In final act before disbandment, New York ethics panel releases report on Cuomo pandemic book

A soon-to-be-disbanded ethics panel in New York State voted this week to release a report critiquing its own approval of disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s book deal in which he lauded his own response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The near-unanimous vote will allow the public to see the Joint Commission on Public Ethics’s own internal report detailing how it gave the greenlight to allow Cuomo to profit off of "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a book detailing Cuomo’s much-followed response to the early COVID crisis in New York.

The vote was done at a margin of 10-to-1; the holdout was William Fisher, one of the last two Cuomo appointees on the board.

The oversight committee subsequently released the report, which had been conducted by British-American law firm Hogan Lovells. 

JCOPE will cease to exist after Friday, being replaced by the new state Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government following a budget provision finalized in April.