Investigators seeking to determine whether New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo should be impeached said the hotline they set up has received more than 200 tips about Cuomo’s conduct, according to a member of the New York state Assembly.
Assemblyman Charles Lavine, who serves as chairman of the state Judiciary Committee, said the hotline, which was set up by law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, has received hundreds of tips regarding sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo, Politico reported.
About 70 of those tips are relevant to the investigation, Lavine said during a hearing on the investigation this week.
“Davis Polk has also been in contact with four government agencies about potentially relevant information — document requests and interviews,” he added.
The Assembly’s investigation is wide-reaching and ranges from the sexual harassment allegations against him to his administration’s cover-up of the state’s nursing home coronavirus deaths.
The investigators are also looking into recent allegations that Cuomo used the power of his office to provide his family members with special access to scarce coronavirus tests.
Members of Cuomo’s family including his brother, CNN journalist Chris Cuomo; his mother; and at least one of his three sisters were tested by top health department officials, some of them several times, according to the Times Union of Albany.
The testing of people closely tied to the governor was carried out by high-ranking state health officials, the New York Times reported.
It mostly happened in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.
Several Cuomo accusers have criticized the Assembly’s decision to hire Davis Polk as its independent investigator given one of its partner’s friendship with Cuomo.
The partner, Dennis Glazer, could present an “unacceptable conflict of interest,” said Debra Katz, attorney for Cuomo accuser Charlotte Bennett.
“We already know the extent to which Gov. Cuomo has surrounded himself with people in the Executive Chamber who enabled his behavior and swept evidence of sexual harassment under the rug,” Katz said in a statement. “If there is even a hint of political influence in the impeachment investigation, it will taint the entire proceedings.”
