Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign arm is taking aim at the prosecutors who ended his political career, lamenting the loss of “a proven leader” in an ad blitz that aired in New York on Monday.
The “Politics vs. the Law” ad, which will air statewide through “a significant buy on both broadcast and cable television, as well as digitally,” will explore “the rejection of the Attorney General’s findings by five separate District Attorneys as well as expose revelations of the prosecutorial misconduct behind her report,” according to Team Cuomo.
“We will continue to communicate the facts to New Yorkers: The AG knowingly and willfully ignored evidence of perjury, witness tampering and extortion, and hid exculpatory evidence when she misled the public last August …” Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner.
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The ad touted five district attorneys’ decisions not to pursue charges against the former governor while calling into question the motives of Attorney General Letitia James, whose Aug. 3, 2021, report detailing 11 women’s claims of sexual harassment precipitated Cuomo’s fall.
“Political attacks won. And New Yorkers lost a proven leader,” reads a text overlay at the end of the commercial.
The ad buy drew criticism from some corners, with nine women right’s groups co-signing a statement denouncing Cuomo as a “serial sexual harasser.”
“As evidenced by recent public polling, New Yorkers believe the women who bravely came forward about Cuomo’s abuse; they think Cuomo was right to leave office in disgrace. This attempt to claim exoneration won’t work. Shame on serial sexual harasser Andrew Cuomo,” the joint statement, which was shared with the Washington Examiner, said.
Cuomo has been basking in five district attorneys’ decisions not to pursue criminal charges against him. While several of the prosecutors deemed the allegations that Cuomo engaged in inappropriate touching “credible,” they noted the claims did not rise to the standard of a criminal prosecution. One county, spearheaded by Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, even announced it had filed a criminal complaint in October of last year only for the district attorney to drop the “potentially defective” charges months later.
But the former governor may have hit a speed bump en route to total exoneration. On Feb. 18, Cuomo was again sued for sexual harassment, this time by an anonymous state trooper who said he asked her personal questions, kissed her on the cheek, and “placed the palm of his hand on her belly button and slid it across her waist to her right hip.”
Azzopardi, who has maintained Cuomo’s innocence, slammed the filing as reliant upon James’s “proven fraud of a report.”
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Despite stepping down on Aug. 24 of last year amid fallout from James’s report, Cuomo has repeatedly denied he ever engaged in inappropriate touching and teased supporters should “stay tuned.”
Because he was never impeached, Cuomo is eligible to pursue the governorship again. But incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul, who served as his lieutenant governor, has consolidated support around her bid for a full term, earning the backing of the New York Democratic Party’s state convention on Feb. 17.
