Many lawyers but few details
None of Cuomo’s pacts with legal firms hired for probes have been sent to comptroller
As Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo faces investigations on several fronts, four law firms have confirmed they’re doing legal work for Cuomo or his office.
The attorneys were retained in the wake of an investigation by the state attorney general’s office, which is probing multiple sexual harassment and misconduct allegations against Cuomo, and a separate investigation by the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn. The federal investigation is examining whether
Cuomo’s administration deliberately manipulated data on nursing home deaths during the coronavirus pandemic.
Both of the investigations also have prompted senior aides and other members of the governor’s administration to retain private counsel.
But as the work by the private attorneys has proceeded for nearly two months, de
tails about the legal arrangements remain murky.
None of the contracts for legal services have been submitted for approval to Comptroller Thomas Dinapoli’s office, potentially running afoul of state finance law.
Cuomo’s office also isn’t saying whether the governor will front the money for any attorneys representing him personally. In addition, it’s unclear whether taxpayers will be on the hook for other state officials’ legal costs, including members of the governor’s coronavirus task force.
Dinapoli’s office says that under state law a contract over $50,000 cannot be executed or become effective until it’s authorized by the comptroller’s office.
Matthew Ryan, a spokesman for Dinapoli’s office, said Cuomo’s office has not submitted any of the legal contracts for approval.
“It is incumbent upon the agency to timely submit the contract for approval, and a vendor would be working at risk without the required approval from our office,” Ryan said.
In a statement, Cuomo senior adviser Richard Azzopardi said none of the four law firms have been paid money.
“We are in the process of finalizing these contracts and related documents for review and approval by the comptroller’s office,” Azzopardi said. “We are abiding by all applicable rules and standards and in matters like this it is not uncommon for legal representation to begin while the contracts are simultaneously being drafted for submission. Doing it the other way could potentially leave the Chamber and its employees without representation.”
Before approving contracts, Dinapoli’s office typically reviews the terms of the agreements, including hourly rates for attorneys.
Cuomo and Dinapoli had a similar back-and-forth over the Executive Chamber’s 2016 hiring of investigator Bart Schwartz, who did significant legal work without having a contract approval.
Paul Fishman, a partner at the firm Arnold & Porter, and Mitra Hormozi, of the firm Walden Macht & Haran LLP, are representing the Executive Chamber as a whole in response to the spate of sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo.
Those allegations are being investigated by two private attorneys appointed by Attorney General Letitia James’ office.
Another attorney, Rita Glavin, said in an email that she was representing Cuomo “in his personal capacity and not the Executive Chamber as a whole.” Glavin recently responded on Cuomo’s behalf to to a female staffer’s accusation that the governor had groped her in November at the Executive Mansion, which the governor has denied.
Glavin, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan, did not respond to a question about how her work would be funded. Azzopardi also did not answer questions about whether taxpayers would be paying for all four law firms’ work, including Glavin’s.
“The contracts are working their way through the process and when they are publicly available you will likely be the first to know,” Azzopardi said.
The woman’s groping allegation — a matter in which Glavin is personally representing Cuomo — exposes the governor to a potential criminal charge, although the woman who made the accusation has not filed a complaint with police.
In a criminal proceeding, when a state official is being represented by an attorney in an individual capacity, legal costs would typically be fronted by the state employee. Under state law, the employees’ costs would only be reimbursed by the state if the individual is cleared of wrongdoing. That reimbursement must be approved by the offices of the state attorney general and comptroller.
In 2015, Dinapoli approved a $1.8 million taxpayer-funded repayment to former Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno after he was acquitted of bribery charges during a second federal criminal trial. Bruno had paid $1.5 million for his legal defense with campaign funds, which were later reimbursed to the account by taxpayers.
An acquittal is not necessarily required for a public official to receive taxpayer reimbursement. Depending on the circumstances, a state employee’s application for reimbursement might also be approved if no charges are filed and an investigation is closed.
Like Bruno, Cuomo would likely be allowed to use campaign funds to pay for any upfront legal costs, rather than paying the cost out of his own pocket. Cuomo’s 2022 reelection campaign did not respond to a request for comment about whether it would pay any of the legal bills.
The question of reimbursement could also arise for other state officials. For instance, witnesses that testify before grand juries are often eligible to have their legal fees reimbursed by the state.
Jim Malatras, chancellor of the State University of New York, has been a member of the governor’s coronavirus task force and is considered a witness by the U.S. attorney’s office. He has retained Michael Koenig, an Albany attorney and former trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Malatras was among the Cuomo aides involved in reviewing a July report issued by the state Department of Health to pinpoint whether a directive issued on March 25, 2020, had contributed to the high number of nursing home deaths in New York. Prior to the report’s release, certain Cuomo aides allegedly cut out information showing a higher death toll in nursing homes caused by COVID -19, a matter that’s now the focus of a federal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
In March, Malatras said he “did not alter and change” the Department of Health’s original report to exclude the higher death toll figures.
A SUNY spokeswoman said their agency is “not paying any of the chancellor’s legal fees.”
Six weeks ago, attorney Elkan Abramowitz confirmed that his white-collar legal defense firm, Morvillo Abramowitz, had begun representing Cuomo’s office in response to the federal criminal inquiry. Azzopardi told New York Law Journal at the time that Abramowitz was representing the “Executive Chamber.”
Ryan, the spokesman for the comptroller’s office, said that in March their office approved an exemption request submitted by the state Division of Budget, which is part of the Cuomo administration. The Division of Budget wanted to contract with Morvillo Abramowitz without competitively advertising the opportunity. Since then, however,
Dinapoli’s office has not received a copy of the contract.
It’s not clear whether other Cuomo aides have retained attorneys to respond to the federal nursing home investigation, or whether Cuomo himself has done so.
Azzopardi said that Glavin — Cuomo’s attorney in the sexual harassment inquiry — is not working for the governor on the nursing home matter.
Morvillo Abramowitz has previously represented the Executive Chamber in three criminal matters and one civil case. Some of the work has been funded by Cuomo’s campaign, while the majority was paid for by taxpayers.
The firm was paid $670,000 by Cuomo’s campaign in response to a 2014 federal probe into Cuomo’s shuttering of the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption.
Taxpayers have funded $3.2 million for Morvillo’s work responding to the three other criminal inquires. When asked in 2016 why taxpayers were funding the Executive Chamber’s response to the federal investigation of Cuomo’s “Buffalo Billion” program, Azzopardi said the state was the “victim” in that matter. The investigation resulted in the bribery conviction of Cuomo’s former top aide and other associates, but prosecutors did not allege wrongdoing by the governor.
In addition to the other current investigations, Cuomo is also facing an impeachment inquiry from the Assembly Judiciary Committee concerning several matters, including the sexual harassment allegations, the purported suppression of nursing home death figures and the administration’s handling of a cover-up by the company that built the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.