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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and yes stories about possible misconduct by Governor Cuomo keep coming up. The latest involves Albany Times Union and Washington Post's reporting that some of his friends and relatives were given access to coronavirus testing at a time when testing was in short supply.
To talk about the latest from the Cuomo investigations and how those stories are affecting the budget process as well, which is supposed to resolve by next week, I'm joined by our own Gwynne Hogan, who reports for WNYC and Gothamist. Hi, Gwynne.
Gwynne Hogan: Hey there. Good morning, Brian.
Brian Lehrer: What can you tell us about these COVID tests for his brother, the CNN host, Chris Cuomo, and other family members?
Gwynne Hogan: Well, so last night, the Times Union and the Washington Post reported on this that top state doctors and health officials were going door-to-door collecting samples from members of Cuomo's family, Cuomo's brother, his mother, and others and other people in his inner circle.
This was very early on in the pandemic when it was all but impossible to get a test in the state. If you remember, City Health officials were telling us stay home, don't get a test unless you need to be hospitalized because all of the things that it took to get people tested were in short supply, including things like Q-tips, the swabs, the nasal swabs that took the samples.
The Washington Post had some other details in their story about state nurses going to penthouses in Manhattan, also to collect samples, and they reported that they called them specials. The other part of this is that these samples, according to the Times Union were then prioritized for processing at the State Health Lab. Another issue early on with testing was that you could get tested maybe, but then you wouldn't get your results for days and days and days, and then what utility did that test even have?
Brian Lehrer: That's certainly unseemly to use his advantage as governor of the state that way, is it illegal?
Gwynne Hogan: It certainly raises ethical questions. I don't know if it breaches a specific law, but there are lots of ethical questions here, medical ethics questions, and ethics questions about use of his own power in office to benefit those in his immediate circle that I'm sure will come up into consideration one of these many, many investigations that are ongoing.
Brian Lehrer: What's the governor's response been so far to this latest scandal?
Gwynne Hogan: His spokesperson has said, we in the early days were putting a heavy emphasis on contact tracing, and we were going above and beyond to get people tested. They say that they assisted members of the general public, legislators, reporters, state workers, and their families who feared that they had contracted the virus. They mentioned that there was door-to-door testing in New Rochelle, although that was definitely not a statewide initiative.
Brian Lehrer: Is there any indication from the reporting so far that Cuomo was alone among the powerful in doing this? Were other state leaders, other high-ranking politicians--? Let's just keep it in the government realm, I'm sure there were rich people all over the private sector who were finding ways to pay people to hustle them up some COVID tests.
Gwynne Hogan: [laughs]
Brian Lehrer: It's a different thing when it's your elected leaders who are supposed to be representing everybody equally. Is there any indication that the governor was unique or rare in this, or maybe that high-ranking elected officials were using their privilege to get COVID test for their families and friends too?
Gwynne Hogan: That's a great question, and I don't know. I think we're just starting to shake some of this out, and I think that we'll see how broadly it extended to other top officials, the several reports that Pat Foy from the MTA was also somebody who received a COVID test. I'm sure that we'll be learning more about this in the coming weeks as we learn more about all these investigations.
Brian Lehrer: One of the investigations is being launched by the state assembly to the sexual misconduct accusations against the governor. That investigation is coming under a lot of fire, and some of the alleged victims won't cooperate with it, because they think the law firm that the assembly has hired for this, is actually too close to the governor. Can you explain why they feel that way?
Gwynne Hogan: Yes. The assembly launched this probe and it actually has a very broad scope. It's not just sexual harassment allegations, although they originally launched it or just said that they would launch it after all the sexual harassment allegations emerged. It's also looking at the nursing home cover-up of deaths of nursing home residents.
It's also looking at the Mario M. Cuomo bridge, reports from the Time Union that structural issues were withheld and covered up by the Cuomo administration.
So this is like a huge sprawling thing. They picked this firm, Davis Polk, and that firm's longtime partner, Dennis Glazer, he retired almost a decade ago in 2012, but he'd been at the firm for three decades. He is a very close Cuomo ally. After his retirement, he was appointed to the Board of Sunni. He was also appointed to the State Gaming Commission, and his wife is Janet DiFiore, who is the Chief Justice on the Appeals Court. If this ever makes it to an impeachment trial, she would be a juror in that proceeding because of the way that the state--
Brian Lehrer: Handpick by Cuomo, she is right, right?
Gwynne Hogan: Yes, she is also a Cuomo appointee. Right. They have raised Debra Katz, who represents Charlotte Bennett, who is one of the women who's come forward, alleging sexual harassment by Cuomo. Allegations that Cuomo has not explicitly denied. She says that basically, we can't go beyond this. This is a conflict of interest that is deeply concerning.
After the state assembly had a Judiciary Committee hearing where they asked these attorneys many times about this potential conflict of interest, and some of the lawmakers said that they came away satisfied that they were able to carry out this investigation, but there are still questions if the women will participate because they also see-- I've talked to some of them, especially Ana Liss, who there's this perception that this is a political process. This is a committee that's run by Democrats, there's only one Republican. Whether or not they will be willing to question the governor's authority remains to be seen. They fear that this is too political of a process, and they're not sure that they're going to participate.
Brian Lehrer: Last question for now on this. The budget deadline, as I mentioned, is coming up next week, it's April 1st every year, there are so many policies and there's so much spending on education, on health care, on everything that's at stake right now. There are always complicated negotiations between the legislature and the governor.
They did get one of the governor's long-standing priorities to an agreement this week, apparently, marijuana legalization. We're going to do a separate segment on that tomorrow, but is there any way to tell whether the governor scandal and the fact that he's at least controversial in the legislature, now there's division about him among Democrats in the legislature is going to wind up with any policy repercussions that are going to affect regular New Yorkers?
Gwynne Hogan: It's really going to be interesting to watch this next week. The state legislature wants to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, New Yorkers that make more than $5 million a year. They want to use those funds to do things that would make a difference in New Yorker's lives, things like creating a pot of money that would provide direct relief to undocumented New Yorkers who haven't had any relief from the state or federal government during the pandemic, to freeze tuition hikes with SUNY and CUNY.
Cuomo has said he doesn't want to do this, he says that the state budget director was able to find $5 billion and that with the federal aid, they don't need to raise these taxes. It's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. The state legislature could vote it down but then they risk Cuomo blaming them for a budget showdown and a state shutdown if they don't come to an agreement.
Brian Lehrer: Not boring times in Albany and New York state. WNYC's Gwynne Hogan, thanks for the update.
Gwynne Hogan: Thank you.
Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, more to come.
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