NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – State ethics officials moved Tuesday to rescind approval of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s memoir about the pandemic, putting the millions of dollars be was paid for the book in jeopardy.
The state Joint Commission on Public Ethics voted 12 to 1 to have Cuomo reapply for approval for the memoir. If it isn't approved, he could have to pay profits he made to the book's publisher.
The ex-governor received a $5.1 million contract for “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.” 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 on Tuesday, 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.”
After reports emerged that staffers had helped Cuomo with the book, the then-governor said they had “volunteered.”
In a statement Tuesday, Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi slammed JCOPE’s move as “transparently political on its face.”
“These JCOPE members are acting outside the scope of their authority and are carrying the water of the politicians who appointed them,” Azzopardi said. “It is the height of hypocrisy for Hochul and the legislature's appointees to take this position, given that these elected officials routinely use their own staff for political and personal assistance on their own time.”
“JCOPE wants to rescind an approval that was relied upon to play a political game and that means a JCOPE opinion cannot be relied upon by anyone and is subject to political winds,” Azzopardi continued. “Our counsel's request to JCOPE was clear, saying 'no government resources' would be used -- consistent with that representation, people who volunteered on this project did so on their own time.”
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