. Only a felony conviction can trigger pension forfeiture.
Still, de Blasio, Cuomo’s longtime nemesis, held out hope that the soon-to-be ex-governor could still lose out on the cash.
“There’s going to be more proceedings obviously by prosecutors. There’s a lot more that has to be addressed. He needs to be held accountable. The people who aided and abetted him need to be held accountable.
“Maybe those actions will settle some of those issues,” de Blasio said.
At least five district attorneys across the state are investigating allegations contained in the sexual harassment report issued by state Attorney General Letitia James that forced Cuomo to step down.
The AG is also conducting a criminal probe into whether Cuomo misused government resources by pressuring state employees to help with his memoir, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which he sold to the Crown Publishing Group for $5.1 million.
Finally, the FBI and Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office are probing Cuomo and his administration over their alleged cover-up of nursing home deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.