No impartiality in Cuomo proceedings

It’s ridiculous to believe former Gov. Andrew Cuomo would have gotten an impartial impeachment proceeding, as has been implied by both Casey Seiler and Chris Churchill in their respective columns.

The state’s constitution sets no standard or basis for impeachment; it is a political process, not a legal one. In this instance, the outcome was fait accompli.

Within a few hours of the release of the flawed and politicized report from Attorney General Letitia James — and certainly before anyone could have read the 163page report — dozens of state legislators had demanded the governor’s resignation.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie — merely five hours after the report was issued — pronounced on behalf of his conference: “It is abundantly clear to me that the governor has lost the confidence of the Assembly Democratic majority and that he can no longer remain in office,” saying the Assembly would “move expeditiously” toward impeachment.

From there, the process would have moved to the Senate, whose leader in March — even before James’ investigation started — called on the governor to resign. Virtually every other state senator — who would have been called to serve as impartial jurors — had already called for his resignation.

Despite all this, Cuomo’s instinct was to fight. But he would not put this state through an ugly, months-long predetermined sham while the government needed to focus on COVID-19.

That said, anyone who thinks he will not continue to fight until the truth fully comes to light doesn’t know Andrew Cuomo.

Rich Azzopardi Albany Spokesman, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo