Chris Bragg reports in the Times Union that three Republican state ethics commissioners want to get information about a Gov. Andrew Cuomo scandal that precedes the COVID-19 pandemic, and recent allegations of sexual harassment. Last week, Joint Commission on Public Ethics Commissioner Jim Yates publicly stated for the first time that Cuomo had complained about Yates’ vote following a 2019 meeting. Now three state ethics commissioners want an investigation reopened into who illegally leaked that vote information from a confidential meeting to Cuomo, committing a misdemeanor under state law. Yates and Julie Garcia reported the leak to the state inspector general’s office. Three Senate Republican appointees to JCOPE, Gary Lavine, David McNamara, and George Weissman, now want the state inspector general’s office to reopen its investigation into the leak. “The speaker’s acknowledgement that the leak actually occurred is incontrovertible evidence that there was a cover-up by the office of the inspector general,” the JCOPE commissioners said. “Now, with the departure of Spencer Freedman from the office of inspector general, the office should immediately reopen an investigation into the leak and conduct a thorough inquiry. The failure of the inspector general to reopen the investigation will simply be a cover-up of a cover-up.” The inspector general’s office investigated the matter in 2019, but could not confirm the allegation of an illegal leak, in part because the allegation was based on hearsay. Read more about this story in the Times Union.