TWO MUCH: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, himself slimed in the Vito Lopez (above) scandal, is moving to oust Lopez. (J.C. Rice)
TWO MUCH: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (left), himself slimed in the Vito Lopez scandal, is moving to oust Lopez. (
)
Look who suddenly has a conscience!
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — amid calls for his own ouster — will move today to toss disgraced Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez from the Legislature.
Silver announced last night that he would introduce a resolution to begin the process of expelling the sleazy Brooklyn lawmaker in the wake of a scathing report by a state ethics committee that found Lopez sexually harassed women in his office and violated the state’s Public Officers Law.
Lopez could get the boot, even though he has not been convicted of a felony. If he had, expulsion would have been automatic.
The last time a member of the Assembly was expelled without conviction was 1920, when five Socialist Party members were expelled for disloyalty.
In the statement last night, Silver’s office said he plans “to ask the Ethics and Guidance Committee to consider the full [report] and to recommend appropriate sanctions, including expulsion of Assembly member Lopez.”
Lopez’s dirty deeds were exposed this week in a 70-page report by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE. It found that Lopez subjected female staffers to “prolonged mistreatment.”
The report also found that Silver and his staff didn’t investigate or refer initial complaints to the Assembly Ethics Committee promptly, and didn’t take measures to protect remaining female staff.
After Silver introduces the resolution, the Assembly must vote to send it to the Ethics and Guidance Committee to consider the full JCOPE report and to recommend appropriate sanctions, including expulsion. The committee must then refer a second resolution back to the full Assembly for a final vote.
Silver’s statement last night said the vote would come as soon as Monday.
The move came as Gov. Cuomo fielded questions about whether Silver should keep his own position, considering what the report revealed about his actions.
“It is not my place to say who the speaker is and who the speaker should be,” Cuomo said in a bob-and-weave press conference yesterday.
Cuomo made the comments shortly after calling for the ouster of Lopez, a Brooklyn Democrat, in the wake of the report.
“If he doesn’t resign,” Cuomo said. “I think the body should expel him.”
Additional reporting by Sally Goldenberg