New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) managed to seal a book deal that offered him more than $4 million to detail his pandemic leadership, while his administration worked to revise a potentially damaging Health Department report that would expose staggering COVID-19 nursing home deaths, The New York Times reported late Wednesday.
According to the Times, revisions by Cuomo’s top aides to an impending Health Department report overlapped with the governor securing the lucrative book deal and served to temporarily preserved his image as a leader amid the pandemic while guarding him from criticism.
The governor’s secretary Melissa DeRosa and another aide, Linda Lacewell, had shown concern about the higher death toll which had appeared in the second sentence of the report and was deleted from the final version, according to drafts of the report reviewed by the Times.
According to the Times, Cuomo also used the resources of his office to help with the manuscript for “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic,” using aides and junior staffers for tasks like editing and clerical work that potentially violated state laws prohibiting use of public resources for personal gain.
On at least two occasions, a top aide to the governor, Stephanie Benton, asked assistants to print parts of the book draft, and deliver them to Cuomo at the Executive Mansion.
One aide to the governor told the Times that she and others were also asked to type or transfer book notes that Cuomo had in part dictated into a cellphone.
DeRosa was also involved in the book’s development, and had attended online pitch meetings. According to some emails reviewed by the Times she also appeared to offer book edits.
A senior Cuomo adviser, Rich Azzopardi, told the Times that both DeRosa and Benton had “volunteered” for the project during their free time which he said was “permissible and consistent” with the state’s ethical requirements.
With regard to the tasks assigned to junior aides, he said, “Every effort was made to ensure that no state resources were used in connection with this project.”
“To the extent an aide printed out a document,” he said, “it appears incidental.”
Azzopardi on Wednesday also rejected any connection between Cuomo’s book and the Health Department report.
“There is no connection between the report and this outside project, period,” he said. “And any suggestion otherwise is just wrong.”
Cuomo has also been embroiled in a series of sexual harassment accusations, including from current and former employees, which has prompted investigations and calls to step down.
The revelation that Cuomo used staff to assist with his personal book project comes after separate reports last month that Cuomo’s administration gave members of his family and other well-connected New Yorkers special access to scarce COVID-19 testing in the early days of the pandemic last year.
The governor’s office said he would donate a “significant portion” of the book’s earnings to a COVID-related charity, although it is unclear how much.
I’m gonna fault the publisher here. They made the offer.
Cuomo didn’t hide deaths. This is about characterizing deaths as either ‘hospital deaths’ or ‘nursing home deaths’. If a person died in a hospital, they said that was a ‘hospital death’. Others believe that if the person got sick at a nursing home and later died at a hospital that should be a ‘nursing home death’. I think Cuomo has a justifiable argument for his characterization, but even if he’s ‘wrong’, it makes no difference on the overall death toll and it certainly isn’t criminal or even impeachable.
I would note that Cuomo was actually the first Governor (along with Murphy in NJ) to INCLUDE excess deaths in the NY totals. Until he did, the COVID death count in the nation was undercounted. As you may recall, Trump was doing everything possible to undercount deaths and CDC took a tepid position on the matter because the Trump apparatchiks like Michael Caputo were acting like overlords and the CDC just rolled over for them.
I would also note that Cuomo was really the only major national public figure who was telling people to wear masks before it was cool. He did it at virtually every one of his daily pressers once he got data back indicating their effectiveness. In that sense, I think it’s fair to credit Cuomo in part with saving thousands if not millions of American lives.
Yes, Cuomo is a self promoter. That’s not a crime. The allegations of inappropriate conduct are and should be treated as wholly separate from his management of COVID.
Everyone so damn smug and judgemental about this. Like you have never miscategorized a death count while inking a $4,000,000 deal to write a book! Did our fallen soldiers in wars abroad die of “environmental conditions?” Yes it is probably not prosecutable (false business records?) but with all that the Dems are doing right, this is a unnecessary GOP talking point. Unforced error. Stee-rike!
Of all the accusations against Governor Cuomo, this one bothers me the most.
I did wonder when and how he had time to write a book. As much as I was glued to Cuomo’s daily COVID press briefings, I thought that it was much too soon and too arrogant to write a book about it.
He’s a criminal who killed thousands of people through his negligence and then tried to make money off how he didn’t kill them. It’s in the article. Please read it. Also, it is illegal for a government official to use public resources for personal gain. Once he was caught with his $4 million book deal, having used public funds to 1) help with the publishing of the book, and 2) having tried to cover up the number of people who died through his mismanagement of NY state citizen health over the past year, you some how have concluded that he’s your best friend (or relative)?