Push to remove Cuomo from office gathers force

District attorneys ask for materials from investigation

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s legislative leaders signaled Wednesday that Gov. Andrew Cuomo could swiftly face an impeachment trial if he doesn’t resign, while a growing number of prosecutors also eyed investigative findings that he sexually harassed at least 11 women.

According to an Associated Press count Wednesday, a majority of state Assembly members support beginning impeachment proceedings if Cuomo doesn’t step away from his office.

At least 82 of the body’s 150 members have said publicly or told The AP that they favored initiating the process of ousting the thirdterm Democratic governor if he doesn’t quit. A simple majority of Assembly members is needed to authorize an impeachment trial.

Cuomo has denied that he made any inappropriate sexual advances and insisted the findings didn’t reflect the facts. But while political pressure grew, so did the potential for criminal charges against Cuomo, who basked in national attention last year as the blunt-but-relatable voice of fighting the coronavirus in an early U.S. hotspot, only to see his political future imperiled a year later.

District attorneys in Manhattan, suburban Westchester and Nassau counties and the state capital of Albany said they asked for investigative materials from the inquiry, overseen by Democratic state Attorney General Letitia James.

James’ investigation found that Cuomo had violated civil laws against sexual harassment. Making no conclusions about whether he should be criminally charged, investigators left the door open for local prosecutors to bring cases.

“We are reviewing the deeply disturbing findings,” said Joyce Smith, the acting district attorney in Long Island’s Nassau County. She pledged her office would “thoroughly and expeditiously investigate any potential crimes” that happened there.

After James released her report Tuesday, Democrats from the statehouse to the White House called for Cuomo to go, with President Joe Biden saying the governor should resign. But he showed no signs of heeding them, saying that some episodes described in the report never happened, others were misconstrued or mischaracterized and the whole exercise was tainted.

“Politics and bias are interwoven throughout every aspect of this situation,” he said in a recorded video response.

Assembly Democrats, who lead the chamber, debated virtually for hours Tuesday about whether to impeach the governor now, wait to see whether he resigns, or give the Assembly Judiciary Committee time to wrap up its wide-ranging investigation into topics from sexual misconduct to the Cuomo administration’s monthslong obfuscation of the total number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19.

At least 40 of the Assembly members who say they are ready to start impeachment proceedings are Democrats.

As New York went through a harrowing coronavirus surge in spring 2020, Cuomo’s daily briefings garnered him fans around the country and an International Emmy Award. Casting himself as a tough-minded yet compassionate leader who steered the state through its biggest public health emergency in a century, the governor even wrote a book about it.

Now, that book itself is among the focuses of investigations into Cuomo, with James examining the role some of his aides played in producing it.

As complaints and investigations accumulated in recent months, Cuomo became an embattled but unabashed figure. He often still touts the state’s handling of the pandemic despite now-rising infection rates amid a national surge in the more infectious delta variant.

If the Assembly votes to impeach Cuomo, the state Senate could launch an impeachment trial “in weeks,” Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris said.

Gianaris, a Democrat, said the chamber has been preparing for a potential impeachment trial for months.

“We’ll be ready to go if and when the impeachment articles are sent over,” he said. “It could happen very quickly.”

The 150-member Assembly would need 76 votes to impeach and send articles of impeachment to the Senate. Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay urged Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat, to convene an emergency special session to vote to impeach Cuomo.

The governor denied Tuesday that he ever inappropriately touched anyone, said that he never intended harm and cast doubt on the political motivations of investigators, accusers and critics. To date, Cuomo has rebuffed calls to step down and has moved ahead with plans to run for a fourth term in 2022.