New York Governor Andrew Cuomo greets people after speaking at a vaccination site on March 8.
AP Photo / Seth Wenig, pool
MARINA VILLENEUVE Associated Press
ALBANY – New York’s legislative leaders still need to answer key 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 of misconduct they may fall under your scrutiny responsibility.
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,” Rep. Yuh-Line Niou, a Democrat. “With any kind of lack of transparency or lack of access to any process, you need 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 that New York does regularly, so nobody really knows how it should work,” he said. “We know it is very important and it must be as transparent as possible.”