Cuomo ally steps down as inspector general

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The inspector general for New York state resigned Friday as Gov. Kathy Hochul vows to weed out those closely aligned with former Gov. New York Cuomo, new reports say.

Letizia Tagliafierro, who was appointed to the inspector general post by Cuomo in 2019, stepped down on Friday, the latest in a string of Cuomo-allied resignations since Hochul became governor last month. When asked for her reaction to Tagliafierro stepping down, Hochul called for a “rethinking” of the appointment process, echoing previous calls for an overhaul to state government following ethical scandals surrounding the Cuomo administration.

“The whole process of who appoints the members, who appoints an inspector general, all of those are questions on the table as I’m really rethinking how we conduct ethics investigations and internal investigations in our state government, and I believe there needs to be more independence than there has been historically,” Hochul said in the city of New York on Monday.

KATHY HOCHUL SAYS APPOINTEE WHO ALLOWED CUOMO TO KEEP $5.1 MILLION BOOK DEAL IS ‘UNKNOWN TO ME’

Hochul, who has vowed to purge the state’s executive mansion of “unethical” Cuomo staff members, reiterated her explanation of appointing a commissioner to the Joint Commission on Public Ethics who voted on Sept. 14 to allow Cuomo to keep his $5.1 million book deal, saying she needs to appoint people quickly to vacancies in state government.

“We’ll be changing personnel in all these offices, and I know everyone understands because in order to get the right people in, I have to sometimes bring up subordinates to fill vacant roles while we do proper vetting, and I want to get the vetting right to make sure that no one has any issues that will come back later and make us regret a decision,” she said. “So I have asked for that time, [and] people have understood we need more time to build this.”

Last week, Hochul said Commissioner Randall Hinrichs, a former Suffolk County district administrative judge, “literally is unknown” to her after Hinrichs voted in favor of allowing Cuomo to keep his lucrative book deal despite ethics concerns.

“What happened yesterday was as a result of two resignations. In order for there to be any business going forward, I had to appoint somebody, and that is the circumstance we were in yesterday,” she said Wednesday in reference to Cuomo’s resignation and the JCOPE opening. “I had to find an individual, an individual who is highly recommended, has credentials, but literally is unknown to me.”

When asked on Wednesday whether the JCOPE “should be replaced by something completely different” and whether “it’s possible for an agency to police itself or Albany to police itself,” Hochul responded, “I said that day one.”

“I said what I’m going to do is turn it upside down and to challenge the premise that an entity that is created by elected officials with their own appointees should be charged with investigating those individuals, should circumstances arise. The whole premise behind it is flawed. … I want to make sure that we are not stacking these bodies with our friends and with our allies as had been the past,” she continued in an apparent swipe at Cuomo.

Hochul declined to offer an opinion on the outcome of the JCOPE’s vote on Cuomo’s book deal, saying she didn’t “think it’s [her] place to do so.”

Representatives for JCOPE and the inspector general’s office did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.

The JCOPE has been at the center of questions surrounding Cuomo’s lucrative book deal, with Attorney General Letitia James issuing at least one subpoena to the agency earlier this month for its records on the book after James received a referral from Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in April to investigate whether “public resources [were] used in the development and promotion of the governor’s book.”

Cuomo, who is expected to rake in $5.1 million from the memoir, insisted staff members volunteered to help with the book, though his office acknowledged there could be some “incidental” use of state resources.

In July, the JCOPE opened an investigation into separate allegations against the former governor after Larry Schwartz, a Cuomo ally and volunteer adviser who oversaw statewide COVID-19 vaccine distribution, allegedly called a handful of Democratic county executives to ask whether they would call for Cuomo to step down as he battled multiple scandals. Schwartz denied linking vaccine access to political support for the then-governor, and Beth Garvey, Cuomo’s counsel, said that “distorting Larry’s role or intentions for headlines maligns a decadeslong public servant.”

Throughout the final months of his governorship, Cuomo faced several allegations of impropriety, including claims that he directed health officials to give special access to COVID-19 testing to his inner circle and that he hid the state’s coronavirus death toll in nursing homes, among other claims, though the former governor repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

Cuomo resigned on Aug. 24 after James released a bombshell report on Aug. 3 saying he sexually harassed 11 women and engaged in “retaliatory” behavior by “intend[ing] to discredit and disparage” at least one accuser. Hochul, who had been serving as lieutenant governor, was then elevated to the role of governor, vowing to end the “toxic workplace environment.”

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Since the release of James’s report, a number of Cuomo allies in government, such as former Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa, as well as the private sector, including the CEO and chairwoman of Time’s Up Now and the Time’s Up Foundation, have vacated their positions amid allegations they shielded Cuomo from scrutiny.

The former governor signaled he will continue to defend his reputation in his post-governorship, railing against James’s “unjust” report in his farewell address to the state.

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