NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo must repay the more than $5 million he made from his memoir about the COVID-19 pandemic, New York state ethics officials said Tuesday.
The Joint Commission on Public Ethics voted in favor of a resolution to require Cuomo to return the proceeds of his book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
The resolution orders Cuomo to pay to the state attorney general “an amount equal to the compensation paid to him for his outside activities related to the book.”
The ex-governor has 30 days to repay the money.
According to the panel's resolution, Cuomo “is not legally entitled to retain compensation” and “lacked legal authority to engage in outside activity.”
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi called the decision "political hypocrisy and duplicity at its worst."
"Governor Cuomo received a JCOPE opinion and advice of counsel stating that government resources could not be used -- and they weren't -- and any staffer who assisted in this project did so on their own time, which was reflected on their timesheets," said Azzopardi. "If Speaker Heastie, Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, and Governor Hochul's JCOPE appointees have created a new standard whereby government staffers cannot volunteer their own time for non-governmental purposes, they should all be equally prosecuted under the same standard and be forced to repay the state for volunteer work on their re-election campaigns."
An attorney for Cuomo, Jim McGuire, said the former governor planned to challenge the decision.
“JCOPE’s actions today are unconstitutional, exceed its own authority and appear to be driven by political interests rather than the facts and the law,” McGuire said. “Should they seek to enforce this action, we’ll see them in court.”
He later added Thursday, "COPE’s actions violated fundamental constitutional rights and flagrantly exceeded its statutory authority. It is not at all surprising that the lawlessness of JCOPE’s latest unlawful action is being recognized as just that. We remain ready to vindicate the Governor before a politically neutral body, our courts.”
The panel’s vote comes a month after it revoked its prior approval of the book deal.
Cuomo received a $5.1 million contract for the book, but questions have emerged if government resources, including public employee time, were misused.
The deal was approved last summer by JCOPE deputy counsel Martin Levine, and Cuomo had agreed to write the book without the use of state resources or personnel.
In rescinding the approval last month, ethics officials said in a resolution that, “Contrary to the representations made on behalf of Gov. Cuomo and not disclosed to the commission, state property, resources and personnel — including staff volunteers — were used in connection with the preparation, writing, editing and publication of the book.”
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