Three years ago today, Aug. 3, 2021, Attorney General Tish James published a report by private lawyers she commissioned, Joon Kim and Anne Clark, faulting then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo for what they said was sexual harassment and Cuomo soon resigned, as this column urged him to do.
James said, “the investigators independently corroborated and substantiated these facts through interviews and evidence, including contemporaneous notes and communications. This evidence will be made available to the public, along with the report.”
Two years ago today, Aug. 3, 2022, this column wrote that critical evidence to the 165-page report, the memos of the interviews from the 179 people questioned in the investigation, must be released and the Daily News had been denied the records by James when we filed a request under the state Freedom of Information Law.
One year ago today, Aug. 3, 2023, this column wrote again about the hidden 179 memos. One of the memos, of former state official Howard Zemsky did surface, where Zemsky told of a sexual relationship with Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to accuse Cuomo. Yet in Boylan’s own sworn deposition (one of the 41 redacted transcripts released by James) Boylan denied any sexual acts with Zemsky. That might be perjury.
And so again today, Aug. 3, 2024, this column asks that the 179 memos be released.
Cuomo filed his own FOIL for the memos last July, along with the unredacted transcripts. The AG is veeery slowly handing over the transcripts, but they still have redactions. And the AG has refused to provide the memos. The matter is before Acting Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Moyne. Moyne ruled last week that all the unredacted transcripts be given to him, the judge, but yesterday the AG got an appellate order blocking that.
In a May 22 oral argument on the case, the denied FOIL request of the Daily News was brought up 38 times by either Cuomo’s lawyer, the AG’s lawyer or Moyne. But Moyne still hasn’t ruled on the AG’s refusal on the memos, which we were told were denied to us on the grounds of attorney-client privilege and attorney work product exemption, when neither situation applies.
Two days later, on May 24, former Cuomo aide Rich Azzopardi filed his own FOIL for the memos. On June 3 he received an acknowledgement from the AG’s office and that his request would have a status update by July 2. That is similar to what we got when we submitted in 2022 and again in 2023. But on July 2, instead of a denial like we got twice, Azzopardi was told:
“Please be advised that we are diligently engaged in the process of preparing a response to your above-referenced FOIL request. We estimate that this Office will complete this process and have its response to you by Oct. 2, 2024. This additional time is needed for the following reasons:
• the volume of records that must be reviewed in order to respond to your request; and
• the detailed nature of the review required to respond to your request.”
Something has changed. No denial. No claim of attorney-client privilege. No claim of attorney work product exemption.
We will now file the same exact FOIL request for the third time. Maybe by Aug. 3, 2025 these public records will finally be made public.
