Panel orders ex-NY governor Cuomo to return book proceeds

Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo has been ordered by the state’s ethics commission to give up millions of dollars a publisher paid him to write a book about his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

An attorney for Cuomo immediately calls the action unconstitutional and promised a fight.

Cuomo is directed to turn over proceeds earned from “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” within 30 days under a resolution approved 12-1 by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, according to multiple media reports.

The order comes a month after the commission voted to rescind the ethics approval it had given Cuomo before he entered into the $5.1 million book deal.

“American Crisis” was published in October 2020, months before Cuomo resigned amid findings he sexually harassed 11 women.