ALBANY, N.Y. — Democratic leaders in the New York State Assembly laid out plans Monday to quicken their impeachment probe of disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo, saying the three-term Democrat should be removed from office for sexually harassing 11 women.
“The Assembly is working to expeditiously conclude our investigation, which covers a broad range of issues so that we can bring the sad chapter of our state’s history to a conclusion,” Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie said at the state Capitol. “We know we have a job to do.”
Speaking to reporters after the Assembly Judiciary Committee met behind closed doors, Mr. Heastie said the impeachment investigation has already cost state taxpayers “in the millions of dollars.”
Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles D. Lavine, Nassau County Democrat, said his panel will begin public hearings on Aug. 23 aimed at crafting articles of impeachment covering the governor’s “sexual misconduct and related retaliation.”
Mr. Cuomo and his attorneys have until Friday to submit documents in his defense.
“We are talking about finishing this process in a matter of weeks,” Mr. Lavine said.
SEE ALSO: Cuomo’s top aide resigns as governor faces harassment furor
He said legislators will have access “at a secure location” to the full report completed last week by state Attorney General Letitia James.
Ms. James, a Democrat, concluded after an investigation that Mr. Cuomo violated state and federal laws by harassing the women. Some of Mr. Cuomo’s victims have not been identified publicly.
The Assembly’s outside counsel also has been investigating Mr. Cuomo on reports of harassment and accusations that he improperly used state employees to work on his book last year, that he covered up statistics on COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes and that he gave preferential vaccine access to family members and friends during the pandemic.
The committee will make only a recommendation to the full Assembly on whether to impeach the governor, but there is little doubt that Mr. Cuomo’s political fate will be sealed.
At least 86 of the Assembly’s 150 members told The Associated Press last week that they favor impeachment if Mr. Cuomo doesn’t resign. Impeachment requires a simple majority vote.
As the impeachment process gained a sense of urgency, one of his accusers, executive assistant Brittany Commisso, said in a TV interview that the governor groped her breast and buttocks and kissed her on the lips.
“The governor needs to be held accountable,” Ms. Commisso told “CBS This Morning” and the Times-Union of Albany. “What he did to me was a crime. He broke the law.”
Last week, she became the first woman to file a criminal complaint against Mr. Cuomo.
The governor has denied harassing anyone and said it’s his nature to hug and kiss people. His attorneys said last week that Ms. James’ investigation “ambushed” the governor.
In a signal of the legal wrangling ahead, Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin told MSNBC that there is a “qualitative difference” among the 11 women’s accounts in the attorney general’s report because some of the accusers weren’t employees of Mr. Cuomo.
She said the investigation “was conducted to support a predetermined narrative.”
Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa resigned late Sunday. She said the past two years working for Mr. Cuomo “have been emotionally and mentally trying.”
The Assembly could hold an impeachment vote as early as September, but removing Mr. Cuomo from office would require a Senate trial that could be lengthy and involve numerous witnesses.
Most leaders in both parties have called on the governor to resign instead of putting the state through a costly and distracting impeachment battle. Still, Mr. Cuomo has dug in and hasn’t been seen in public in at least a week.
Mr. Heastie denied news reports that the governor’s team has been negotiating with Democratic leaders behind the scenes for a deal in which Mr. Cuomo would abandon a bid for reelection next year if the Assembly drops its impeachment case.
“I’m not negotiating any deals,” Mr. Heastie said. “I don’t plan to be.”
State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, Bronx Democrat, said the Legislature must hold Mr. Cuomo accountable by impeaching him.
“Under zero circumstances should the Legislature entertain, for even one second, a deal with” Mr. Cuomo, she said.
President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also have said Mr. Cuomo should step down.
In echoes of President Trump’s second impeachment, Mr. Lavine said he didn’t know whether legislators would proceed on the impeachment if Mr. Cuomo resigned.
He said the issue of removing Mr. Cuomo from office would be “moot” but convicting him in a Senate trial even after his resignation would “prevent him ever again from holding statewide office.”
If Mr. Cuomo is impeached and removed from office, then Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, will become governor. The governor has been hoping to win a fourth term that was denied to his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo.
There was more fallout Monday for some of Mr. Cuomo’s allies.
Roberta Kaplan resigned as co-chair of Time’s Up, an organization that supports victims of sexual harassment. She was accused of reviewing a draft of a letter questioning the character of one of Mr. Cuomo’s accusers, Lindsey Boylan.
“We hold ourselves accountable. The events of the last week have made it clear that our process should be evaluated and we intend to do just that,” the group said in a statement.
Ms. Kaplan is a liberal attorney who represented the plaintiff in the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down a federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman. She has been a prominent leader on issues of sexual harassment and mistreatment of women in the workplace.
The board of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights group, launched an investigation Monday of its president, Alphonso David, a former Cuomo adviser.
The investigation will look into Mr. David’s role in advising the Cuomo team during its efforts to undermine the credibility of a woman who had accused the governor of sexual harassment.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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