Criminal Probes Launched Against New York’s Isolated Cuomo

Lauded nationwide last year for his no-nonsense coronavirus
briefings, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was clinging to his
political life Wednesday as prosecutors opened criminal inquiries
into sexual harassment allegations against the powerful
Democrat.

As Donald Trump sowed chaos last spring, Cuomo’s televised
pandemic press conferences comforted Americans and even led to
clamor for a presidential run, but the 63-year-old now finds
himself a political pariah.

New York state assembly Democrats are poised to complete an
impeachment inquiry soon while three district attorneys are
pursuing criminal investigations after Tuesday’s bombshell report
found Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women.

“If you assault a woman, you do something against her will
sexually, that’s criminal. I think he should be charged,” New York
Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, told CBS on Wednesday.

The investigation concluded that Cuomo engaged in “unwelcome and
non-consensual touching and making numerous comments of a
suggestive sexual nature that created a hostile work environment
for women.”

It detailed allegations by 11 women that painted “a picture of a
pattern of abusive behavior by Cuomo and his senior staff,” said
state Attorney General Letitia James said, announcing the
findings.

The three-term governor came out fighting. He insisted he never
touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual
advances and suggested he would not step down in a pre-recorded
statement.

But pressure continued to build on Cuomo Wednesday as
prosecutors in Manhattan and Westchester County joined those in
Albany in opening a criminal inquiry and requesting documents from
James’s investigation, which was only civil in nature.

The Westchester case relates to an allegation that Cuomo
inappropriately touched a state trooper assigned to his protective
detail on her stomach and hip.

A statement from the Albany District Attorney late Tuesday
called on any alleged victims to come forward.

Cuomo has politics in his blood — his father Mario Cuomo served
three terms as the Democratic governor of New York state between
1983 and 1994 — and is unlikely to go quietly.

He has long been part of the Democratic Party’s moderate
establishment: in 1990, Cuomo married Kerry Kennedy — daughter of
the late US Attorney General Robert Kennedy. They divorced 15 years
later.

Cuomo received praise for pushing through the legalization of
same-sex marriage in New York in 2011 and for raising the state’s
minimum wage to $15 in December 2019.

But he has increasingly clashed with left-wing progressives in
the party in recent years who have long accused him of governing
with hectoring, bulldog-like tactics.

– Impeachment –

Allies, including President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and New York City’s likely next mayor, Eric Adams, quickly
deserted him following the explosive report.

And on Wednesday The New York Times editorial board called on
him to quit.

“He wants to survive because the only thing that matters to
Andrew Cuomo is being governor of New York,” Lincoln Mitchell,
politics expert at Columbia University, told AFP.

“But he’s going to have a tough time when the President of the
United States, who is the leader of your party, says that he should
no longer be in office.”

After Cuomo made it clear he had no plans to step down
voluntarily, the Democratic speaker of New York’s state assembly,
Carl Heastie, said an impeachment investigation would be concluded
“as quickly as possible.”

“He can no longer remain in office,” Heastie said.

If the lower house assembly approves impeachment articles, which
now seems all but certain, Cuomo would become the first New York
governor to be impeached in more than a century.

Cuomo would likely have to temporarily step down as members of
the senate and several judges preside over the trial. At least two
thirds of jurors must vote to convict to permanently remove him
from office.

Although he has not officially announced a run, Cuomo is
believed to covet a fourth term as governor, to surpass his
father.

AFP

Lauded nationwide last year for his no-nonsense coronavirus
briefings, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was clinging to his
political life Wednesday as prosecutors opened criminal inquiries
into sexual harassment allegations against the powerful
Democrat.

As Donald Trump sowed chaos last spring, Cuomo’s televised
pandemic press conferences comforted Americans and even led to
clamor for a presidential run, but the 63-year-old now finds
himself a political pariah.

New York state assembly Democrats are poised to complete an
impeachment inquiry soon while three district attorneys are
pursuing criminal investigations after Tuesday’s bombshell report
found Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women.

“If you assault a woman, you do something against her will
sexually, that’s criminal. I think he should be charged,” New York
Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, told CBS on Wednesday.

The investigation concluded that Cuomo engaged in “unwelcome and
non-consensual touching and making numerous comments of a
suggestive sexual nature that created a hostile work environment
for women.”

It detailed allegations by 11 women that painted “a picture of a
pattern of abusive behavior by Cuomo and his senior staff,” said
state Attorney General Letitia James said, announcing the
findings.

The three-term governor came out fighting. He insisted he never
touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual
advances and suggested he would not step down in a pre-recorded
statement.

But pressure continued to build on Cuomo Wednesday as
prosecutors in Manhattan and Westchester County joined those in
Albany in opening a criminal inquiry and requesting documents from
James’s investigation, which was only civil in nature.

The Westchester case relates to an allegation that Cuomo
inappropriately touched a state trooper assigned to his protective
detail on her stomach and hip.

A statement from the Albany District Attorney late Tuesday
called on any alleged victims to come forward.

Cuomo has politics in his blood — his father Mario Cuomo served
three terms as the Democratic governor of New York state between
1983 and 1994 — and is unlikely to go quietly.

He has long been part of the Democratic Party’s moderate
establishment: in 1990, Cuomo married Kerry Kennedy — daughter of
the late US Attorney General Robert Kennedy. They divorced 15 years
later.

Cuomo received praise for pushing through the legalization of
same-sex marriage in New York in 2011 and for raising the state’s
minimum wage to $15 in December 2019.

But he has increasingly clashed with left-wing progressives in
the party in recent years who have long accused him of governing
with hectoring, bulldog-like tactics.

– Impeachment –

Allies, including President Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and New York City’s likely next mayor, Eric Adams, quickly
deserted him following the explosive report.

And on Wednesday The New York Times editorial board called on
him to quit.

“He wants to survive because the only thing that matters to
Andrew Cuomo is being governor of New York,” Lincoln Mitchell,
politics expert at Columbia University, told AFP.

“But he’s going to have a tough time when the President of the
United States, who is the leader of your party, says that he should
no longer be in office.”

After Cuomo made it clear he had no plans to step down
voluntarily, the Democratic speaker of New York’s state assembly,
Carl Heastie, said an impeachment investigation would be concluded
“as quickly as possible.”

“He can no longer remain in office,” Heastie said.

If the lower house assembly approves impeachment articles, which
now seems all but certain, Cuomo would become the first New York
governor to be impeached in more than a century.

Cuomo would likely have to temporarily step down as members of
the senate and several judges preside over the trial. At least two
thirds of jurors must vote to convict to permanently remove him
from office.

Although he has not officially announced a run, Cuomo is
believed to covet a fourth term as governor, to surpass his
father.

AFP