Next on Cuomo's rehabilitation tour: blowing up a state ethics panel

In the two and a half years since he resigned as governor of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo has spent countless hours and millions of dollars trying to rehabilitate his image and defeat his critics.

One of his top targets is the state's new ethics panel, which his lawyers say is unconstitutionally formed and should be disbanded — an outcome that would throw enforcement of the state's ethics rules into chaos.

Mr. Cuomo won the first round of the fight and last year successfully convinced a state Supreme Court judge that the panel, the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government, had been created in a manner that violated the Constitution of New York.

After the commission appealed the ruling, the parties went to an appeals court in Albany, N.Y., for oral arguments on Friday.

Mr. Cuomo’s clash with the ethics panel dates back to the $5.1 million book deal he secured for a 2020 memoir, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the Covid-19 Pandemic.” The committee had considered whether to force him to forfeit the money when he filed a lawsuit.

Lawyers for Mr. Cuomo argue that the commission is unconstitutional in part because it employs a group of law school deans to investigate political appointees for conflicts of interest, stripping the governor of the governor's constitutional authority to oversee the panel. The model, created by Mr. Cuomo's successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul, was created to increase the independence of the ethics commission, whose predecessor was dogged by allegations of corruption.

The four justices who heard the appeal Friday appeared skeptical of the commission's arguments that a governor had the power to cede authority over ethics enforcement.

“Is there any other commission or authority in New York State that has this structure?” Judge John C. Egan Jr. asked the commission's attorney, Dustin J. Brockner of the attorney general's office.

Mr. Brockner admitted that the commission's design was unique.

“But we're dealing with a unique problem here,” he said, pointing to the ongoing battle to regulate ethics in Albany.

The failure of the former ethics committee – the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) – hung over the proceedings. Mr. Cuomo helped set up that panel, which didn't stop him from suing it in a separate lawsuit after it withdrew approval of the book deal.

But even the earlier commission, which consisted of members chosen by both the governor and the Legislature, would not meet the standard that Mr. Cuomo's lawyers are now seeking. They argue that the panel should be almost entirely dominated by the executive branch.

The irony that the New York Constitution would place an ethics oversight panel under the governor's authority was not lost on the court.

“Isn't that the problem you initially had with JCOPE?” asked Judge Molly Reynolds Fitzgerald.

“If that's something people care deeply about, then change the Constitution,” replied Gregory Dubinsky, a lawyer for Mr. Cuomo.

The appeal judges are expected to make a ruling in the coming months. If they rule against the new commission, Ms. Hochul and the attorney general, Letitia James, could appeal to the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals. If Mr. Cuomo were to win there, the Legislature would have to come up with a replacement that complies with the court's ruling.

Lawmakers also have the option to amend the constitution to maintain the current ethics format, but that process, which requires the approval of two separate lawmakers and a public referendum, could take years.

Mr. Cuomo's attempt to disband the ethics commission is the latest example of his campaign to confront his perceived enemies, especially Ms. Hochul and Ms. James. It was her report, which found he had sexually harassed 11 women, that prompted Mr Cuomo to resign in disgrace.

Mr. Cuomo alleges that Ms. James and the outside investigators she hired to conduct the investigation manipulated details and omitted evidence that would have exonerated him, accusing her of doing so to advance her own political interests.

Three of the women identified in Ms. James' report as victims of Mr. Cuomo's behavior filed sexual harassment lawsuits against him, giving him the opportunity to have his lawyers subpoena a series of witnesses related to the business.

Some of these efforts have yielded promising results for Mr. Cuomo: Last year, Ana Liss, one of the women named in Ms. James' report, said in a statement that she did not believe Mr. Cuomo had sexually harassed her.

Still, Ms. Liss described the workplace culture that Mr. Cuomo created as “somewhat inappropriate” and “a bit dangerous for younger, vulnerable people, especially women.”

When a Justice Department report last month appeared to confirm Ms. James's findings, Mr. Cuomo quickly hit back.

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Mr. Cuomo demanded a meeting and a review of the process of federal investigators. Mr. Cuomo pointed out in the letter that investigators had not interviewed him or any of his accusers before releasing their findings.

Justice Department officials disputed Mr. Cuomo's characterization, citing the report's inclusion of additional prosecutors. They declined to provide information about these accusers and also declined a request for comment on the decision not to interview witnesses or Mr. Cuomo.

Five prosecutors investigated the claims in Ms. James' report and chose not to file criminal charges against Mr. Cuomo, even though many of them said they found the women credible.

Because of a state law that protects elected officials from lawsuits that do not result in criminal convictions, many of Mr. Cuomo's legal efforts have been funded by New York taxpayers. Under that law, Mr. Cuomo has already been reimbursed $565,000 for legal bills. Politico first reported it.

A analysis in The Times Union of Albany suggested that taxpayers could be owed more than $20 million on behalf of Mr. Cuomo, including legal representation for him and members of his executive staff as a result of the multitude of legal investigations that emerged in the final days of his term.

In addition to his legal efforts, Mr. Cuomo has remained busy. There was his podcast “As a Matter of Fact,” in which he set out to dissect the most pressing issues of the day, from Israel to immigration, with a rotating array of political insiders.

There have been public appearances at black churches and secret dinners with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Kellyanne Conway, a former adviser to former President Donald J. Trump.

Just this week, he wrote an op-ed in The Daily News arguing that the American justice system had become overly politicized, threatening Americans' confidence in their institutions. On this subject, Mr. Cuomo admitted that he was not entirely objective.