Judge rules in favor of former Gov. Cuomo’s bid to keep book money, neuter ethics board

NEW YORK — New York’s year-old ethics commission had its power sapped, at least temporarily, by an Albany Supreme Court justice who sided Monday with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s arguments that the panel was created in an unconstitutional manner.

The decision left the fate of the watchdog group unclear, and came as a major victory in Cuomo’s efforts to protect his COVID-19 book earnings from the commission.

The panel, like its precursor, had moved to penalize the disgraced former governor over the pandemic memoir.

Cuomo’s spokesman Rich Azzopardi celebrated the ruling against the new panel, the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government.

“As we’ve said all along, this was nothing more than an attack by those who abused their government positions unethically,” Azzopardi said in a statement. “Truth and reason won, mob rule lost today.”

But the state immediately vowed to appeal the decision.

The commission was created by Gov. Hochul and the state Legislature to replace the beleaguered Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which first ordered Cuomo to return $5 million he earned from his much-maligned memoir.

Cuomo’s book was published in October 2020, before his governorship crumbled beneath a mountain of sexual harassment claims.

A state Assembly report published in November 2021 found Cuomo deployed state resources to produce the 320-page book, a claim he has disputed. A month later, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which was created by Cuomo, told him to return his profits, setting off a series of legal battles that have now spanned two ethics panels.

In a 26-page ruling, Justice Thomas Marcelle said the new Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government violates the state Constitution because it operates without sufficient oversight from the governor.

“Indeed, the whole reason for the commission’s existence is to be independent from any government control,” Marcelle wrote, noting that the governor nominates only a minority of the commissioners that make up the panel.

He said the system would allow the commission to execute law in place of the governor, violating constitutional demands that vest such powers in the executive branch.

“The commission violates this core constitutional tenant by operating beyond the governor’s reach,” the justice wrote.

He added that the commission’s latitude to issue sanctions rendered it “more than a watchdog, it is an attack dog.”

The commission’s chairman, Frederick Davie, and its executive director, Sanford Berland, said in a statement that they “respectfully disagree with the court’s result and are reviewing all options, including, if appropriate, interim legislation.”

“New Yorkers have the right to an ethics commission that is truly independent and fully empowered to administer and enforce the state’s ethics and lobbying laws,” they added. “While this matter works its way through the courts, the commission will continue to promote compliance with the state’s ethics and lobbying laws.”

A spokesman for Hochul, Avi Small, said in a statement that the court decision “undermines the independent ethics commission created by Gov. Hochul and we will work with the commission to support an appeal.”

Cuomo resigned from office in August 2021 after state Attorney General Letitia James published a report finding that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women, the culmination of a stunning fall from his early pandemic perch as a dispenser of soothing and conversational COVID briefings. Cuomo denied the harassment allegations.

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