Impeachment and expulsion by the New York Legislature await Gov. Andrew Cuomo if the Democrat refuses to resign in the wake of scathing sexual misconduct allegations.
With New York Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie declaring that Cuomo has lost the confidence of the chamber’s Democratic majority and “can no longer remain in office,” it is only a matter of time before the governor is impeached and faces trial in the state Senate. Similar to the federal impeachment process, state senators would act as jurors, with a two-thirds vote required to force Cuomo’s removal.
In quirks of the state Constitution, Cuomo would be relieved of his powers during the trial, with Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul elevated to “acting governor” — and judges on New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, would join senators as members of the jury. All seven are Cuomo appointees. That and the two-thirds threshold might save the governor from losing his job and being permanently banned from holding public office in New York.
But political observers and Democratic insiders say Cuomo should prepare for expulsion.
“The question is: Will the governor go on his own accord or be thrown out?” said Basil Smikle, a former executive director of the New York Democratic Party. “What friends and supporters he had before the attorney general’s report have dissipated.”
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On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, issued a damning report of Cuomo’s alleged sexual misconduct targeting numerous female state employees. The extensive inquiry, undertaken by independent investigators and overseen by James’s office, found that the governor violated state and federal law with his alleged behavior. Cuomo, 63 and in his third term, denied any wrongdoing and gave no indication that he was considering stepping down or dropping his 2022 reelection bid.
But the governor’s future no longer appears under his control. An avalanche of top Democrats is demanding that the governor resign.
They include President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the entirety of the New York congressional delegation, Heastie, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and New York Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs. And after James’s report, any measurable resistance that existed among Democrats in Albany to asking Cuomo to resign, and impeaching him if he does not, appears to have evaporated.
“The bombshell report by Attorney General Letitia James completely changes the dynamic,” said Harvey Schantz, a political science professor at the State University of New York in Plattsburgh. “Unlike the recent impeachments in Congress, numerous Democrats in the Legislature are ready to topple Gov. Cuomo.”
In other words, Cuomo can no longer expect Democrats in the Legislature to shield him from impeachment and removal the way Republicans in Congress protected former President Donald Trump — twice.
“Cuomo has few friends in the Legislature at this point, and they are going to keep quiet,” said Tom Reynolds, a former Republican congressman from Buffalo who was minority leader in the New York State Assembly before coming to Washington and still keeps tabs on Albany.
The process of impeaching the governor in the New York Legislature, as laid out by the state’s Constitution, is not much different from the process for impeaching a president in Congress, as detailed by the United States Constitution.
The judiciary committee in the New York State Assembly is conducting its own investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct against Cuomo. This inquiry is not a mandatory step in the impeachment process and could be sped up in the aftermath of the release of James’s report and Heastie’s call for Cuomo to resign. If impeachment is put to a vote on the floor, all that is required for passage is a simple majority.
Next up will be a trial in the state Senate.
Cause for removal of the governor, under both the state Constitution and state law, is murky. One section of the statute describes the grounds for expulsion as “willful and corrupt misconduct in office.” Similar to a traditional trial, lawyers for the prosecution and the defense would argue their cases before a jury of state senators and members of the Court of Appeals, who would then deliberate and vote for conviction or acquittal.
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If Cuomo is impeached and relieved of his powers during a state Senate trial, and Hochul, therefore, becomes acting governor while the charges against him are adjudicated, Stewart-Cousins, the state Senate majority leader, would not be permitted to serve on the jury. Instead, she would be elevated to serve as acting lieutenant governor. Being on the jury, under those circumstances, is deemed a conflict of interest under the law.
New York has not impeached a governor in more than 100 years.
