Assembly leaders dropping Cuomo impeachment probe

[MisterNiceKitty]

https://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/assembly-leaders-drop-impeachment-probe-of-cuomo/Content?oid=13537419

"The impeachment investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be dropped by the State Assembly after the three-term governor announced his resignation this week, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said Friday.

Assembly Judiciary Chair Charles Lavine, with help from attorneys, determined that it wouldn’t be legal to impeach Cuomo after he leaves office, Heastie said.

“We have been advised by Chair Lavine — with the assistance of counsel - of the belief that the constitution does not authorize the legislature to impeach and remove an elected official who is no longer in office,” Heastie said in a statement."


Not everyone's happy:

"While lawyers for Lavine argued that state law wouldn’t allow for the investigation to move forward, Assembly Republican Leader Will Barclay said attorneys for his conference don’t share that opinion.

“We do have attorneys on staff, and they advised me that we could move forward,” Barclay said in an interview to air on New York NOW this weekend.

After Heastie’s announcement Friday, Barclay doubled down.

“Moving forward with the impeachment would have brought a necessary conclusion to an important endeavor and ensured Andrew Cuomo would never be permitted to hold statewide office,” Barcay said. “Instead, mountains of evidence and months of work will now be hidden from the public by this disappointing, tone-deaf decision.”