Gov hits Dolan stance on vics
ALBANY— Gov. Cuomo stood up for survivors of childhood sexual assault on Wednesday, and pushed back against Timothy Cardinal Dolan’s statement that a provision for them to revive old legal claims would be “toxic.”
“These victims have been denied their day in court for far too long and we stand with them,” Cuomo told the Daily News in a statement. “The arguments against a lookback do not stand up against the experience of every other state and this debate only wastes time and delays justice.”
While his statement did not mention Dolan by name, it came one day after the cardinal met with him to argue against a lookback provision being included in the Child Victims Act, which would extend the statute of limitations on criminal and civil child sex abuse cases.
After meeting separately with Cuomo and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R-Suffolk County), Dolan told reporters a lookback provision would be “toxic for us” because it would lead to a flood of civil cases against the church.
Dennis Poust, spokesman for
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the state Catholic Conference that Dolan heads, said, “We share the governor’s outrage at the crime of child sexual abuse and we know that he also understands that wherever a child is victimized, they should have the same access to the court system.”
"However,” he added, “we respectfully differ with him regarding an unlimited retroactive window to bring up claims from decades ago against institutions of all kinds."
Advocates are hoping Cuomo and the Legislature will deal with the issue in the final state budget due April 1.
Cuomo and the Assembly Democrats included different versions of the Child Victims Act in their respective state budget proposals.
The Senate Republicans, who have blocked passage of the measure in prior years, left the door open for a deal this year in their budget plan by expressing support for “amendments to both the civil and criminal statutes of limitations to further protect children from sexual predators.”
The push for action got some high-profile help Wednesday, when actress Julianne Moore took to Twitter to urge her 800,000 followers to call Senate Republicans blocking passage of the bill.
She even provided their office phone numbers.
“Tell NY State Senators to stop blocking the Child Victims Act & protecting predators. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse deserve justice!” Moore wrote.
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PRESIDENT TRUMP plans to levy $50 billion worth of tariffs on China to penalize the country for intellectual property theft, according to a report Wednesday.
The aggressive measure is aimed at preventing China from undermining U.S. businesses, The New York Times reported.
The trade penalties could hit up to 100 Chinese products, ranging from clothing to electronics, according to the paper. Trump also will have the Treasury Department impose checks on Chinese investment in U.S. tech companies, sources told The Times.
Trump is expected to make the announcement on Thursday. He’s already imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on China, which are supposed to kick in Friday. Trump says the U.S. is at a competitive disadvantage, while critics say tariffs will likely start a trade war.