ALBANY, N.Y. — Members of New York’s ethics commission have voted overwhelmingly to rescind approval of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $5.1 million book deal.
In July 2020, commission staff granted approval of Cuomo’s deal for “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.” At the time, his special council told the ethics commission he would write the book “entirely on his own time.” But Cuomo has since acknowledged that state employees “volunteered” with tasks including editing the manuscript.
Last April, the New York State Comptroller's office has given the go ahead to the New York State Attorney General to begin a possible criminal investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo's most recent book on the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was first reported by the New York Times, the allegations involve his staff members and his recent book. There are allegations that some of Cuomo's staff members worked on his book called American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, which would be a violation of the public officers law.
Commissioners have said they want to claw back at least some of the book deal proceeds. Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi called the commission’s vote politically motivated:
"These JCOPE members are acting outside the scope of their authority and are carrying the water of the politicians who appointed them. It is the height of hypocrisy for Hochul and the legislature's appointees to take this position, given that these elected officials routinely use their own staff for political and personal assistance on their own time.
This is the 3rd time JCOPE has attempted to rescind their own approval, and this amounts to nothing more than Albany political corruption at its worst. JCOPE wants to rescind an approval that was relied upon to play a political game and that means a JCOPE opinion cannot be relied upon by anyone and is subject to political winds. Our counsel's request to JCOPE was clear, saying 'no government resources' would be used -- consistent with that representation, people who volunteered on this project did so on their own time. Furthermore, the Governor cannot be held responsible for internal decisions over recusals and approvals made by JCOPE.
They truly are a J-JOKE."