Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s legal counsel is demanding the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, to recuse herself and her office from the sexual misconduct investigation due to a political conflict of interest.
Attorney Rita Glavin said during a Thursday livestream that James had political motivations while conducting the investigation that helped to oust Cuomo from power in August. James announced her candidacy for the New York governor’s seat last month, but Glavin argues that her decision-making was compromised by her intent to run well before the report was released, inclining her to make Cuomo come off worse in the report.
“The letter to the attorney general we’re sending today says unequivocally that she must recuse her office from any future decisions involving her Aug. 3, 2021, report about allegations of sexual harassment against the governor,” Glavin said.
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Though the investigation began in March, Glavin said that James “had refused to disavow that she would run for governor” and that “her judgment in those months was absolutely compromised by her political motivations.”
Glavin pointed to the slow release of redacted transcripts from interviews that “denied the Governor due process” as evidence of political motivations, as well as the lack of interviews between the attorney general’s office and staff from the governor’s mansion who could have testified favorably to Cuomo’s private life under oath.
Additionally, Glavin said the attorney general did not open an investigation into grand jury leaks about Cuomo’s case, which are a felony to disclose.
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The New York Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Glavin said that the office previously dismissed her claims as “attacks, lies, and conspiracy theories.”
Cuomo resigned in August following multiple accusations of sexual harassment. James’s investigation found some of the reports credible, which increased the likelihood of impeachment if Cuomo did not resign.
