News of Andrew Cuomo to Receive $5.1 Million from COVID-19 Pandemic Book Deal Renew Calls for His Resignation

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will earn a total of $5.1 million for his COVID-19 pandemic book deal, which was fueled by his national profile during the virus' worst and now seen through the lens of an investigation into his use of advisers in the book's writing.

Does Cuomo deserve the book deal?

In October, the book American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic was released. The book deal "calls for payment of $3,120,000 in the last taxable year and an extra $2 million over the next two years," said Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo's director of communications and senior advisor, as per The Washington Post.

Cuomo's 2020 tax filings revealed details of the deal on Monday. The Governor got $1,537,508 from the $3,120,000 after expenditures and taxation, Azzopardi added. Andrew Cuomo contributed a third of the money to the United Way of New York State for a statewide COVID-19 relief and vaccine effort. The rest will go to Cuomo's three daughters in a trust.

United Way expressed its appreciation to Cuomo in a letter dated Monday, writing, "our heartfelt gratitude to you for such an exceptional and generous donation of $500,000." Cuomo's donation was not immediately apparent in terms of timing.

Cuomo's aides put in a lot of effort on the $5.1 million book, with all of them working on it in his office and at the mansion. A Cuomo aide is asked to print a draft of the book labeled "MDR edits," the initials of the governor's top aide, Melissa DeRosa, in one edition of the book reviewed by The Washington Post. Despite the coronavirus ravaging the state, the governor asked several advisers, including senior state officials, to volunteer hundreds of hours to help write the book, four sources previously told The Washington Post.

Book deal prompts Renewed calls for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's resignation

The amount tops the $4 million-plus highest bid for Cuomo's book American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, which was released in mid-October while the public health crisis in New York and elsewhere was already raging. According to his tax returns, Cuomo's deal cost him $3.12 million last year, and he was left with a little more than $3 million following legal and editing costs. According to the returns, he'll get another $2 million this year and next.

This despite his administration being accused of sending COVID-positive patients back into nursing homes, possibly distributing the deadly virus among the frail elderly there.

Per NY Post, Cuomo is being investigated for his treatment of nursing homes after the pandemic, as well as his administration's attempts to hide the nearly 14,000 COVID-19 deaths among the elderly.

Cuomo's taped pandemic briefings turned him into a media figure beloved by self-proclaimed "Cuomosexuals," and the book quickly became a best-seller last year. However, after being embroiled in a sexual harassment controversy involving multiple former aides earlier this year, his revenues plummeted.

Calls for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's resignation have been revived by state assembly members from both sides, as authorities begin to look at multiple sexual assault charges as well as documents suggesting his office knowingly falsified pandemic death figures last year.

Cuomo's financial disclosure statements, which included the proceeds from his book American Crisis, released earlier this year, were in news reports on Monday. Cuomo's $3,593,343 federally adjusted taxable revenue, along with his $5 million book contract, reignited calls for him to resign over the two controversies.

"Today's news exposes the insidious and ugly fact that Andrew Cuomo took millions of dollars from Crown Publishing to write a book amid the pandemic when families buried their loved ones," wrote Assemblymember Ron Kim, who openly admitted losing an uncle to COVID-19 last year as a result of infamous Cuomo executive orders, as per Newsweek.

Andrew Cuomo signed executive orders relocating COVID-19-infected hospital patients to nursing homes. The governor's office attempted to conceal a large undercount of coronavirus deaths across New York state, according to a state attorney general's report released in January 2021.