NEW YORK (AP) – Gov. Andrew Cuomo has urged New Yorkers to “wait for the facts.”
However, patience has become thin. The two US state senators, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and most of the other 29 members of the New York congressional delegation have requested his resignation. In the state legislature, more than 120 lawmakers have called on the Democrat to stop.
Leaders in the state assembly on Thursday announced an investigation into impeachment, a first step towards potentially removing Cuomo from office.
Cuomo has turned down calls to resign and dismissed his political future on the result of an independent investigation by Attorney General Letitia James, who is investigating allegations that the governor sexually harassed or inappropriately touched several female aides.
Here is an overview of the next steps on a possible path to impeachment:
INVESTIGATION BY ADVOCATE GENERAL
James, an independently elected Democrat, hired former acting U.S. attorney Joon Kim and employment discrimination attorney Anne Clark to lead her investigation in the conduct of the director in the workplace.
The investigation team has the authority to subpoena documents and hear witnesses. The findings will be published in a public report.
Cuomo has since said he will “fully cooperate”.
James doesn’t have the power to unilaterally remove Cuomo from office, but any findings confirming the allegations could influence potential impeachment proceedings – or pressure Cuomo to leave voluntarily.
Kim and Clark can choose to limit their scope to allegations that are already public, or expand it to find other women who may have complaints about Cuomo’s behavior.
James’s office sent a letter last week instructing the governor’s office to preserve all evidence pertaining to the allegations of harassment. This could include documents and emails to and from Cuomo’s staff, calendar items, and communications related to the transfer of one of his prosecutors to another office.
There is no deadline for the investigation to be completed, and James has not said how long she expects it to take. A 2010 investigation that Cuomo oversaw as attorney general of his predecessor, Governor David Paterson, took about five months.
Andrew G. Celli Jr., who served as Chief of the Civil Rights Bureau in the Attorney General’s Office from 1999 to 2003, said that although James is a Democrat, her independence would allow her “to do what she thinks it is. is best. interest of all people, even if that means a negative finding for the governor. “
THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
The Judicial Committee of the Assembly will also have the power to subpoena documents and testimonies. It could rely on the work of the attorney general’s investigative team, or gather its own evidence.
The scope of his research could extend beyond Cuomo’s behavior with women. The governor has also come under fire for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis in the state’s nursing homes.
Many lawmakers are outraged that the Cuomo government has refused for months to release the full number of nursing home patients killed by the virus.
The governor’s office said some data regarding the deaths of nursing home patients transferred to hospitals was unreliable. But in a taped conference call with lawmakers, Cuomo’s top assistant said the government withheld the data at the end of the summer because it feared the fatalities would be “ used against us. ”
The commission’s work could result in the drafting of articles of impeachment against Cuomo, although that outcome is far from certain.
One of the women who has allegedly accused Cuomo of groping her has not spoken publicly about what happened, and it is unclear whether she would be willing to give public testimony in an impeachment trial.
THE IMPEACHMENT PROCESS
New York’s process of impeaching and removing a governor from office has some parallels – and some significant differences – with the process the United States Congress uses to impeach presidents.
As at the federal level, the charges in New York begin in the lower house of the legislature – in this case, the Assembly. If a majority of the members vote to impeach Cuomo, a trial against his removal from office would be held in what is known as the Impeachment Court.
The court consists not only of members of the senate, but also of judges from the highest court of the state, the court of appeal, who would also cast votes. There are seven appellate judges and 63 senators, although not all of them are said to sit on the impeachment court.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (HOH-kull) and Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins are also members, but are banned when a governor is on trial. At least two-thirds of the jurors must vote to convict to remove Cuomo.
Democrats control both chambers of the legislature. Many have joined the Republicans in recent days, calling for the resignation or removal of Cuomo. Cuomo has appointed all seven members of the Court of Appeal.
New York only charged a governor once, in 1913, when Governor William Sulzer was sent back in office after 289 days in what he claimed in retaliation for turning his back on the powerful Tammany Hall Democratic machine.
Sulzer, accused of not giving up thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and mixing campaign funds with personal money, condemned the court’s secret deliberations, lamenting, “A horse thief would have gotten a squarer deal in the days of the frontier.”
SIDELINING CUOMO
If Cuomo were to be impeached by the Assembly, state law might force him to step aside immediately – a dramatic difference from what happens when the US president is impeached.
Part of the state judicial code regarding impeachment reads: “No official shall perform his office after the articles of impeachment against him have been handed over to the Senate until he is acquitted.”
According to the state constitution, the lieutenant governor would then take over.
“ In the event that the governor is impeached, absent from the state, or is otherwise incapable of fulfilling the powers and duties of the office of governor, the lieutenant governor shall act as governor until the inability ceases or until the The governor’s term of office expires. expired ”, states the constitution.
When Sulzer was deposed, Lieutenant Governor Martin Glynn was appointed acting governor.
If Cuomo were to be acquitted in impeachment court, he would return to office. If the Impeachment Court were to remove him from office, Hochul would serve the remainder of Cuomo’s tenure – until the end of 2022. The court could also choose to disqualify him from office in the future, in addition to firing him.
Villeneuve reported from Albany, New York.
Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter twitter.com/mikesisak and Marina Villeneuve https://twitter.com/reportermarina.