Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander.
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander went after his greatest rival within the 2025 NYC mayor’s race, Andrew Cuomo, over the escalating price in state taxpayer {dollars} spent defending the previous governor in a litany of lawsuits linked to scandals practically 4 years after Cuomo resigned.
The presser adopted a report within the New York Legislation Journal in regards to the state spending roughly $60 million on authorized issues associated to the scandals that finally led Cuomo to resign in August 2021.
“Let’s be clear about this: Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed 13 women, and now he’s legally harassing them, and he’s making taxpayers an accessory to his harassment and bullying,” Lander mentioned, referring to the variety of girls alleging misconduct cited in a 2024 Division of Justice report on the accusations.
Cuomo fiercely denies the allegations, and his workforce factors to 5 district attorneys who declined to carry felony prices over a few of them as vindication.
The comptroller based mostly his broadside on the Legislation Journal report, which cited information from the state comptroller’s workplace. Nonetheless, that report additionally made clear that enormous swaths of the $60 million sum weren’t instantly spent on Cuomo’s authorized bills.
It was beforehand reported that the state had spent $28 million to this point on representing Cuomo and others in authorized issues associated to his alleged conduct.
Cuomo marketing campaign hits again
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Cuomo’s spokesperson, Wealthy Azzopardi, disputed Lander’s assertion that he spent $60 million defending himself in court docket.
Azzopardi identified that the sum cited within the Legislation Journal report contains outdoors counsel that state businesses employed after state Lawyer Normal Letitia James’ workplace declined to symbolize them in authorized issues. He additionally painted probes into Cuomo’s dealing with of the pandemic, which revolved round his edict that COVID-19 sufferers be readmitted to nursing properties, as political investigations based mostly on January findings from the US Division of Justice’s Inspector Normal.
Azzopardi, in a press release, additional blasted Lander over a New York Publish report alleging that he’s divesting the town’s pension funds from Israeli authorities bonds, in what it described as a break of apply from pior metropolis comptrollers and his state counterpart.
“Brad Lander should be more concerned about his ethical lapses stemming from his anti-Israel pension fund divestment strategy than about legal fees stemming from the AG’s multiple recusals and to defend from COVID investigations that the DOJ inspector general found were a corrupt and politicized use of federal resources,” Azzopardi mentioned.
Lander on Monday disputed that report, claiming it’s his workplace’s longstanding coverage to not instantly spend money on international sovereign debt. He added that the town’s pension funds are nonetheless invested in Israeli corporations.
“We don’t directly purchase the bonds of foreign countries,” Lander advised reporters. “And so that’s the policy that I have followed as comptroller.”
How the cash was spent
In keeping with the New York Legislation Journal report, solely about $18 million of the $60 million was instantly spent by Cuomo on defending in opposition to three civil lawsuits introduced by a few of his sexual harassment accusers. Cuomo’s publicly funded counsel is roofed below the state Public Officers Legislation.
A lot of the remainder of the sum was spent in additional oblique methods.
An $11.7 million chunk was spent on investigations paid for via state funds appropriations, in keeping with the report. These embody James’ 2021 probe into Cuomo’s allegations, an inquiry into the previous governor’s dealing with of COVID-19, impeachment proceedings in opposition to him, and different issues.
The remaining $31.3 million was spent on state company contracts with outdoors regulation companies. These had been for investigations into the accusations in opposition to Cuomo, his pandemic response, and the $5 million e-book deal about his administration’s dealing with of COVID-19.
Throughout his press convention, Lander urged Cuomo to decide to not spending a “single additional cent” of taxpayer cash on his authorized protection and to reimburse New Yorkers for what the state has already spent.
“Sixty million dollars is enough,” Lander mentioned. “It’s really a simple question. Andrew, now that you’ve spent approximately $60 million in taxpayer funds on your personal legal defense, including for your serial sexual harassment, will you commit today that anything additional that you spend on legal defense comes out of your pocket or comes out of the pockets of the billionaires who are supporting you?”
