Cuomo Now Being Investigated Over $4 Million Book Deal Celebrating His Pandemic Leadership, Janice Dean Calls It ‘Disgusting’

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Fox News meteorologist and author Janice Dean slammed Governor Andrew Cuomo after reports surfaced that he may have received upwards of $4 million for a book he wrote celebrating his leadership during the pandemic.

The matter is apparently being investigated by the State Assembly.

“This is disgusting,” Dean tweeted. “4 million dollars for his horrid book.”

Dean shared a bombshell report from the New York Times alleging that Cuomo had been offered the extraordinarily large sum for his book, that his top aides helped write or edit significant portions of it, and that they may have done so using state resources.

The Times report also notes that the book deal “overlapped with the move by his most senior aides to reshape a report about nursing home deaths in a way that insulated the governor from criticism and burnished his image.”

Last month, the Wall Street Journal published a report indicating advisers to Cuomo “successfully pushed state health officials to strip a public report of data showing that more nursing-home residents had died of Covid-19 than the administration had acknowledged.”

And this all took place with a lucrative book deal as a backdrop according to the Times.

“The revisions occurred as the governor was on the brink of a huge payoff: a book deal that ended with a high offer of more than $4 million, according to people with knowledge of the book’s bidding process,” they reveal.

RELATED: Cuomo Defiant As Top Democrats Call On Him To Resign: You’ll Have To Impeach Me

Dean Slams ‘Disgusting’ Cuomo

The New York Times points out that Cuomo’s book about “leadership lessons” during the pandemic was being developed in a state “where nearly 50,000 people have died.”

It touches on the New York Democrat’s nursing home scandal, in which his executive order forced facilities to take in COVID-positive patients, which may have unnecessarily killed thousands of seniors, and how administration officials admitted they hid those numbers.

“While thousands were dying,” Dean wrote, “[Cuomo] and his administration were working on his awful, horrible, fictional book about leadership.”

“(And actively hiding the true death toll numbers in nursing homes),” she added.

The controversy over the book deal goes beyond the figures being thrown around, something the New York Times describes as “a large sum for an author whose previous memoir, ‘All Things Possible,’ from 2014, sold fewer than 4,000 hardcover copies.”

The report indicates Cuomo had top aides write significant portions of the $4 million book, possibly using state resources.

“Mr. Cuomo also utilized the resources of his office — from his inner circle to far more junior personnel — to help with the manuscript,” they write.

The Times notes that a review of emails and an early draft indicate Cuomo had been “relying on a cadre of trusted aides and junior staffers for everything from full-scale edits to minor clerical work” to aid in producing the manuscript.

They suggest such actions may have been “potentially running afoul of state laws prohibiting use of public resources for personal gain.”

Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor, was tasked with denying allegations throughout the report, and did so on this matter as well.

Azzopardi claims aides who helped work on the manuscript or draft “volunteered” to do so during their free time, something he suggests is “permissible and consistent with ethical requirements” of New York state government.

RELATED: Cuomo Slammed For Selling COVID Poster As New York Leads The Nation In Deaths

Cuomo Under Investigation For Possible $4 Million Book Deal

Lohud.com is reporting that the bombshell $4 million book deal report is leading to its inclusion in an ongoing Assembly investigation into Cuomo.

“Add questions about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s lucrative book deal to the growing list of issues that will be investigated in a sweeping probe by the Assembly Judiciary Committee into myriad allegations against the embattled governor,” they write.

Still, Assemblyman Charles Lavine (D) reveals that the main focus of the investigation remains the numerous allegations of sexual harassment against Cuomo, along with the nursing home scandal and other matters.

“While the Assembly investigation will look into those allegations, the Judiciary Committee’s primary focus remains investigation into issues related to sexual harassment, the nursing homes and bridge safety,” he said according to Lohud.com.

The New York Times reports that one draft of Cuomo’s $4 million book effort includes a glowing review of himself.

“I have experience and a skill set that qualifies me as a good governor,” he wrote. “I have accomplished by any objective standard more than any governor in modern history. But I am not a superhero.”

If anything, hiding how your policies killed thousands of seniors, serially harassing women (allegedly), and possibly using your subordinates and state resources to write a book glossing over all of those things qualifies Cuomo as a supervillain.

Or, as Dean tweeted, he’s simply “rotten to the core.”

 

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By Rusty Weiss
Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox ... More about Rusty Weiss
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