ALBANY, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — Republicans in the New York State Assembly are circulating an impeachment resolution against Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
According to New York State Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay, there are still a lot more steps in the impeachment process, but now is the time to start.
"In order to lead this great state as governor you need to have credibility and trust, and unfortunately we feel the governor has lost that," Barclay said Monday.
The resolution would have to be taken up by Democrats in the majority who are still split on whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo should resign in the wake of scandals involving sexual harassment allegations and COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
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"We're here to help, we're here to be bipartisan manner to move forward with this impeachment and we look forward to any Democrat who wants to join us on that," Barclay said.
New York's impeachment process differs slightly from what was seen on the federal level.
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Following a majority vote in the Assembly, the process moves to the Senate and Cuomo would be forced to temporarily step down for the duration of the trial.
Conviction requires a two-thirds vote of senators plus the seven judges of the New York State Court of Appeals, all who were appointed by the governor.
Meanwhile, in a move that's raising new complaints from critics, Cuomo is apparently pushing a petition to halt talks of his resignation.
The letter is effectively asking lawmakers to stay on the sidelines. Instead of calling on the governor to resign, Cuomo wants them to wait for the attorney general's report.
The message implies calls for the governor to step down would undermine the attorney general.
The good government group, Common Cause New York, contends this is out of line and believes Cuomo is trying to interfere with the probe.
The group's director calls it "concern trolling."
"Attorney General James has said she is committed to a full, independent investigation into the allegations against Governor Cuomo -- regardless of his status in office. And yet, there are troubling reports that the Governor is attempting to interfere with the process by concern trolling lawmakers, and needlessly pitting them against the Attorney General," said Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/NY. "The Legislature is an independent and co-equal branch of government, and Common Cause/NY urges them to reject any effort by the Governor to co-opt them into undermining the investigation into him. We've seen this movie before, and it's called Moreland. Don't let it happen again."
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