New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he will not resign in the face of claims he sexually harassed several women.
New York’s attorney general on Monday appointed a former top federal prosecutor and a leading employment lawyer to lead the investigation of claims that Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed several women. Also Monday, a spokesman for New York Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay told media outlets that a Republican-sponsored resolution seeking to begin impeachment proceedings against Cuomo will be introduced by the end of the day. Republicans hold a relatively small minority of seats in the Assembly, and cannot compel Democrats to impeach Cuomo, who is a Democrat. However, there have been growing calls by Democrats that Cuomo resign. The governor has said he will not voluntarily leave office. In another development Monday, Cuomo said his counsel, Kumiki Gibson, was leaving that post to take a position in the private sector. Beth Garvey, who serves as Cuomo’s special counsel and senior advisor, will take Gibson’s job on an acting basis. Garvey was involved in a failed, ham-handed effort to have a former federal judge, instead of Attorney General Letitia James, investigate allegations that Cuomo harassed former aides and engaged in inappropriate conduct with other women. After a backlash to that idea, Cuomo’s office suggested James share oversight of the probe with the state’s top judge. The attorney general refused to that arrangement, and the governor’s office then said it would ask her to have sole oversight of the investigation. James said Monday that the probe would be led by Joon Kim, who from March 2017 through the following January served as the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Anne Clark, who has represented numerous plaintiffs in sexual harassment lawsuits. Kim currently is a partner at the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, while Clark is a partner at Vladeck, Raskin & Clark.
