Ethics groups want investigation of free help Cuomo received
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
MARINA VILLENEUVE
Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Good government groups say New York’s ethics commission should investigate whether former Gov. Andrew Cuomo broke the law by accepting free help from a group of former aides who worked to defend him against sexual harassment allegations.
New York ethics law bans public officials from accepting gifts or services worth more than $15 from lobbyists and companies that do business with the state.
Violators can face fines of up to $25,000 or the possibility of criminal charges.
When Cuomo’s first accusers came forward, he turned to a team of outside advisers — former members of his administration — who provided the Democrat with strategic advice and public relations help.
Several of those ex-aides worked for companies that lobby the state or have had state contracts.
New York’s gift ban doesn’t apply to family members or friends, and Cuomo’s attorney, Jim McGuire, said simply seeking advice from longtime allies in a crisis breaks no law.
New York Public Interest Research Group Executive Director Blair Horner said ethics officials should investigate.
A spokesperson for New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which enforces the state rule, declined to comment.
Cuomo resigned in August several days after the state’s attorney general issued a report concluding he had sexually harassed 11 women.
The investigators who prepared that report interviewed several former Cuomo aides who had played a role in the governor’s defense and weren’t paid for their help.
They included three former Cuomo aides — Rich Bamberger, Josh Vlasto and Maggie Moran — who, at the time, worked for the public relations firm Kivvitt, which has received $26 million from state contracts and regularly lobbies the governor’s office and lawmakers.
Their services included things like helping Cuomo’s team develop a media strategy, interacting with reporters and disseminating documents to potentially undermine the governor’s first public accuser, Lindsay Moylan.
Vlasto and Moran told investigators that as the scandal grew, Cuomo did offer to pay them. Vlasto said he declined. Moran said Kivvitt declined because the firm doesn’t work “on the opposite side of victims.”
Moran also described the difficulty of saying no to a governor famous for demanding long hours from his staff and bearing grudges against people he felt were disloyal.
Other former aides who helped Cuomo respond to the allegations include Facebook communications manager Dani Lever, who told the attorney general’s investigators she had helped Cuomo on her “personal time.”
Lever and Facebook, which lobbies New York officials, didn’t respond to request for comment.
Ethics experts said it doesn’t matter if employees were acting independently of their companies on personal time. They are still subject to the ban on gifts.
New York’s ethics commission has issued $136,000 in penalties for violations of the gift ban since 2017. Nearly all penalties involved companies that donated to a nonprofit company formed to promote the policy agenda of former New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, a longtime Cuomo foe.
