Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday filed a lawsuit against the state’s ethics commission, the latest move in an ongoing dispute over his earnings from a book about his efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Albany, Cuomo accused the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, JCOPE, of violating his constitutional rights and showing ‘extraordinary bias against him.’
A spokesperson for JCOPE said they had no comment.
In December, JCOPE ordered Cuomo to turn over money from his book ‘American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.’
Cuomo’s camp decried the order and promised a legal fight.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday filed a lawsuit against the state’s ethics commission
‘The (former) Governor will seek the intercession of the court to protect his rights and prevent further abuses by JCOPE of its authority,’ Justice James McGuire said in January in the letter to commission chair Jose L. Nieves.
‘I therefore put JCOPE’s commissioners and its staff on notice that they must preserve all records, including emails, texts, and all other written communications, and take all necessary steps to ensure such records are preserved, related to [the decision to rescind book profits.]’
Shortly after, though, the state attorney general’s office issued a letter saying the commission had more steps to take before the office could get involved in trying to claim the money.
In December, JCOPE ordered Cuomo to turn over money from his book ‘American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic’
Cuomo was offered more than $5 million for the manuscript of his book during a time when he was receiving ample attention from the media over his handling of the pandemic in New York, the global epicenter of the outbreak in spring 2020.
However, months after the book’s October 2020 release, the then-governor found himself at the center of a scandal suggesting that his office deliberately obscured death toll numbers concerning nursing home residents during the pandemic, in an apparent effort to save face politically.
He also was accused of multiple sexual harassment allegations which eventually led to his resigning as New York governor.
The Democrat resigned in August 2021, days after an independent probe found he sexually harassed nearly a dozen women and that he and aides worked to retaliate against an accuser.
Cuomo’s memoir became the subject of an investigation from the New York attorney general’s office and JCOPE last year over claims he’d used state resources to write it.
During a State Ethics Committee meeting in late August, the commission’s executive director Sanford Berland was asked whether the panel was confident in its ability to rescind profits from the book.
Berland responded that the move to claw back the royalties as a penalty would need to be voted on by a full panel of JCOPE commissioners and could face legal challenges.
Commissioners in December voted 12-1 to transfer the proceeds to the Attorney General’s office after multiple investigations found Cuomo used state resources to produce and promote the tell-all book.
Cuomo’s representatives have said any state employees involved with the book were using personal time, not work time.
The former governor was ordered to fork over the compensation within 30 days of the December 14 resolution.
But his lawyer is now contending that the commission’s actions violated the law.
‘JCOPE’s actions in connection with the resolutions are flagrantly in excess of its jurisdiction, are based on determinations it has made in violation of lawful procedure, and are arbitrary and capricious,’ McGuire said earlier this year.
He added the panel’s action violated Cuomo’s ‘protection of due process’ and were a ‘violation of confidential provisions.’
‘JCOPE’s actions support, at the very least, the reasonable conclusion that it has acted for improper political reasons,’ the letter said.
Cuomo’s camp decried the order and promised a legal fight in a letter in January
