Joon Kim, a former Manhattan U.S. attorney, and employment lawyer Anne Clark are now special deputies to the first deputy attorney general charged with investigating allegations of sexual harassment against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. They have a website, agindependentinvestigation.com, listing email, voice and text contacts for anyone to provide relevant information. Their written findings will be made public, as they must be.
The Assembly Judiciary Committee, under Chair Charles Lavine, is also commencing a possible impeachment proceeding, promising not to interfere with the special deputies. That is a fair and reasonable step, as the described behavior, if substantiated, is incompatible with holding a position of public trust.
Meanwhile, the press is continuing to publish details on the incidents that have rocked the standing of the country’s longest-serving governor and could topple him. All are disturbing, but the most troubling is from the Albany Times Union about Cuomo using a ruse a to summon a younger, female subordinate to the private living quarters of the executive mansion and then placing his hands under her blouse.
Cuomo denies it occurred, but unlike most of the earlier alleged complaints, there is simply no plausible, charitable interpretation or explanation for such behavior. No universe exists in which it’s acceptable for the 63-year-old governor, the most powerful man in the state, to fondle a young staff member. It wouldn’t matter if this were the only accusation — it’s a charge of a degree so severe that, if proved, would suggest the governor lacks the character and judgement to continue leading this state.
As the calls for Cuomo’s immediate resignation grow, the investigation is gearing up, an investigation that should continue and decide his fate.
Cuomo’s stature, developed over the last year of COVID-19 leading New York through the worst of the worst, created a reservoir of good will for him among the public, in New York and beyond. For the moment, that support sustains him, while we await both the quiet probes and any new public charges that arise.
This editorial first appeared in the New York Daily News on Friday. This commentary should be considered another point of view and not necessarily the opinion or editorial policy of The Dominion Post.
