Show and tell

The Assembly Judiciary Committee was right to say that impeachment would come off the table when Gov. Cuomo resigns early next week. Unlike the U.S. Constitution, the state’s highest legal document doesn’t allow former office-holders to be barred by the Legislature from future campaigns — and even if it did, Cuomo’s offenses do not warrant the extreme step of permanent blacklisting.

But the committee and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie were very wrong to simultaneously suggest that in dropping impeachment, the fruit of months of oversight investigations would either be handed over to law enforcement for criminal referrals or essentially buried in the Capitol backyard. They’ve since changed course — promising to produce a report detailing what investigators have found — and now must follow through.

Everything Assembly investigators have discovered about state resources directed toward Cuomo’s COVID book; about shenanigans in the hiding and distortion of nursing home fatality statistics; about preferential testing given to members of the governor’s inner circle; and about sexual harassment in the upper echelons of the executive branch is the rightful property of the people of New York.

The report must not only be detailed in its findings. It should set forth policy recommendations on what laws, regulations and executive branch practices must change to ensure that all abuses identified do not recur. Unlike the document issued by the attorney general, it should include redacted transcripts of interviews with witnesses, so that New Yorkers can see, in full context, the underlying claims on which conclusions are based.

Also unlike the the AG’s probe, conclusions should be shared with Cuomo and other relevant parties in advance of its release. Offering such a preview doesn’t mean altering any conclusions; it simply means giving those accused of misconduct the opportunity to add context and, in their view, correct the record. And if there are any dissenting committee voices, let them detail their views.

Cuomo’s on the way out, having disgraced himself. Albany overseers must distinguish themselves (don’t laugh) as he exits.