The New York Attorney General’s office will be extending its contracts with two outside firms investigating sexual harassment allegations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo until late December, according to several sources familiar with the matter.
The contracts for the firms were originally set to expire on September 6, but final documentation is being drawn up to extend the agreement, sources say.
According to the sources, the request to extend the contracts does not necessarily signal that a long-awaited report on the allegations against Cuomo will be released later in the year, but more because there is a chance investigators could be assisting a separate probe by the State Assembly.
Cuomo is facing numerous allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by both former and current employees.
The governor authorized the attorney general’s investigation on February 28 after three women stepped forward to accuse the governor of inappropriate behavior. Several other women came forward in the weeks after the investigation was first launched, including one unnamed woman who accused Cuomo of sexual assault at the governor’s mansion.
At first, Cuomo urged New Yorkers and lawmakers to “trust the process,” but more recently the governor’s office has started to accuse Attorney General Letitia James of using the investigation to further her political interests and potentially challenge Cuomo in a primary in 2022.
After the attorney general’s office was given a formal referral by the governor to launch an investigation, James chose Joon Kim, a former federal prosecutor, and Anne Clark, a prominent employment lawyer, to lead the investigation on March 8.
These lawyers have already spent almost five months interviewing the women involved under oath, as well as numerous top advisors to the governor.
According to sources, Cuomo was scheduled to sit for an interview with investigators on July 17, and it was believed that the investigation might be entering its final phases.
Cuomo has agreed to cooperate fully with the investigation.
The findings of this investigation are expected to be released in a public report.
Since the launch of the attorney general’s investigation, the Assembly Judiciary Committee also launched its own impeachment investigation into not only the sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo, but also into whether the Cuomo administration withheld the number of COVID-related nursing home deaths, whether Cuomo used state resources to write his pandemic book and more.