New York lawmakers reverse course, announce they'll finish Cuomo impeachment probe and release a final report

• Top New York legislative Democrats will complete their impeachment investigation of Gov. Cuomo.
• State Assembly leaders are reversing course after initially stating they would suspend the probe.
• Cuomo will resign from office effective August 25 over sexual harassment allegations.

Top Democrats in the New York state legislature will complete their impeachment investigation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, reversing course after announcing they'd suspend the impeachment probe on Friday due to Cuomo's imminent resignation from office.

"The Assembly Judiciary Committee will continue to review evidence and issue a final report on its investigation of Governor Cuomo," Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Assemblyman Charles Levine, chair of the chamber's Judiciary Committee, said in a Monday statement.

"In doing so, the committee will take all appropriate steps to ensure that this effort does not interfere with various ongoing investigations by the United States Attorney concerning nursing home data; the attorney general concerning the Governor's memoir; and local law enforcement authorities in five jurisdictions...concerning allegations of sexual harassment," the statement continued.

Cuomo announced he plans to resign from office, effective August 25, after a bombshell report by independent investigators hired by the New York attorney general's office concluded that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women as governor.

Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul will take over as governor upon Cuomo's resignation.

The impeachment probe, which is separate from the attorney general's investigation, is examining the sexual harassment allegations, whether the Cuomo administration deliberately undercounted and covered up nursing home deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, and if Cuomo abused state resources to write a book on his handling of the pandemic.

As Heastie's and Levine's statement noted, those matters are also the subject of other civil and criminal investigations at the federal, state, and local levels.

State assembly leaders initially stated that they would shutter the impeachment investigation, launched in March, and turn their findings over to law enforcement. The move drew criticism from Cuomo accuser Charlotte Bennet, who said Heastie was "taking the coward's way out."