{"id":64254,"date":"2021-05-08T14:34:21","date_gmt":"2021-05-08T18:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=64254"},"modified":"2021-05-08T14:34:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-08T18:34:21","slug":"gov-andrew-cuomo-investigation-just-got-bigger-and-more-serious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=64254","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Andrew Cuomo Investigation Just Got Bigger and More Serious"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Andrew Cuomo Investigation Expands as State Attorney General Looks at Aide\u2019s Calls<\/h1>\n

Inquiry into sexual-harassment allegations looks at whether a top adviser linked access to Covid-19 vaccines to support for the governor<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said earlier this past week, \u2018I\u2018m not resigning, and I\u2019m doing my job every day.\u2019\u00a0 PHOTO: SPENCER PLATT\/PRESS POOL<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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By Jimmy Vielkind
\nThe Wall Street Journal<\/p>\n

ALBANY, N.Y.\u2014The state attorney general\u2019s office has expanded its investigation of\u00a0sexual-harassment allegations<\/a>\u00a0against Gov. Andrew Cuomo to look at whether one of his top advisers linked access to Covid-19 vaccines to support for the governor, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

Investigators have interviewed at least three Democratic county executives who said they were surprised to receive calls from Larry Schwartz, a volunteer adviser who oversaw vaccine distribution for the state, asking whether they would be calling for Mr. Cuomo\u2019s resignation, the people said.<\/p>\n

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Mr. Schwartz contacted more than a half-dozen executives in early March, executives said, as Mr. Cuomo faced\u00a0mounting calls for his resignation<\/a>\u00a0from members of his own political party and was personally contacting state lawmakers to shore up support.<\/p>\n

The executives said that at the time of Mr. Schwartz\u2019s calls they were typically speaking with him about the allocation of vaccine supplies, not politics.<\/p>\n

Mr. Schwartz has said he didn\u2019t link vaccine distribution to political considerations. On Friday, he referred questions to his lawyer, Guy Petrillo, who declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Mr. Schwartz, an executive at an airport-concession company, resigned from his post as the state\u2019s vaccine czar last week after state lawmakers changed lobbying rules for nonpaid state advisers. Under the new rules, Mr. Schwartz would have been banned for two years from lobbying the governor\u2019s office if he had stayed on in the role.<\/p>\n

Beth Garvey, Mr. Cuomo\u2019s counsel, said in March in regard to the calls that \u201cdistorting Larry\u2019s role or intentions for headlines maligns a decades long public servant.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Larry Schwartz recently resigned from his post as New York state\u2019s vaccine czar after lawmakers changed lobbying rules for nonpaid state advisers.<\/h4>\n

PHOTO:\u00a0<\/span>JOHN LAMPARSKI\/ZUMA PRESS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo declined to comment further on Friday. A spokeswoman for state Attorney General Letitia James declined to comment on a continuing investigation.<\/p>\n

The attorney general\u2019s investigation is one of\u00a0several ongoing probes<\/a>\u00a0into Mr. Cuomo and his administration. The U.S. attorney\u2019s office for the Eastern District of New York is looking into\u00a0administration policies on Covid-19<\/a>\u00a0and deaths at nursing homes during the pandemic. Leaders of the Democratic-dominated state Assembly have said they are conducting an investigation of Mr. Cuomo\u2019s conduct as they consider whether to impeach him. The last impeachment of a New York governor took place in 1913.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cuomo\u00a0has said he never touched anybody inappropriately<\/a> and apologized if his behavior offended anybody. He has said his administration has been cooperating with the investigations. He has also repeatedly said people should wait for the results of Ms. James\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve already told New Yorkers where I am. I did nothing wrong, period. And I\u2018m not resigning, and I\u2019m doing my job every day,\u201d Mr. Cuomo said Monday.<\/p>\n

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SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS<\/h4>\n

Do you think the governor will be impeached? Why or why not? Join the conversation below.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

County executives are the top local elected officials in the state. Some large counties have roughly a million residents or more, and their governments have a key role in implementing public-health and social-service programs for the state, including vaccine distribution. The governor has regularly appeared with county executives in Westchester and Suffolk counties, which are important political swing districts.<\/p>\n

One county executive filed a complaint about the call from Mr. Schwartz with the attorney general\u2019s office in March, according to the people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight at the time that every county was working, and desperately needed more vaccines, to receive a call from the person who was responsible for allocating those doses gauging political loyalty to the governor was an obvious conflict, and at best ethically gray,\u201d said one county executive who received a call from Mr. Schwartz.<\/p>\n

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said he spoke with investigators on March 30 about the call he received from Mr. Schwartz. Mr. Poloncarz, a Democrat, said he didn\u2019t feel Mr. Schwartz was trying to pressure him to stand by the governor; Mr. Poloncarz hasn\u2019t called for Mr. Cuomo\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n

The investigators for Ms. James\u2019 office have interviewed at least six of Mr. Cuomo\u2019s sexual-harassment accusers, according to the women and their lawyers. They have also issued\u00a0dozens of subpoenas to current and former officials<\/a>\u00a0in the Cuomo administration, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

In late April, the investigators interviewed Alphonso David, who worked as Mr. Cuomo\u2019s counsel until 2019, about the office culture, as well as about Lindsey Boylan, a person familiar with the matter said. Ms. Boylan said Mr. Cuomo\u00a0sexually harassed her<\/a>\u00a0when she worked as a state economic-development adviser from 2015 to 2018. The governor has said Ms. Boylan\u2019s statements aren\u2019t true.<\/p>\n

Mr. David, who is now the president of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy organization, didn\u2019t return requests for comment.<\/p>\n

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Cuomo Under Fire<\/h3>\n
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faces investigations of sexual harassment accusations and his handling of pandemic-related nursing home data.<\/p>\n

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\nhttps:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/andrew-cuomo-investigation-expands-as-state-attorney-general-looks-at-aides-calls-11620475201<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Cuomo Investigation Expands as State Attorney General Looks at Aide\u2019s Calls Inquiry into sexual-harassment allegations looks at whether a top adviser linked access to Covid-19 vaccines to support for the governor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}