Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned from office nearly two months ago, is continuing to fight an August report by state Attorney General Tish James that found he had sexually harassed 11 women.
Cuomo’s lawyer, Rita Glavin, is demanding an independent review of the report, which she said destroyed the former governor’s reputation.
Glavin is accusing James of political bias against Cuomo. She said James interfered with the sexual harassment inquiry carried out by her office and violated the terms of the referral that Cuomo gave to James last spring to conduct the probe. She argued that the investigation should have been carried out solely by the two independent investigators chosen by the attorney general.
Glavin cited remarks that James gave during a speech in late September to Democrats in the Hudson Valley, where the attorney general described how she had personally spoken to the women that the report found that Cuomo sexually harassed.
She said James, who has not ruled out a run for governor, was guided by a political agenda.
“She had a motive to draw every possible inference against the governor, who was a political rival,” Glavin said. “And who planned to run for a fourth term.”
There’s nothing in the March 1 referral that Cuomo gave James that specifically prohibits the attorney general from becoming involved in the investigation.
James has repeatedly denied that she was motivated by any political aspirations.
“Mr. Cuomo has a lot to say on these matters, but he has never taken responsibility for his own conduct,” James said during a speech at a business group breakfast in late September. “He has never held himself accountable for how his behavior affected our state government.”
Glavin is also asking James to drop another investigation into Cuomo's $5 million book deal for a memoir about how he handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Glavin said that probe also is tainted because the referral for the investigation was given by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who earlier this year was also contemplating a run for governor.
“That referral had politics written all over it,” Glavin said.
A spokesman for DiNapoli, Matt Sweeney, said in a statement that “the Comptroller has full confidence in the independence and integrity of the Attorney General and her investigation. He stands by his referral and believes the question of whether state resources were used on the book merits review”.
Cuomo is also facing a federal investigation of whether he and his top staff manipulated the reporting of the number of deaths of nursing home residents during the pandemic in order to boost sales of his book.
Glavin, who spoke via a livestream provided by the former governor’s campaign website, said she could not comment on whether Cuomo himself might have political aspirations and might run in the June primary to seek his old job back.
“I don’t know the answer to that question,” Glavin said. “I’m his lawyer, I’m not his political consultant.”
Cuomo recently sent a letter to supporters that read like a campaign rationale. After Glavin’s presentation, Cuomo’s campaign organization sent an email message to supporters titled “prosecutorial misconduct.” Cuomo has not spoken publicly since he resigned.
Glavin made her remarks as part of a 150-page submissionto the attorney general. In it, she also questions the credibility of some of the women who James found were victims of harassment by the former governor. The women have stood by their accounts.
Glavin contends her client did nothing wrong.
James' press secretary, Fabien Levy, called Glavin’s presentation a “baseless attack” by Cuomo, who he said resigned to avoid impeachment proceedings begun by the state Legislature.
“The most concerning part of today’s charade was the former governor’s attempt to stifle a legal criminal investigation into allegations that he used state resources for a book deal and personal profit,” Levy said. “We will not be bullied into shutting down this investigation.”
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, responded to Levy's statement, calling it a “deflection” and political “bluster."
“The fact is she won’t answer questions because she can’t defend her politically motivated hit job nor her own admitted prosecutorial misconduct,” Azzopardi said in a statement. “New Yorkers will see right through this and -- as recent polls suggest -- maybe they already have.”
A Siena College poll released Tuesday found that in a hypothetical five-way Democratic primary for governor, current Gov. Kathy Hochul, who replaced Cuomo, leads with 31%. The survey found that if the other candidates were Cuomo and James, the former governor would get 17% of the vote, followed by James with 14%.
The other two potential candidates, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, would get 7% and 6%, respectively, of the electorate’s support.
