San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
HOW CUOMO INQUIRY, POSSIBLE IMPEACHMENT COULD UNFOLD
New York governor denies harassment accusations; investigation is pending
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has urged New Yorkers to “wait for the facts.”
Patience, though, has grown thin. The state’s two U.S. senators, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and most of the other 29 members of New York’s congressional delegation have called for his resignation. In the state Legislature, more than 120 lawmakers have called on the Democrat to quit.
Leaders in the state Assembly on Thursday announced an impeachment investigation, a first step toward potentially removing Cuomo from office.
Cuomo has rebuffed calls to resign and staked his political future on the outcome of an independent investigation by Attorney General Letitia James, who is examining allegations that the governor sexually harassed or inappropriately touched several female aides.
James, an independently elected Democrat, has hired former Acting U.S Attorney Joon Kim and employment discrimination attorney Anne Clark to lead her inquiry into the governor’s workplace conduct.
The investigative team will have the power to subpoena documents and interview witnesses. Its findings will go in a public report.
James lacks power to unilaterally remove Cuomo from office, but any findings corroborating the allegations could sway potential impeachment proceedings — or add pressure for Cuomo to leave voluntarily.
Kim and Clark may choose to limit their scope to allegations that are already public, or broaden it to look for other women who might have complaints about Cuomo’s behavior.
There is no deadline for completing the investigation and James hasn’t said how long she expects it to take.
The Assembly’s Judiciary Committee will also have power to subpoena documents and witness testimony. It could rely on work done by the attorney general’s team of investigators, or gather its own evidence.
The scope of its inquiry might go beyond Cuomo’s conduct with women. The governor is also under fire for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis in the state’s nursing homes.
Many lawmakers have been outraged that the Cuomo administration declined, for months, to release the full number of nursing home patients killed by the virus.
The governor’s office said some of the data was unreliable. But Cuomo’s top aide said the administration withheld the data because it was afraid the fatality numbers could be “used against us.”
The committee’s work could result in the drafting of articles of impeachment against Cuomo, though that outcome is far from certain.
New York’s process for impeaching and removing a governor from office has some parallels — and some important differences — to the process the U.S. Congress uses for impeaching presidents.
Like at the federal level, New York impeachments starts in the lower house of the Legislature — in this case, the Assembly. If a majority of members vote to impeach Cuomo, a trial on his removal from office would be held in what’s known as the Impeachment Court.
The court consists not only of members of the state Senate, but also judges of the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, who would also cast votes.
At least two-thirds of the jurors must vote to convict in order to remove Cuomo.
Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature. Many have joined Republicans in calling for Cuomo’s resignation or impeachment in recent days. Cuomo has appointed all seven members of the Court of Appeals.
If Cuomo were impeached by the Assembly, state law might force him to step aside immediately — a dramatic difference from what happens when the U.S. president is impeached.
A section of the state’s judicial code regarding impeachment states: “No officer shall exercise his office, after articles of impeachment against him shall have been delivered to the senate, until he is acquitted.”
According to the state constitution, the lieutenant governor would then take over until a verdict is rendered