Statement from Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt

After nine months of slow-walking, starts and stops, and one of the least transparent political processes in New York history, it is a great relief for taxpayers that the Assembly has finally concluded their sham Cuomo impeachment “investigation.”

This report is no profile in courage - it’s a profile in cowardice. For months, the Democrat-led Judiciary Committee was content to let our state Attorney General and law enforcement agencies do their job for them. At the same time, Democrats in the Senate repeatedly protected and covered-up for New York’s disgraced ex-governor by refusing to use their subpoena power. 

Democrats in the Legislature completely failed in their duty to hold ex-Governor Cuomo accountable. To be clear, it is only because of intense public pressure that these findings were finally made available. 

I will continue to advocate the passage of Senate Bill No. 7336 by my colleague Senator Dan Stec, which would clarify the Legislature’s constitutional right to impeach and convict a former public official.  It is only through the impeachment process that we can be assured Andrew Cuomo never holds public office again.

My Republican colleagues and I will never stop fighting for true and transparent justice, for the sake of Cuomo’s nursing home victims, his harassment victims, and every other one of his victims. We remain hopeful that the findings of the multiple ongoing criminal investigations will finally bring about true accountability -- New Yorkers deserve nothing less.

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