Albany District Attorney David Soares announced Tuesday that despite being “deeply troubled” by workplace sexual harassment allegations like those leveled against former Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, his office would not be criminally prosecuting Cuomo.
Statement from @DavidSoaresNY
@andrewcuomo will not be criminally prosecuted pic.twitter.com/3LYay7ECaf
— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) January 4, 2022
The Albany County DA’s Office released a full statement on the matter:
Albany County District Attorney David Soares announced today that a thorough and independent review of the investigation into the allegations against Governor Andrew Cuomo has concluded.
“While many have an opinion regarding the allegations against the former Governor, the Albany County DA’s Office is the only one who has a burden to prove the elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. While we found the complainant in this case cooperative and credible, after review of all the available evidence we have concluded that we cannot meet our burden at trial. As such we have notified the Court that we are declining to prosecute this matter and requesting the charges filed by the Albany County Sheriff be dismissed.”
“I, like most New Yorkers, remain deeply troubled by allegations like the ones at issue here. Such conduct has no place in government or in any workplace. Although avenues for criminal prosecution in these cases are sometimes limited, I encourage victims of workplace harassment and abuse to continue to come forward and bring these issues to light so that these important discussions can continued,” commented District Attorney Soares.
The decision to discontinue criminal prosecution is unrelated to any possible civil liability, which is beyond the scope of a District Attorney’s jurisdiction.
Soares did draw a distinction between criminal prosecution and civil prosecution, noting that it was beyond his office’s jurisdiction to make a determination regarding potential civil cases against the former governor.
The news comes just days after it was announced that the probe into Cuomo’s actions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — particularly with regard to nursing home policies that allowed COVID-19 positive patients to be admitted — had ended, and the former governor would not be prosecuted in that matter either.
A lawyer for the administration of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says a probe into its handling of Covid-19 in nursing homes has ended https://t.co/ehyazJgWrp
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 3, 2022
Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, who lost both her mother-in-law and father-in-law to COVID-19 in New York nursing homes, immediately suggested that Cuomo had made “deals” to keep himself out of prison.
‘Making Deals With The Devil’: Janice Dean Rips Manhattan DA For Closing Investigation Into Cuomo, Nursing Home Deaths https://t.co/C3dYovfZ4d pic.twitter.com/haLEmufUmZ
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 4, 2022
“Also worth mentioning and deserves attention: It was Cuomo’s lawyer (and then his henchmen Rich Azzopardi) who announced the Manhattan DA’s nursing home probe was over. Not the DA’s office under @AlvinBraggNYC who still has ‘no comment,'” Dean noted.
“Andrew Cuomo made lots of deals before he left office. He still has bags of money and leftover power to burn,” she said. “…not to mention very weak lawmakers who have no spine or moral compass.”
“Here a list of all the DA’s (so far) that have been dropping cases against Andrew Cuomo despite “credible” and “deeply troubling” evidence: @WestchesterDA, @NassauDA, @AlvinBraggNYC, @DavidSoaresNY,” she added.