We get it that state Attorney General Tish James doesn’t like Andrew Cuomo, but her personal and political feelings don’t matter because he was the governor of New York for many years and when his actions in office are challenged in court, the state has the obligation to mount a defense.
Here Cuomo (and the state) are being sued by a female state police officer, known as Trooper 1, in Brooklyn federal court. Trooper 1 alleges that Cuomo sexually harassed her, the subject of a damning report commissioned by James that led Cuomo to resign in August 2021.
Since James has a conflict of interest (as her office appointed the lawyers who wrote the report), Cuomo needs to retain private representation instead of using government attorneys. But while normally the AG would simply approve the paying of that defense counsel from public funds, James refused.
So Cuomo had to sue James. As we wrote in August, when he filed his case, the law is on his side. And so it was, as on Friday Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Shlomo Hagler ruled in Cuomo’s favor.
James’ position made zero sense, particularly since the AG is reimbursing Cuomo’s legal bill for his defense in a separate federal lawsuit filed by another woman whose complaint was part of the same sexual harassment report, Charlotte Bennett.
Why no to paying in the Trooper 1 case, but yes in the Bennett case? Were these two different stands made by career professionals or by higher ups in the AG’s office?
James should not bother appealing Hagler’s decision. She will only lose again. And since Cuomo had to pay for private counsel to pursue this matter since August, now having won, he’ll be entitled to have the Hagler case legal fees paid by the taxpayers. Any appeal will only now force the public to pay even more, for the AG’s lawyers and Cuomo’s.
So James ended up losing and costing taxpayers more than if she had simply followed the law from the outset. A very bad move.
