An independent law firm investigation whose findings were leaked Friday concluded that Cuomo steamrollered the taxpayer-funded deployed New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCPOE) into letting him publish American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawyers discovered that Cuomo had almost finished the book, for which he was paid a $5 million advance before pursuing approval by the watchdog agency when he started to pen the manuscript in 2020.
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Cuomo, who was forced to quit in August 2021 over many sex pest allegations, had already written 70,000 words in the 80,000-word memoir that details his role as governor in leading the state's response throughout the COVID pandemic.
The investigation showed that the JCOPE failed to recognize the potential "moral quandary" in approving the deal and failed to properly-vet Cuomo's behavior Spectrum News1 reported.
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According to the report, "rather than telling the Executive Chamber what information it needed to provide in order to obtain approval, the Executive Chamber told JCOPE what information the Governor would provide, which was not much," the news outlet reported.
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The report's discoveries further show how the then-Governor's office strong-armed the watchdog committee to expedite the approval process without the agency performing a standard review of its terms.
The Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which is in the process of being demobilized, voted to issue the report in a meeting that took place on Thursday.
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Lawmakers and New York Governor Kathy Hochul plan to create a new commission that will control the lobbying and ethics in the New York government.
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A separate investigation into whether Cuomo improperly used state resources to assist him in writing the book is ongoing. Cuomo's team has denied the accusations made against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
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At the time of the book's publication, he was feted as a national hero - and possible future presidential candidate - because of his calm handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and regular briefings, which many New Yorkers found relaxing.
Cuomo's career later collapsed after he was blamed for of inappropriate sexual behavior toward multiple women. He was further denounced for many of New York's 15,000 nursing home COVID deaths after forcing the facilities to accept COVID-positive patients at the start of the pandemic.
In April, Cuomo filed a lawsuit against the state's ethics commission, after the JCOPE ordered him to hand over the profits from the lucrative book deal in December, according to a previously reported Associated Press story.
The ex-governor's camp refused and a bitter legal dispute ensued.
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