(WBNG) — Legal experts say there is no clear end in sight for the multiple investigations into New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D).
Patrick Kilker, a partner at Tully Rinckey in Binghamton told 12 News Friday the governor is currently being investigated for four separate matters.
Combine this with the fact three different agencies are separately investigating Cuomo (federal DOJ, NY Attorney General, NY state assembly), Kilker said the scope is too broad to pinpoint when the process will wrap up.
He said we are currently in the fact-finding stage of these investigations, and as more information becomes unearthed, more has to be investigated, leading to more time being spent.
In addition to the unknown amount of time necessary, Kilker also said it is unclear how much everything will cost.
“The type of fee we’re talking about is monstrous; $2.5M on the federal investigation alone,” the lawyer said. “Now that is just on the federal investigation and it doesn’t include campaign funds or personal funds from the governor; these are state funds being used for the investigation.”
The federal investigation was originally slated to cost $250K, so this latest amount is already a tenfold increase. Kilker said depending on how the contract is written, the cost could continue to balloon even higher.
Kilker added it is public money funding these investigations and Cuomo’s defense; the governor does not have to use campaign funds or his own money to cover the financial burden on taxpayers.
The legal expert told 12 News another factor that could extend the length of the state assembly’s impeachment investigation is the year’s legislative session ends next week, making it unclear when lawmakers would resume their inquiry.
