An innocent man

No one but the two people present will ever know with certainty what happened between Brittany Commisso and Andrew Cuomo in the Executive Mansion a year ago last month. But there will be no criminal prosecution and conviction of Cuomo, which means in the eyes of the law, the governor is innocent of the charges against him, full stop.

So declared Albany DA David Soares Tuesday, putting to rest as a criminal matter the single most serious allegation against the former governor — one that put a flashing red light atop the litany of bad behavior detailed by Joon Kim and Anne Clark.

In declining to prosecute, Soares, a seasoned lawman, did not detail the exact weaknesses in the case that led him to set it aside. Indeed, he proclaimed Commisso, Cuomo’s former assistant, “cooperative and credible.” But “after review of all the available evidence,” he added, “we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial.”

It all makes the October 2021 move by Sheriff Craig Apple to go rogue and file a criminal complaint without having consulted with his prosecutorial partners smell even more rotten. In a letter to the court soon after, Soares had already referred to exculpatory material in part of Commisso’s interview with the attorney general. Cops shouldn’t drag defendants through proceedings if and when prosecutors lack the goods to follow through.

We don’t weep for Cuomo or suggest that the lack of a criminal case means the entire Kim-Clark investigation ordered up by AG Tish James was a house of cards. Notwithstanding its real weaknesses, that report compellingly established he mistreated a number of young women in his orbit. (Cuomo also engaged in dishonest shenanigans with nursing-home death numbers and ignored ethics guidance urging him not to enlist staffers on state time in helping him write his COVID book.)

But the facts are the facts, and the law’s the law.