The New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee has begun its investigation into whether Governor Andrew Cuomo should be impeached.
The committee is investigating complaints raised by eight women, many of them female staff members, who say the governor made inappropriate advances on them. They’re also looking at whether the governor deliberately understated the number of people who died in New York nursing homes after residents who turned out to be ill with COVD-19 were sent from hospitals back to their nursing homes. They will have to judge if that conduct rises to the state constitution’s definition of impeachable conduct.
Assembly Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine introduced the attorneys from the law firm of Davis Polk and Wardwell LLP who will conduct the investigation. They are: Greg Andres, who served on the Mueller Commission and is a former federal prosecutor; Martine Beeman, also a former federal prosecutor; and Angela Burgess, an investigator of white collar and other financial crimes.
They will meet with witnesses, examine documents and hold executive sessions as appropriate. It’s not possible to say how long the investigation will take, but Assemblyman Lavine expects it will be months rather than weeks. He says they want to be fair to all and conduct this in as transparent a manner as possible. Lavine also stressed at several points that the Assembly has vetted Davis Polk and all the law firms considered for the investigation, and found no conflict of interest.
Attorney Andres says the law firm will not be restricted in calling witnesses, and will do regular progress reports to the committee. Members of the firm said they will work with the State Attorney General’s office to avoid unnecessary duplication of their parallel investigation.
Committee members met in a public Zoom session this morning, but future sessions will mostly be held behind closed doors.