Cuomo impeachment investigation will be 'very broad,' New York State lawmaker says

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Speaker of the New York State Assembly Carl Heastie said on Monday that the impeachment investigation into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be "very broad," hinting it may extend beyond sexual harassment allegations.

In addition to claims of inappropriate behavior brought forward by multiple women, the New York State Assembly's Judiciary Committee probe could look into the project to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge and how the governor’s office handled care of nursing home patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, as first reported by The New York Post over the weekend.

And while calls are mounting for Cuomo to resign, Heastie said many members of the New York State Assembly are willing to wait until the investigation has concluded before moving forward with impeachment.

"There are some members who want, you know, an -- I'd say an immediate consideration of impeachment, but … almost everybody believes in due process," Heastie said.

Heastie declined to say how long he expected the investigation to take but said that the selection of the outside firm that would assist the Judiciary Committee would be announced later this week.

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In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Democrats asked for an investigation into the Tappan Zee Bridge Project after it was reported that there are structural concerns over bolts used. Cuomo renamed the bridge after his father, Mario Cuomo, which was opened to the public in 2018.

"The bridge has been and continues to be safe for the traveling public," project director Jamey Barbas responded. "In addition to the extensive testing and analysis already performed, the entire structure is routinely inspected and monitored, and during our most recent biennial inspection, we found no additional bolt failures of concern. These inspection results match the findings of our testing program which concluded that future bolt failures, if any, will be extremely rare and inconsequential."

Cuomo also has come under fire for issuing a directive that required nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients released from hospitals. The administration has been accused of underreporting nursing home deaths after it recently came out with statistics that are much higher than what it had previously reported.

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Seven women have publicly made allegations of inappropriate conduct against Cuomo. He has refused to resign and has denied many of the claims brought forward.

The three-term Democrat explained that his "playful" behavior may have been misinterpreted, or it may have been "insensitive" or "too playful."

New York Attorney General Letitia James is also probing the sexual harassment claims against Cuomo.

Fox News’ Tara Prindville contributed to this report.