{"id":550801,"date":"2021-06-03T11:51:37","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T15:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=550801"},"modified":"2021-06-03T11:51:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T15:51:39","slug":"new-york-taxpayers-paying-andrew-cuomos-2-5-million-legal-fees-for-sexual-misconduct-allegations-pandemic-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-york-taxpayers-paying-andrew-cuomos-2-5-million-legal-fees-for-sexual-misconduct-allegations-pandemic-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Taxpayers Paying Andrew Cuomo\u2019s $2.5 Million Legal Fees For Sexual Misconduct Allegations, Pandemic Probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnew-york-taxpayers-paying-andrew-cuomos-2-5-million-legal-fees-for-sexual-misconduct-allegations-pandemic-probe%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=550801&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1232809591.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Even though Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) was paid $5 million for his book about alleged pandemic leadership and is about to host a $10,000-a-person fundraiser for his upcoming election bid, New York taxpayers are footing the bill for his legal defense.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Post <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/06\/02\/despite-5m-book-deal-gov-cuomo-making-taxpayers-foot-2-5m-legal-defense-tab\/\">reported<\/a> that taxpayers are paying $900 an hour for Cuomo\u2019s lead defense lawyer, who is defending the embattled governor from multiple allegations of sexual harassment, allegations that he used staffers to write the book about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and allegations that he and his staff attempted to deceive the public by hiding the true number of nursing home deaths that occurred after Cuomo\u2019s administration mandated nursing homes accept COVID-positive patients. The costs for Cuomo\u2019s lengthy defense tab total $2.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe $2.5 million deal, revealed in a contract made public through a Freedom of Information Request by The Post, was struck even though Cuomo sold the rights to his coronavirus memoir for $5.1 million and has around $17 million in his campaign war chest,\u201d the Post reported. \u201cThe three-term Democrat is also holding a $10,000-a-head fundraiser later this month amid an ongoing impeachment probe by the state Assembly\u2019s Judiciary Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cuomo, who also is paid $225,000 a year \u2013 the highest paid governor in the country \u2013 defended his use of taxpayer money to cover his legal bills.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe state \u2014 the way it works is the Executive Chamber has retained the counsel and that is a state expense,\u201d Cuomo said at a recent news conference, according to the Post. \u201cThat has been [the case] in every investigation. So that\u2019s where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the press conference, Cuomo was asked if he was paying for any additional attorneys with his own money or from his campaign fund, to which he responded, \u201cNot at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Post spoke to Common Cause New York executive director Susan Lerner, who said Cuomo \u201cshould be holding fundraisers in the middle of an ongoing investigation to pay off his legal fees \u2014 not to pad his war chest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs Common Cause\/NY has previously recommended, politicians who are subject to civil and\/or criminal investigation should refrain from paying for their defense with either tax-dollars or campaign funds, and instead set up a Legal Defense Fund,\u201d Lerner added. \u201cThat way, they can transparently raise money from willing donors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As The Daily Wire has previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/andrew-cuomo-under-investigation-again-this-time-for-allegedly-using-state-resources-for-his-book-about-pandemic-leadership\">reported<\/a>, Cuomo faces numerous investigations for his actions as governor, including a federal inquiry into his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a state investigation into numerous sexual misconduct and assault allegations against the governor, a State Assembly inquiry into those allegations, and a state investigation into whether Cuomo made his staffers write his pandemic book for him. Cuomo and a senior adviser have insisted the aides \u201cvolunteered\u201d to work on his book, but several staffers said their work wasn\u2019t voluntary. It\u2019s also difficult to imagine they really faced a choice, given Cuomo\u2019s position of power over them.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even though Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) was paid $5 million for his book about alleged pandemic leadership and is about to host a $10,000-a-person fundraiser for his upcoming election bid, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2279061,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1232809591.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"New York Taxpayers Paying Andrew Cuomo\u2019s $2.5 Million Legal Fees For Sexual Misconduct Allegations, Pandemic Probe","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-550801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1232809591.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"New York Taxpayers Paying Andrew Cuomo\u2019s $2.5 Million Legal Fees For Sexual Misconduct Allegations, Pandemic Probe","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}