#Cuomo impeachment probe suspended after governor resigns despite ‘credible’ evidence of wrongdoing

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said Friday he will “suspend” the impeachment investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo, arguing that the probe was unneeded after the scandal-scarred executive announced his intention to resign, even though investigators had found evidence of misconduct.

“[T]he Assembly will suspend its impeachment investigation upon the governor’s resignation taking effect on August 25,” Heastie said in a statement released by his office Friday, in a decision that he said was backed by his fellow Democrats, who control the chamber.

The Assembly’s attorneys concluded that New York’s state constitution did not allow them to move to impeach an official who had already stepped down from office, Heastie said.

The announcement came just three days after Cuomo stunned the state by announcing he would resign from office instead of battling for his political survival following the publication of a bombshell 168-page report from Attorney General Letitia James, which allege he sexually harassed or groped 11 women, including several state employees, which he has repeatedly denied.

In an interview with New York Magazine published Friday, his first since announcing his resignation, Cuomo claimed he would have escaped impeachment — and that the Legislature would have ended up looking “like a ship of fools.”

“I’m not gonna drag the state through the mud, through a three-month, four-month impeachment, and then win, and have made the State Legislature and the state government look like a ship of fools, when everything I’ve done all my life was for the exact opposite,” he told the mag. “I’m not doing that. I feel good. I’m not a martyr. It’s just, I saw the options, option A, option B.”

“I feel like I did the right thing. I did the right thing for the state,” by resigning, Cuomo added.

In an interview with Spectrum News 1’s “Capital Tonight”, Heastie denied claims that he had halted the investigation as part of a deal with the governor.

“There was no deal,” Heastie said. “I’ve said that 150 times and I’ll make that the 151st time.”

Lawmakers were blindsided by Heastie’s announcement, which came as progressive members and reformers in his caucus pushed to continue the probe if only to produce a public report, sources told The Post.

“The State of New York deserves an official report on the investigation our committee and our attorney have conducted on the four charges,” Assemblyman Tom Abinanti (D-Westchester), who sits on the committee that was leading the probe and said he was only informed of the decision to suspend the probe Friday morning. “Closing the committee investigation at this point is premature. Gov. Cuomo has not even left office.”

The six Republican members of the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee said in a statement that they were “outraged” by Heastie’s decision and called for the panel to release a full report of what it had uncovered so far. 

“Let there be no mistake, this decision was reached by the Democrat leadership in the Assembly without consultation or approval of the entire Judiciary Committee,” their statement read. “Not only does this represent an egregious insult to the countless victims of Gov. Cuomo’s actions, but it is offensive to the men and women who have invested their time and energy on a critical investigation into public corruption.

“While some are intent on bringing the pursuit of truth to an abrupt end, we firmly believe our work is far from complete,” the members added. “At a minimum, the public deserves to see the results of the five-month investigation which they paid for.”

In addition to the harassment allegations, the Assembly’s impeachment probe was also examining allegations that Cuomo used taxpayer resources to draft his $5 million COVID memoir, misled the public about nursing home deaths during the pandemic and covered up safety issues at the new Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, which replaced the Tappan Zee.

The committee’s chairman, Charles Lavine (D-Long Island) refused Friday to commit to releasing a report detailing the probe’s findings, despite calls from lawmakers like Abinanti.

“I will discuss matters such as these after the Cuomo resignation,” Lavine told The Post before hanging up on the reporter.

Cuomo’s victims were also outraged by Heastie’s abrupt decision to pull the plug on the probe.

“The Assembly’s decision to call off its impeachment investigation is an unjust cop out,” tweeted Lindsey Boylan, who was the first woman to accuse Cuomo publicly of misconduct. “The public deserves to know the extent of the Governor’s misdeeds and possible crimes. His victims deserve justice and to know he will not be able to harm others.”

And one of the state senators who would have helped decide Cuomo’s fate in any impeachment trial was similarly upset.

“This is incredibly disappointing, and ensures that there will be no accountability or justice for the Governor’s misdeeds,” tweeted state Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn). “I hope that whatever evidence was collected as part of the impeachment inquiry is acted upon expeditiously by the appropriate and relevant authorities.” 

In his statement, Heastie (D-Bronx) offered a glimpse into the “credible” evidence already uncovered by the Assembly’s investigators “in relation to allegations that have been made in reference to the governor.”

“Underscoring the depth of this investigation, this evidence concerned not only sexual harassment and misconduct but also the misuse of state resources in relation to the publication of the governor’s memoir as well as improper and misleading disclosure of nursing home data during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “This evidence — we believe — could likely have resulted in articles of impeachment had he not resigned.”

Heastie said that he had instructed the chair of the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, Charles Lavine (D-Long Island), who was overseeing the probe, to turn the evidence he’d assembledover tofederal and local prosecutors for their own probes.

The feds in Brooklyn are probing if Cuomo and other state officials misled authorities in Washington about pandemic-related deaths in nursing homes.

Heastie cited those investigations as part of his justification for stopping the Assembly probe. 

“The concern behind that is if you’re in the middle of an investigation and other law enforcement is in the middle of this, I don’t want to step on their toes while there are criminal investigations that are ongoing,” the speaker told “Capitol Tonight.”

He also blasted Republicans accusing him of giving the soon-to-be-former governor special treatment as “hypocritical.”

“I think the Republicans are being a little hypocritical for trying to accuse me, the first Democratic Assembly speaker to call for the impeachment inquiry of a governor of my own party,” Heastie said.

“I don’t know how I can be accused of that if this committee uncovered evidence on the book and the nursing homes,” he added.

But one of Cuomo’s accusers told The Post that she would like to see him impeached just to bar him from ever holding statewide office again.

“He has almost $20 million in the bank and unless he’s impeached he can use it to run again,” said Karen Hinton, who was once worked for Cuomo and angered the governor by then working for Mayor Bill de Blasio, with whom he frequently feuded.

“Based on the AG report he’s unfit for office,” she added. “The impeachment should have continued to make sure he doesn’t hold public office again.” 

Additional reporting by Samuel Chamberlain