ALBANY, NY — Former Governor Andrew M. Cuomo will not be required to return the proceeds of his $5.1 million book deal after a judge ruled Tuesday that a state ethics committee violated Mr. Cuomo’s fair process in looking for the money.
The now-defunct Joint Commission on Public Ethics, known as JCOPE, had initially approved Mr. Cuomo’s book deal in 2020, but revoked it a few months after he left office, saying he had been given the green light. under false pretenses and misused state sources in writing the memoir, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the Covid-19 Pandemic.”
Mr. Cuomo’s assistants said he followed his attorneys’ advice by letting his assistants help him with the book, as long as they did it on their own time.
In her 16-page ruling, Judge Denise A. Hartman of the Albany State Supreme Court said that JCOPE violated his authority and thereby stripped Mr. Cuomo of his rights.
“Here, JCOPE approved the outside activity, then unilaterally found wrongdoing, then withdrew its approval, and finally imposed the disgorgement fine — all without the opportunity for a proper trial hearing explicitly provided for in the procedures set forth in the executive law,” Ms Hartman wrote.
It was not immediately clear whether an appeal will be lodged against the ruling, or whether that is already possible. The oft-maligned JCOPE, seen as a toothless agency following the orders of the politicians who appointed the board, no longer exists. It was replaced this summer by a new committee on ethics and government lobbying.
A call to a spokesperson for the new agency was not immediately answered.