#Heastie took ‘coward’s way out’ on Cuomo probe

Charlotte Bennett, one of disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sex-harass accusers, ripped Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on Sunday for taking the “coward’s way out” by ending the impeachment probe into the governor.

In a scathing statement, Bennett blasted Heastie for failing to hold Cuomo accountable after a probe by state Attorney General Letitia James found that the governor sexually harassed multiple women and broke federal and New York laws.

“We took enormous risk of speaking out about the abuse and harassment we experienced, and the AG’s independent investigation that followed corroborated our allegations and determined that the governor broke state and federal law,” said Bennett, a 25-year-old former Cuomo staffer.

“Still, the speaker can’t muster enough courage to do his job,” she claimed.

“After spending millions in taxpayer dollars and issuing lofty statements, he’s failed to lift a finger to make clear the New York rejects Cuomo’s behavior.”

Bennett in February said the governor asked her inappropriate personal questions, told her he was open to relationships with women in their 20s and implied he “wanted to sleep with [her].”  She has repeatedly called on the state legislature to impeach him.

On Friday, Heastie (D-The Bronx) announced that he was nixing the impeachment investigation into Cuomo’s behavior after the governor said he would resign in two weeks — leaving some lawmakers saying they were blindsided and outraged by the assembly speaker’s move.

Heastie claimed the assembly’s lawyers concluded that the state’s constitution did not permit them to proceed with impeaching an official who had already stepped down from his position.

Bennett characterized it a “lazy legal argument.”

“Employing a lazy legal argument and offering a poorly reasoned memo, the speaker has taken the coward’s way out,” she said in the statement

“According to Heastie, there are two sets of rules: one for us, and one for him and his friends. That’s the precedent he’s setting. How disturbing.”

Heastie did not immediately respond to a Post request for comment.