Must be nice. … Former N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was disgraced into resigning his office, is starting off the new year with a clean slate.
On Monday, Cuomo attorney Elkan Abramowitz released a statement, in which he announced that the Manhattan district attorney’s office had closed its probe into the then-governor’s mishandling of nursing homes during the COVID-19 crisis without filing charges.
“I was contacted today by the head of the Elder Care Unit from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office who informed me they have closed its investigation involving the Executive Chamber and nursing homes,” stated Abramowitz. “I was told that after a thorough investigation — as we have said all along — there was no evidence to suggest that any laws were broken.”
The investigation originated in response to criticism of Cuomo’s horrible decision in March of 2020, during the height of the COVID epidemic, to force nursing homes to admit infected COVID patients who had been discharged from hospitals. This policy was responsible for spreading disease among one of the most vulnerable populations, especially where coronavirus is concerned.
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Today, while Cuomo was no doubt still chuffed from dodging responsibility for the MeeMaws and Pop-Pops he took out, he got yet another boost: Albany County District Attorney David Soares announced he had concluded his investigation of sexual assault allegations against the former governor and is dropping the case.
Last year, former Cuomo aide Brittany Commisso accused Cuomo of groping her breast — “specifically, the victim’s left breast for the purposes of degrading and gratifying his sexual desires,” according to the complaint — at the Executive Mansion in Albany. Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple filed the criminal complaint, which charged Cuomo with forcible touching.
But in Soares’s statement today, the district attorney said, “While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial. As such, we have notified the Court that we are declining to prosecute this matter and requesting the charges filed by the Albany County Sheriff be dismissed.”
And so, where once it appeared Andrew Cuomo would face a day of reckoning for his horrific, deadly decisions and boorish behavior, it now seems he will skate without paying his debt to society. The people he harmed (those who are still alive) will have to console themselves with the knowledge that he was ordered to return the multi-millions he made by unethically using state resources to write a book, and that his exposure as a serial harasser forced him out of office.
We shouldn’t be surprised that New York State has declined to prosecute someone with the Cuomo name. After all, they need all their resources to go after anyone named Trump.
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