New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is reportedly seeking a deal with state lawmakers to avoid being impeached over a bombshell report on myriad sexual harassment allegations.
The City reports:
Cuomo has been trying to cut a deal with top state officials, promising not to seek a fourth term if impeachment talks are scuttled — but no one is buying it, a source told THE CITY.
The governor and what’s left of his inner circle have been working the phones, fighting for his political life in the wake the damning Aug. 3 report detailing the sexual harassment allegations of 11 women and what investigators found was retaliation against one who went public.
Cuomo, whose term ends Dec. 31, 2022, has ignored calls for his resignation as the state Assembly pushes ahead with the impeachment process.
The report comes one day after Melissa DeRosa, a top aide to Cuomo, announced her resignation. In February, the New York Post reported that DeRosa admitted to lawmakers that her team withheld the number of coronavirus deaths in New York’s nursing homes to protect the Cuomo administration’s from an investigation by then-President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve the people of New York for the past 10 years,” DeRosa said in a statement. “New Yorkers’ resilience, strength, and optimism through the most difficult times has inspired me every day. Personally, the past 2 years have been emotionally and mentally trying. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such talented and committed colleagues on behalf of our state.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (L) speaks during his daily news conference with Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa (R) on March 20, 2020 in New York City. Cuomo ordered nonessential businesses to keep 100% of their workforce at home in an effort to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Bennett Raglin/Getty Images)
About two-thirds of state Assembly members have already said they favor an impeachment trial if he refuses to resign. Nearly all 63 members of the state Senate have called for Cuomo to step down or be removed.
More punishing news for the governor is expected Monday when an Assembly committee meets to discuss possible impeachment proceedings and CBS This Morning is scheduled to broadcast the first TV interview from an executive assistant who accused Cuomo of groping her breast.
In her first public interview in which she identified herself, Brittany Commisso told CBS and the Times-Union newspaper, of Albany, that what Cuomo did was a crime and that he “needs to be held accountable.”
Commisso has said Cuomo reached under her shirt and fondled her when they were alone in a room at the Executive Mansion last year and on another occasion rubbed her rear end while they posed for a photo. She was the first woman to file a criminal complaint against Cuomo.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.