Charges Against Andrew Cuomo Dropped
[guest post by JVW]
As if we didn’t all see this coming a mile away:
The Albany County District Attorney’s office said Tuesday it was dropping criminal charges of forcible touching against former New York governor Andrew Cuomo just days before he was set to be arraigned.
District attorney David Soares announced the dismissal of the misdemeanor criminal charges related to accusations that Cuomo forcibly touched a female aide in the governor’s mansion in December 2020, but added that the woman’s complaint was credible.
“After review of all the available evidence we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial,” he said in a statement.
“As such we have notified the Court that we are declining to prosecute this matter and requesting the charges filed by the Albany County Sheriff be dismissed,” Soares added.
This allegation had been brought forth by a former Cuomo aide who claimed that the disgraced dickhead ex-governor had groped her breast during an office encounter in December 2020. The Albany DA’s announcement follows on the heels of last week’s announcement by the Westchester County DA that her office won’t be prosecuting Andy the Asshole despite finding the allegations “credible,” owing to that whole pesky “burden of proof” thingy. Nassau County’s DA office also determined that the grossly groping former governor would not be prosecuted for having touched a female state trooper in an unwanted manner, though in this case they felt that his behavior, while typically obnoxious, did not rise to the level of a crime.
The district attorneys of the three counties may be absolutely correct in their respective assessments of these matters, but one can’t help but think (especially if one is as jaundiced a cynic as I am) that a huge part of this is that Empire State Democrats negotiated with crapweasel Cuomo throughout this past summer, promising him that in return for his resignation he would not face any criminal charges (though I assume he is still subject to civil lawsuits for his actions, and I earnestly hope they are forthcoming). It should be noted that both the Albany County and the Westchester County DAs are fellow Democrats, and while the Nassau County DA is in fact a Republican, she is brand-new in the position and inherited a case in which staffers of the former district attorney, a Democrat, or the acting district attorney, very likely a Democrat, had already made the decision not to prosecute. With today’s announcement from Mr. Soares, we’re now down to two final prosecutors, Oswego County DA Greg Oakes (a Republican), and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg (oh come on, do you have to inquire about his party affiliation?) who could possibly still decide to bring charges. Mr. Bragg’s office has already delivered a wet kiss to the disgraced prick of an ex-governor by dropping the investigation into the Cuomo Administrations lies about their COVID policy as pertains to nursing homes. (To be fair, it would appear that Mr. Bragg doesn’t like prosecuting folks — at least those not affiliated with law-enforcement — all that much to begin with.) Here’s guessing that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office also takes a pass on prosecuting Andrew Cuomo.
So this ends just about how most of us expected. Don’t be surprised if the former governor — did I mention that I think he’s a real asshole? — also somehow finds a way to keep all of his ill-gotten book royalties as well. When the fix is in, the fix is in.
– JVW
New York: If you can make it there you can make it anywhere.
JVW (37f1d8) — 1/4/2022 @ 3:25 pmTwo Americas.
BuDuh (4a7846) — 1/4/2022 @ 3:26 pm“After review of all the available evidence we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial,”
That’s usually a problem when a male flasher is charged with indecent exposure.
nk (1d9030) — 1/4/2022 @ 4:02 pmThe question is: Were these charges fake (or bad but non-criminal) in the first place (and used to find an excuse to force Cuomo out without getting into the nursing home deaths?)
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 1/4/2022 @ 4:38 pmCumo really seemed like a scumbag. I’m glad the Dem’s hounded him out of office and I’m glad his brother got fired. He seemed pretty guilty to me and it’s too bad none of the DA’s think they can meet their burden.
Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/4/2022 @ 4:39 pmIf they prosecuted every guy who copped a feel …. This is an employment law issue.
nk (1d9030) — 1/4/2022 @ 4:56 pmThe state trooper is a little bit more serious. We don’t want people taking the law into their own hands.
nk (1d9030) — 1/4/2022 @ 5:08 pm“After review of
JF (e1156d) — 1/4/2022 @ 5:25 pmall the available evidenceparty affiliation we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial.”https://gothamist.com/news/albany-county-da-drops-criminal-complaint-against-andrew-cuomo
Earlier:
https://gothamist.com/news/andrew-cuomos-groping-court-date-postponed-albany-da-warns-case-against-him-is-potentially-defective
Sammy Finkelman (c49738) — 1/4/2022 @ 5:30 pmHere’s my jaundiced view:
When the allegations first came to fore in early 2021, state Democrats approached Cuomo and suggested that he announce that he would not seek reelection in 2022 and would instead focus all of his efforts on steering the state through the COVID crisis. Cuomo declined, and made it clear that he intended to seek the fourth term in office which had eluded his dad. As the allegations started piling up and as it became clear that Sonny was not a hero of COVID management and ancillary issues like his book deal started cropping up, state Democrats upped the ante by holding out the prospect of impeachment and prosecution.
