America Rising Launches New FOILs To Investigate Andrew Cuomo's Huma Abedin Problem

America Rising Launches New FOILs To Investigate Andrew Cuomo’s Huma Abedin Problem

Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) is clearly setting himself up to run for president in 2020. Yet like his fellow New Yorker Hillary Clinton, Cuomo has a myriad of ethical issues that will be an albatross around his neck. This morning’s Wall Street Journal details the various activities that are already going into Cuomo’s 2020 plans. […]

March 6, 2017

Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) is clearly setting himself up to run for president in 2020. Yet like his fellow New Yorker Hillary Clinton, Cuomo has a myriad of ethical issues that will be an albatross around his neck. This morning’s Wall Street Journal details the various activities that are already going into Cuomo’s 2020 plans.

All these plans will be for naught though if Cuomo’s ethical improprieties continue to make headline news. As America Rising’s Colin Reed told the Wall Street Journal, the specter of former Cuomo aide Joseph Percoco’s federal charges will not abate as a negative story for Cuomo:

“Colin Reed, director of the conservative political action committee America Rising, said his group has begun training its sights on Mr. Cuomo, and Mr. Percoco’s scandal could be important to its opposition efforts. Mr. Reed said he saw it turning into a ‘thing…where the closest aide becomes a story of their own and carries baggage.’”

Percoco after all was about as close to Andrew Cuomo as the embattled Huma Abedin was to Hillary Clinton. The Percoco connections could have just as devastating results as Abedin’s repeated ethical lapses had on Hillary Clinton’s presidential run.

America Rising’s focus on the Cuomo-Percoco nexus is motivated by our belief that New Yorkers have a right to know if Percoco, indicted for six corruption charges, is still using his considerable Cuomo connections to help his new employer Madison Square Garden. In order to shine on light on this, America Rising has filed three new Freedom Of Information Law requests specifically targeting officials and agencies most likely to have come in contact with Percoco:

3.6.17 Joseph Percoco FOIL by America Rising PAC on Scribd

 

Of particular interest to America Rising is the fact that last year the New York Daily News highlighted Percoco’s employment with MSG as motivated by their need to “bolster its efforts” to avoid paying property taxes:

“Two years ago, the New York City Council passed a resolution asking Gov. Cuomo to sign legislation to repeal MSG’s real property tax exemption, but Cuomo has gone on the record saying he is not in favor of removing the tax relief. In a recent sign that MSG is trying to bolster its efforts on the issue, one of Cuomo’s trusted advisers, Joseph Percoco, left his post as Cuomo’s executive deputy secretary in December to work for MSG as a senior vice president.”

America Rising hopes its three new FOILs might shine on light on whether Percoco used his influence in Albany to help the NBA’s most valuable franchise avoid millions in property taxes. If that turns out to be the case, Cuomo could save himself the time and effort and stop his 2020 plans in their tracks.