ALBANY – As he faces still-ongoing ethics investigations into his $5 million book deal about his COVID-19 pandemic response, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is now suing New York’s newest ethics commission, arguing the body is too independent from the governor to be constitutional.
The Democrat’s lawsuit comes ahead of the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Governments’ scheduled meeting on June 12, when it is expected to scrutinize the deal and allegations that the Democrat had staff members work on the book while on government time. Cuomo’s lawyers have maintained staff members worked on the book on their own time.
Rich Azzopardi, a longtime spokesperson and adviser to Cuomo, said in a statement, “The lawsuit speaks for itself, but there’s clearly been politics behind all of this.”
COELIG was created last year to replace the much-maligned Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which was created in 2011 by then-Gov. Cuomo as an independent body to combat corruption. JCOPE originally approved the book deal in 2020, but it revoked its approval following Cuomo’s resignation, arguing Cuomo misled the ethics panel during its approval. Cuomo ultimately resigned in August 2021 following the release of a report by the state Attorney General’s office detailing multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Cuomo denies the allegations.
JCOPE repeatedly sought to force Cuomo to turn over the $5 million he received for the book deal, but a judge ultimately ruled last year Cuomo could keep the book advance. Now, the new ethics commission is picking up where JCOPE left off.
The lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court Tuesday in Albany argues the commission created last year violates the state’s Constitution, because it has, “sweeping executive law-enforcement powers, including the authority to impose penalties, and yet utterly insulates the agency from any oversight by or accountability to the executive branch.”
Specifically, it points to one major change in COELIG, which created an Independent Review Committee comprised of the state’s 15 American Bar Association accredited law school deans to vet appointees to the commission. The lawsuit argues an amendment to the state’ Constitution is needed to give the committee that power.
Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, said every state Ethics Commission for the past 40 years has been created via statute, not a constitutional amendment.
“The fundamental argument in what the Cuomo lawsuit is essentially alleging is that they are too independent of the governor, the legislative leaders, the state attorney general, [and the state] comptroller,” Horner said. “We want it to be more independent. So, this entity has been on the books now for a while, and you know, it’s just around the time apparently that they appear to be looking at the book deal that the lawsuit gets filed.”
The lawsuit also asks the courts to stop the ethics panel from continuing any investigations or enforcement proceedings.
Capital Region state Sen. James Tedisco, R-Glenville, a frequent critic of Cuomo during his time in office, said the lawsuit didn’t make sense to him, since Cuomo always argued JCOPE was also a completely independent body from the governor’s office.
“So, I don’t think he has a leg to stand on right now. And it would be a travesty if he won any lawsuit against anybody,” he said. “He should very much go away and be a forgotten factor in the history of this state.”
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