Finally, in August, when his position became untenable, I’m willing to bet that Cuomo accepted the offer to announce that he wouldn’t seek reelection, only to have skittish state Democrats (who were seeing how the Biden Administration was floundering and were thus worried about holding the governor’s office in 2022) inform him that the offer had expired and that he now had to resign office so that his Democrat replacement would be able to run as an incumbent. In return, he was told, they would make sure that there would be no criminal proceedings once he had packed his boxes and loaded them on to the moving van.
Yeah, I know my scenario above is super-cynical, but if we suddenly hear that the state has dropped its demand that Cuomo return the $5 million in royalties (on a book that it seems pretty obvious his taxpayer-paid staff researched and wrote) then who here will argue that this whole thing wasn’t a quid pro quo from the get-go?
JVW (ee64e4) — 1/4/2022 @ 6:17 pmThis is why citizens storm the castle.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/4/2022 @ 6:29 pmI’ll tell you, JVW, as a Chicagoan, I don’t think that your scenario is at all cynical. I also think that they figure that it is better for them to have him gone, out of sight and out of mind, than to have criminal prosecutions stirring up the merda as they head into the election.
nk (1d9030) — 1/4/2022 @ 6:38 pmAnd didn’t another New Yorker say that there’s a place where the women will let you grab them by the pussy if you’re famous? A Cuomo who had been married to Kennedy … he could do worse than move there.
nk (1d9030) — 1/4/2022 @ 6:42 pmI’m 3,000 miles away, but Cuomo was basically run out of office by people from his own political party, which kind of tells you how big of a jerk he really is. A criminal suit would be icing on the cake but unnecessary, especially since he’ll likely face civil suits that will cut further into his net worth. Good riddance. His little brother, too.
Paul Montagu (5de684) — 1/4/2022 @ 6:57 pmThere are lots of things that are unethical, or actionable, or simply unacceptable, but are not illegal. When they said “high crimes or misdemeanors” the latter part pretty much meant “behaving like a jackass.”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/4/2022 @ 7:47 pmI sincerely hope that Cuomo becomes a deep pocket indeed with all those book royalties.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 1/4/2022 @ 7:49 pmnk @ 7 took me four reading to realize it was a very clever pun
EPWJ (0fbe92) — 1/5/2022 @ 2:25 amDistrict Attorneys belong to the “Chickenschiff Club”.
mg (8cbc69) — 1/5/2022 @ 3:33 amThank you, EPWJ.
nk (1d9030) — 1/5/2022 @ 5:09 amJVW, Your theory about the conspiracy to let Cumo escape justice seems weak. For it to work 3 prosecutors needed to agree to obstruct justice in Aug after the report was released and everyone, including the white house, was saying he should resign. One of them is a Republican. Then, 5 months later, they have to follow through, announce they can’t make their case, and take all the political heat themselves.
Two Questions
Time123 (9f42ee) — 1/5/2022 @ 6:15 am1. Why would a republican prosecutor agree to this?
2. Do you know anything about the 2 democrats that makes you think they’re they’re so corrupt and beholden to their party that they’d do this?
1. Republican politicians in New York are sleazy and corrupt too.
2. They are from New York and they are Democrats. That moves the needle on the corruptibility index into the “likely” category.
Kidding aside, if you have paid just a cursory amount of attention to New York politics you can’t help but come away with the notion that it is absolutely run by party machines who enforce party discipline and work to block the ascension of any outsiders. You don’t even have to be as cynical as I am to observe this.
JVW (ee64e4) — 1/5/2022 @ 10:21 amAnda mau merasakan kemenangan dengan menggunakan ID PRO MASTER ini.
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Aplkasi Cheat Android (8c9eac) — 1/5/2022 @ 11:07 pmKarena memang kami adalah sebuah team hacker judi online yang siap memenangkan anda semua.
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Kidding aside, if you have paid just a cursory amount of attention to New York politics you can’t help but come away with the notion that it is absolutely run by party machines who enforce party discipline and work to block the ascension of any outsiders. You don’t even have to be as cynical as I am to observe this.
Yep.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/6/2022 @ 12:51 am