Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo will not be required to turn over the millions of dollars earned from his book deal, settling a monthslong legal dispute that pitted New York’s former leader against a government watchdog, according to a court ruling handed down Tuesday.

Cuomo will be permitted at least temporarily to hold on to the $5.1 million he raked in from the sales of American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, published October 2020, because the now-defunct Joint Commission on Public Ethics “effectively attempted to bypass the administrative procedures set forth in Executive Law” and violated Cuomo’s due process protections, Judge Denise Hartman of the New York Supreme Court wrote in granting Cuomo’s motion for voluntary discontinuance and dismissing JCOPE’s countersuit claims.

“In essence, the question distills to this: Did JCOPE have authority to seek a judicial injunction to enforce Resolution 22-02, without having pursued its administrative procedures required by Executive Law?” the judge wrote, referencing a March resolution from JCOPE holding Cuomo “lacked legal authority to engage in outside activity and receive compensation” from the book. JCOPE “has no such authority” and therefore “failed to state an underlying cause of action in asserting its counterclaim,” the court found.

CUOMO ‘COERCED’ ETHICS PANEL INTO FAST-TRACKING BOOK DEAL, INVESTIGATION SAYS

Cuomo’s team celebrated the ruling.

“As we’ve said all along, everything – the AG’s report, the Assembly and now J-COPE – has been about politics – the facts and the law be damned – and every time one of these cases goes before a neutral arbiter, the law prevails,” Rich Azzopardi, a Cuomo spokesman, said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner. “As the court rightly pointed out, J-COPE – clearly in an attempt to settle petty political grievances – violated its own laws and procedures. Every commissioner and staff member who went along with this farce should be ashamed, embarrassed and not be allowed within 10 feet of a courtroom.”

Rita Glavin, an attorney for the former governor, slammed JCOPE’s “utter lawlessness,” arguing the ethics body’s conduct was “shameful, unlawful, and a waste of taxpayer’s funds.”

The former governor was accused of coercing the ethics panel into fast-tracking his book deal, an investigation found in July. Cuomo’s team rejected arguments that he was prevented from writing about the pandemic, saying the topic was covered by the terms under which a public official can write a book for compensation.

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Last year, JCOPE voted to hire outside counsel to review the book deal, and other branches of state government also scrutinized the arrangement, with Attorney General Letitia James issuing at least one subpoena last September as part of her review of the allegations that Cuomo used state resources to promote the book. Cuomo insisted members of his staff volunteered to help with the book, though his office acknowledged there might have been “incidental” use of state resources.

Cuomo resigned on Aug. 24, 2021, weeks after James released a report indicating he sexually harassed 11 women. He denied all allegations of inappropriate touching.

Original Location: Cuomo can keep book money for now, court rules

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