New York Assembly speaker Carl Heastie announced Friday that the Assembly would suspend its impeachment investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“The purpose of the…impeachment investigation was to determine whether Governor Cuomo should remain in office. The governor’s resignation answers that directive,” Heastie said in his statement.
BREAKING: NYS Assembly will be suspending its impeachment investigation into @NYGovCuomo pic.twitter.com/sdMdayykcB
— Morgan Mckay (@morganfmckay) August 13, 2021
Heastie added that Assembly Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Lavine concluded that the state constitution did not permit the impeachment of an elected official no longer in office.
“The committee’s work over the last several months, although not complete, did uncover credible evidence in relation to allegations that have been made in reference to the governor,” Heastie said.
According to Heastie, that evidence pertained to the sexual harassment allegations, potential “misuse of state funds” in the writing of Cuomo’s pandemic memoir, and “misleading disclosure of nursing home data during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Heastie vowed to hand over “to the relevant investigatory authorities all the evidence the committee has gathered.”
Cuomo resigned on Tuesday, a week after State Attorney General Letitia James released a report alleging that the governor sexually harassed at least eleven women, some of them state employees. James’s investigation was not a criminal probe, however one woman who accused Cuomo of harassment has filed a criminal complaint with Albany police.
Cuomo would have been the second governor in the history of the state to face impeachment had the investigation moved forward. The governor has denied allegations of sexual harassment.
The resignation is set to take effect on August 24, and Cuomo will be replaced by Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul.