It's now legal in New York to write an autobiography during a pandemic while people are dying

 

Politico 

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo won a lawsuit Tuesday in which he challenged New York’s defunct ethics agency’s attempt to seize his profits from a $5.1 million book deal about the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics determined last year that Cuomo improperly used state staff and resources while writing his 2020 memoir on the pandemic, “American Crisis.” It ordered him to surrender his compensation to the state.

But Cuomo’s legal team refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the JCOPE ruling, and Albany County Supreme Court Justice Denise Hartman issued a decision that sided with him on Tuesday afternoon.

Hartman determined that JCOPE’s actions against the ex-governor would “violate due process” by not following the proper procedures for bringing an action and overstepping its authority.

“JCOPE was seeking to impose sanctions for Cuomo’s alleged non-compliance with JCOPE’s outside activities rules,” she wrote. But state law says it can “impose sanctions only for violation of the statute, not for violations of JCOPE’s rules.”

Cuomo’s team quickly praised the decision.

“JCOPE’s utter lawlessness in its treatment of Governor Cuomo has been exposed and the rule of law prevailed,” attorney Rita Glavin said in a statement. “JCOPE’s conduct was shameful, unlawful, and a waste of taxpayer’s funds.”

The Democratic governor resigned a year ago amid sexual harassment allegations, and the book was widely criticized for its large payout to Cuomo and months later when a state report found his administration undercounted Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent.