Who remembers when former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) had the time to write a book while also so-called saving thousands of people from the Wuhan Coronavirus and making appearances on his brother's CNN show with giant Q-tips?
Well, this book, "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic," has come back to bite Cuomo where he deserves it.
According to findings resulting from a months-long investigation, Cuomo reportedly misled New York ethics regulators into giving his book the go-ahead.
The report says the former governor "overpowered" the agency's staff in order to secure approval for a controversial 2020 memoir about how well he handled the pandemic.
Cuomo "is at fault for misleading JCOPE through the Executive Chamber's July 10 Request on his behalf," the report said, adding "one of the clear takeaways from our analysis of JCOPE's approval of the July 10 Request is that the Executive Chamber overpowered JCOPE, and JCOPE failed to assert itself as a watchdog agency against the Governor."
The report came to the conclusion that Cuomo "successfully coerced JCOPE into expediting the approval and rushing through the process with very minimal due diligence."
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Although Cuomo's approval request for the book "mischaracterized the Book as a continuation of the Governor's prior memoir," JCOPE continued to grant his request despite becoming aware "that the Governor sought to write and commercialize a book about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic while leading the State's response to the pandemic."
The report also called out Cuomo for commercializing his position in government, saying that it "should have raised serious concerns among JCOPE staff regarding potential ethical/conflict of interest issues."
A spokesperson for Cuomo called the report a "feeble stunt," stating that his administration would provide "any and all information that JCOPE required for approval."
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