ALBANY, NY – (AP) – New York’s legislative leaders still have to answer the top questions about plans to launch an impeachment investigation by Governor Andrew Cuomo, including how long it will take, how public their procedures or conclusions will be, or what types misconduct can fall under your scrutiny.
Democratic Assembly President Carl Heastie announced the inquiry last week about the governor, who is accused of sexual misconduct and has faced questions about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, without disclosing those details.
And the Assembly’s judicial committee, New York’s lower legislative chamber, has yet to meet on the issue, although it took an initial step this week – hiring the Davis Polk & Wardwell Manhattan law firm to assist with the investigation.
The pace of the investigation has frustrated some lawmakers who want Cuomo to leave now.
“It is very strange for me and I think we need to ask a lot of questions here”, Congresswoman Yuh-Line Niou, a Democrat. “With any kind of lack of transparency or lack of access to any process, it is necessary to ask about the motivations and ask: Why?”
John Kaehny, executive director of the good governance group Reinvent Albany, said that Assembly leaders have an obligation to explain how the investigation will develop.
“Impeachment is not something New York does regularly, so no one really knows how it should work,” he said. “We know that it is very important and should be as transparent as possible”.
Meanwhile, research suggests that, although Cuomo’s support has waned after an allegation that he palpated an aide at the Executive Mansion, his political base has not abandoned him.
A new poll from Quinnipiac University with 905 registered voters found that while 43% believed he should resign, 36% of women interviewed said he should resign, and 23% of Democrats.
Among respondents of all political affiliations, 36% said Cuomo should be impeached and removed from office.
Only 16 governors in the U.S. have ever been fired for impeachment, said lawyer and professor Ross Garber, who represented impeachment governors in Alabama, Connecticut and South Carolina.
Cuomo’s conduct with women is also the subject of an investigation overseen by the state’s attorney general, Letitia James.
Women accused Cuomo of sexual harassment and inappropriate touching. Federal prosecutors are also examining whether the Cuomo administration misled the public or the United States Department of Justice about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
Cuomo says he never touched anyone inappropriately. He apologized, however, for what he said were attempts to engage in office pranks, which now notice offended women who worked for him.
Heastie said the decisions on the investigation would be decided by the chairman of the judiciary committee, Charles Lavine. Lavine forwarded the interview requests to Heastie, whose office did not answer questions from The Associated Press.
Assembly member Ron Kim said lawmakers are also not getting the answers they need.
“None of us has any idea what is going on with this investigation,” he said. “And it is very disturbing and alarming for many of my colleagues.”
The lawyer for one of Cuomo’s accusers, Charlotte Bennett, said she would not cooperate with the Assembly’s inquiry over questions about potential political interference.
The New York constitution does not specify a process for investigating allegations of a governor’s misconduct.
The U.S. House of Representatives followed two different paths in the impeachment of former President Donald Trump.
Prior to his first impeachment case, on charges related to Trump’s efforts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine, he held weeks of public hearings and received public testimony from witnesses. But his second impeachment was delayed a few days after the January 6 invasion of the United States Capitol.
There is often pressure for state lawmakers to conduct investigations, according to consultant John Fritchey, a former Illinois lawmaker who served on the special investigative committee that drafted an impeachment resolution against former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.
“The public needs to be confident that the legislator did the right thing for the right reasons,” said Fritchey.
Unlike New York, Illinois launched an investigation of the committee with a vote that laid down ground rules for weeks of public hearings.
“Generally, what the legislative bodies do is establish rules at the beginning that govern the investigation,” said Garber.
Heastie said that getting the Assembly to conduct its own thorough investigation is the right answer. Other lawmakers say any delay will only help Cuomo.
“We already have enough information to write the impeachment articles,” tweeted Senator Alessandra Biaggi, who has worked in the Cuomo government and has spoken publicly about being intimidated by the governor.
“The delay in impeachment does exactly what the governor wants most, which is public pressure to calm down.”