Overview

• State Supreme Court Justice Denise Hartman wrote that taxpayers should not fund Cuomo’s use of discovery to “resurrect his public image.”
• Hartman granted Brittany Commisso’s motion to discontinue her civil case and denied Cuomo’s request to make discovery text messages public.
• New York comptroller data indicate taxpayers have paid at least $20 million for Cuomo’s legal defense in harassment matters, including at least $724,000 tied to Commisso’s case.
• Cuomo is running for mayor as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani, and his spokesman says the texts would exonerate him and should be released.
• Commisso filed her lawsuit in late 2023 under the Adult Survivors Act, and a local district attorney later declined to prosecute her related criminal complaint for insufficient evidence.