Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo has 30 days to pay back revenue from the $5.1 million deal he received to publish American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, per CNN. 

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The Joint Commission on Public Ethics has ordered Cuomo to return the funds based on allegations he used state resources to create it. The book, which was published by Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, focuses on Cuomo’s time and actions leading New York during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

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“This is political hypocrisy and duplicity at its worst,” spokesman Rich Azzopardi said of JCOPE’s claims, per CNN. He, along with Cuomo’s attorney Jim McGuire, maintain their client’s innocence. 

“Governor Cuomo received a JCOPE opinion and advice of counsel stating that government resources could not be used—and they weren’t—and any staffer who assisted in this project did so on their own time, which was reflected on their timesheets.” 

Cuomo’s book contract was approved by JCOPE in 2020. BNC previously reported he was paid a $3.1 million advance to write the book and was set to earn another $2 million over the next two years. It was rescinded in November by a 12-1 vote. 

In a previous statement, Azzopardi called JCOPE a “j-joke,” saying the members were “acting outside the scope of their authority and are carrying the water of the politicians who appointed them.” 

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Cuomo resigned as governor in August after many women, including a former aide, came forward with sexual harassment allegations against him. During his resignation speech, he said the “most serious allegations” lacked “credible factual basis.” 

Cuomo’s use of state resources for the book is also the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who recently dropped out of the gubernatorial race.