Show the Cuomo files: Release supporting documents on the Tish James-Joon Kim-Anne Clark sexual harassment investigation

As is her right, the woman known as Trooper 1 is suing Andrew Cuomo in Brooklyn federal court, seeking damages for what she says were his unwelcome and illegal sexually harassing actions and words towards her while he was governor and she was assigned to guard him as a member of the State Police.

And as is her right, she is using as evidence the damning report on Cuomo’s behavior commissioned by Attorney General Tish James from deputized private lawyers Joon Kim and Anne Clark.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Cuomo rightly resigned his office when the report, exposing lots of bad behavior toward aides, was published in August 2021. But it’s more than understandable that the ex-governor’s defense lawyers now want to see all the evidence collected by Kim and Clark since the trooper is relying on the report.

It’s not just Cuomo who has a legitimate rationale to see the underlying documents of a now-closed investigation. The public, too, should see what their tax dollars paid for. Some of the documents being sought by Cuomo’s legal team are the interview memos for all 179 people questioned during the investigation. James has released 41 transcripts, which is a good deal of underlying evidence, but that still leaves several times that number unseen. The one interview memo that did show up, due to an now-closed criminal complaint by the Albany sheriff, shows unequivocally that a primary witness lied under oath.

Months ago, we submitted a Freedom of Information Law request to James but were denied based on the AG’s claim that sharing the files would breach attorney-client privilege and attorney work product. (It wouldn’t.)

In a brief filed last week, Cuomo’s lawyer tells the federal court that the AG is ducking their subpoena on the same weak grounds as well as a supposed law enforcement exception and that disclosing the material is not in the public interest. Nay, it is very much in the public interest for these records to come out.