Disgraced ex-NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo fights in court to keep $5M from COVID book
Disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo battled a state ethics agency in court Friday as he fights to hold onto the more than $5 million he raked in from his now-infamous book about leading New York during the pandemic.
Cuomo’s suit challenges the constitutionality of the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government to investigate the Executive Branch, considering legislators have oversized influence over its members.
Lawyers for the commission argue it has the authority to probe whether Cuomo used taxpayer resources to write the book — a tome that netted him the hefty publishing $5.1 million paycheck.
Albany Democrats established the oversight body last year to replace the much-criticized Joint Commission on Public Ethics, a k a JCOPE, previously seen as too beholden to Cuomo.
Cuomo’s legal action in Albany on Friday was nominally focused on a request by his lawyers for a preliminary injunction ahead of a September hearing to be held by the commission on the book deal.
State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Marcelle has yet to rule on the injunction request but has signaled he might give a final ruling on the case this summer, which would render the request for an injunction moot.
Either party could still appeal the judge’s ruling to the state Court of Appeals, which ultimately decides New York constitutional issues.
Gregory Dubinsky, a lawyer who argued the case on behalf of Cuomo, said in a statement, “We appreciate that we have a judge who clearly understands the important constitutional issues here and are confident that we will prevail.”
A commission rep declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Friday’s court hearing comes nearly three years after Cuomo announced he had written a book about his experience leading the state during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic – a time when he basked in the national spotlight amid dysfunction at the federal level.
His political fortunes darkened soon after “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” shot to the top of best-seller lists in late 2020 — amid growing questions about his handling of the coronavirus in nursing homes in the state, which included his administration stonewalling the release of data that ultimately gave the public a much fuller picture of the true death toll in the facilities.
A series of sexual-misconduct allegations from multiple women ultimately drove Cuomo to resign in August 2021, as the state Assembly prepared to impeach him from office. A sprawling Assembly investigation also had found that he pressured state employees to help write the book.
The fallen governor has repeatedly denied the various claims of sexual misconduct and mishandling of COVID-19 in nursing homes, as well as anything illegal regarding the writing of his book.
But at least some Cuomo staffers had a potential book deal on their minds weeks after COVID-19 slammed New York in March 2020, according to emails unearthed by the Empire Center for Public Policy.
Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi shot back last month, “To be clear, this work product was never viewed by the governor nor was it used in the ‘American Crisis,’ as much as the Empire Center wants to believe that.”
