{"id":246759,"date":"2021-05-11T01:07:35","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T22:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/cuomo-defends-ex-aide-schwartz-amid-ag-vax-for-play-probe\/"},"modified":"2021-05-11T01:07:35","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T22:07:35","slug":"cuomo-defends-ex-aide-schwartz-amid-ag-vax-for-play-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/cuomo-defends-ex-aide-schwartz-amid-ag-vax-for-play-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"#Cuomo defends ex-aide Schwartz amid AG vax-for-play probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Cuomo defends ex-aide Schwartz amid AG vax-for-play probe<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is standing by a former top aide who is accused of political arm-twisting on his behalf while overseeing the COVID-19 vaccine rollout \u2014 actions for which the ex-staffer is now under investigation by the state Attorney General<\/a>\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Cuomo told reporters Monday that former secretary to the governor Larry Schwartz \u201cdid a phenomenal job\u201d as the state\u2019s vaccine czar, adding, \u201cI have total confidence in him.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Cuomo also repeatedly said that Schwartz was a \u201cvolunteer\u201d when he allegedly asked county officials about their loyalty to the governor amid planning to distribute what were then extremely limited vaccine supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarry Schwartz was a volunteer, helping the vaccine effort on his own time,\u201d Cuomo said during a news<\/a> conference at his Manhattan office.<\/p>\n

\"New
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is standing by Larry Schwartz who is under investigation by the state Attorney General.<\/figcaption>
Mary Altaffer\/AP, Pool<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Saturday, two Democratic county executives told The Post they had been contacted by state investigators in regard to their conversations with Schwartz.<\/p>\n

One described undergoing a \u201cformal interview\u201d over Zoom that lasted an hour, during which the investigators requested copies of relevant phone records and text messages.<\/p>\n

The interviews were part of an expanded, independent probe by Attorney General Letitia James into a series<\/a> of misconduct allegations leveled against Cuomo in recent months, the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> Saturday, citing sources familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

\"Former
Former Secretary to the Governor Larry Schwartz is accused of political arm-twisting on Gov. Cuomo\u2019s behalf while overseeing the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.<\/figcaption>
Stephen B. Morton for Governor Andrew Cuomo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The probe, which is being conducted by outside attorneys, was initially focused on accusations that Cuomo sexually harassed female aides and later grew to include allegations that he used state workers to help prepare and promote his best-selling memoir.<\/p>\n

Cuomo\u2019s spokesman has also claimed those employees \u201cvolunteered\u201d their time.<\/p>\n

\"New
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former Secretary to the Governor Larry Schwartz are seen during a cabinet meeting on Dec. 17, 2014.<\/figcaption>
Mike Groll\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But that assertion was challenged last month, including by a former aide who reportedly said the efforts were \u201cnot optional\u201d and \u201cconsidered a part of your job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interviews about Schwartz followed reports \u2014 including in The Post \u2014 in which county executives described getting calls from him in app<\/a>arent response to the deluge of sexual harassment allegations enveloping Cuomo at the time.<\/p>\n

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, a fellow Democrat, said that Schwartz \u201creached out to discuss whether I was supportive of the governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"New
Gov. Cuomo told reporters that former secretary to the governor Larry Schwartz \u201cdid a phenomenal job.\u201d <\/figcaption>
Mike Groll\/AP, File<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI explained that there were serious allegations made and that I was supportive of an independent investigation,\u201d Bellone told The Post.<\/p>\n

Another, unidentified county executive told the New York Times that Schwartz placed a similar call immedia<\/a>tely after the official finished a conversation about the vaccination effort with a Cuomo administration official.<\/p>\n

That county executive\u2019s legal counsel filed a preliminary complaint with the attorney general\u2019s office, alleging a potential ethics violation, the Times said, citing a source with knowledge of the complaint.<\/p>\n

\"New
Gov. Andrew Cuomo repeatedly said that Larry Schwartz was a \u201cvolunteer.\u201d <\/figcaption>
Mike Groll\/AP, File<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cuomo\u2019s office has insisted that Schwartz \u201cdid not bring up vaccine distribution\u201d during his conversations with the various officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cDistorting Larry\u2019s role or intentions for headlines maligns a decades\u2019 long public servant who has done nothing but volunteer around the clock since March to help New York get through the COVID pandemic,\u201d spokesman Rich Azzopardi said this past weekend.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more News articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Cuomo defends ex-aide Schwartz amid AG vax-for-play probe” Gov. Andrew Cuomo is standing by a former top aide who is accused of political arm-twisting on his behalf while overseeing the COVID-19 vaccine rollout \u2014 actions for which the ex-staffer is now under investigation by the state Attorney General\u2019s Office. Cuomo told reporters Monday that former…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/andrew-cuomo-001-2.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[105201,70430,82862,10701,70358,72172],"class_list":["post-246759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-10-21","tag-andrew-cuomo","tag-covid-vaccine","tag-democrats","tag-investigations","tag-letitia-james"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}