Who paid for Cuomo’s attorney briefings?

When Gov. Cuomo was defending himself against sexual harassment allegations, his outside counsel called two virtual briefings. The state seal was visible, and the American Sign Language interpreter that the governor used in his daily coronavirus updates was part of these briefings.

However, these were briefings by his outside counsel. So we wondered if the state was paying with your tax dollars and if that was appropriate.

We emailed the governor’s office before he resigned to ask. We got no response.

So we filed a Freedom of Information request, and we got some records Thursday. It’s an invoice that shows the total cost of the two virtual briefings in August is more than $33,000.

We also asked how the costs were or will be paid. We were told those records are not yet available. If we still want those, we will have to file another Freedom of Information request at a later date.

We plan to and will keep you posted.