Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo notches big win with bombshell ruling that deems NY ethics panel probing his $5M COVID book deal ‘unconstitutional’By Carl Campanile and Ben Kochman
Published Sep. 11, 2023
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo scored a big win Monday when the state ethics panel attempting to claw back $5 million in profits from his controversial COVID book deal was deemed unconstitutional by a New York judge.
The newly formed state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying In Government — which has been probing the questionable circumstances behind Cuomo’s 2020 memoir “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” — is an illegal group made up of unelected “urban academics,” Albany Supreme Court Justice Thomas Marcelle wrote in the bombshell ruling.
The scathing, 25-page decision — which calls the ethics watchdog an “unsanctioned fourth branch of government” — marks a major victory for Cuomo, who filed suit in Albany state court in April aiming to disband the independent panel.
Cuomo had claimed that the commission is not authorized to seize his literary cash — or exist at all — because it operates without sufficient government oversight or control.
Marcelle agreed with Cuomo — who resigned in disgrace in 2021 after being accused of sexual misconduct by a dozen women — in Monday’s ruling.
“If the people should choose to be governed by those who are not politically accountable to them or their Governor, who swear no oath of allegiance to them, and who come as a class composed of urban academics and who are not reflective of the cross-section of the people whom they govern, the people
may do so,” Marcelle wrote.
“But it is for the people to decide and only the people,” the judge added.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/09/11/ex-gov-andrew-cuomo-notches-big-win-with-bombshell-ruling-that-deems-ny-ethics-panel-probing-his-5m-covid-book-deal-unconstitutional/
