Embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo facing impeachment inquiry
Police stand ready to investigate groping allegation
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s grip on power appeared increasingly threatened Thursday as a majority of state legislators called for his resignation, Democrats launched an impeachment investigation and police in the state capital said they stood ready to investigate a groping allegation.
The firestorm around the Democrat grew a day after the Times Union of Albany reported that an unidentified aide had claimed Cuomo reached under her shirt and fondled her at his official residence late last year.
The woman hasn’t filed a criminal complaint, but a lawyer for the governor said Thursday that the state had reported the allegation to the Albany Police Department after the woman involved declined to do so herself.
“In this case the person is represented by counsel and when counsel confirmed the client did not want to make a report, the state notified the police department and gave them the attorney’s information,” said
Beth Garvey, the governor’s acting counsel.
An Albany Police Department spokesperson, Steve Smith, didn’t immediately return a message from
The Associated Press, but told The New York Times police had reached out to a representative for the woman.
The possible involvement of police comes as more lawmakers called on Cuomo to resign over alleged misconduct with women and allegations that his administration concealed how many nursing home residents died of COVID-19.
At least 121 members of the state Assembly and Senate have said publicly they believe Cuomo should quit now, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
The count includes 65 Democrats and 56 Republicans.
The top Democrat in the state Assembly, Speaker Carl Heastie, on Thursday backed a plan for its judiciary committee to launch an impeachment investigation.
The committee can interview witnesses and subpoena documents and its inquiry could be wide-ranging: from alleged sexual misconduct to COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes. It won’t interfere with a separate inquiry of sexual harassment allegations being conducted by state Attorney General Letitia James, according to Heastie and James.
“All of us are extremely disappointed,” Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, a Democrat representing Orange and Sullivan counties, told
The Associated Press. “I think there’s no room in the world right now for that kind of behavior. He should have known better.”
Gunther on Thursday became the ninth Assembly Democrat saying they’d vote for impeachment, alongside at least 37 Republicans.
Cuomo’s support in the state Senate was especially thin. Roughly twothirds of its members have called for the Democrat’s resignation, including Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-cousins.
A group of 59 Democrats, including 19 senators and 40 Assembly members said in a letter Thursday that it’s time for Cuomo to go.
Cuomo has repeatedly said he won’t resign and urged the public to await the outcome of the attorney general’s investigation.
Asked for comment Thursday, Cuomo’s office referred reporters to previous statements in which the governor denied inappropriately touching anyone, but apologized for some comments he made to female staffers. He’s said he was trying to engage in playful banter and didn’t intend to make people uncomfortable.
The state Assembly has 150 members. It could convene an impeachment trial against Cuomo with a simple majority vote. The state Senate, which would join with members of the state’s top appeals court to hold an impeachment trial, has 63 members.