Cuomo facing more urgent legal problem
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday. Photo by Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's alleged mistreatment of women became a more immediate legal problem Thursday as the Albany Police Department got involved in the case.
Why it matters: A separate review by Attorney General Letitia James is still in its infancy, but the referral to local authorities by the New York State Police and Cuomo's own staff could put his latest accuser before detectives — and much more quickly.
- New York State Assembly Democrats also agreed Thursday to launch an impeachment investigation.
The Times Union reported Wednesday that a woman claimed Cuomo groped her last year at the Executive Mansion in Albany, where he lives.
- The woman did not file a report with local authorities, but the State Police and governor's own legal counsel referred the matter to them after her account was published.
- A spokesperson for the Albany Police Department said the woman had not met with investigators, but the department had been in contact with her attorney.
The mounting legal pressure comes as Cuomo faces growing political pressure, with the impeachment decision and the National Organization for Women and 59 Democratic state lawmakers separately calling on him to resign.
- The newspaper that reported the latest case, the Times Union of Albany, also urged the governor to resign last weekend.
- The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office also are investigating Cuomo over allegations his office underreported nursing home deaths linked to the coronavirus.
Flashback: Cuomo said Sunday "there's no way I resign" over the allegations he then confronted.
- He said doing so would disenfranchise voters and be "anti-democratic."
- The Associated Press reported that Cuomo told New York's Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins on Sunday that state lawmakers would have to impeach him to remove him from office.
