While allegedly harassing women, Cuomo also abused state resources

The saga of Gov. Cuomo’s downfall attracts prurient interest. But strip away the supposedly titillating details — which weren’t so titillating to the near-dozen women who allegedly experienced them — of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ 168-page investigative document into Cuomo’s workplace behavior, and you get not just sexual harassment, which is bad enough, but something just as unacceptable: garden-variety public corruption, including misappropriation of state resources.

As the state Legislature impeaches Cuomo, lawmakers shouldn’t leave this part out. Abusing taxpayer resources is an important sin, too. Take the first instance of harassment detailed in James’ report, one previously unreported. In 2017, Cuomo encountered a New York state trooper at an event on the Triborough Bridge. At the governor’s insistence, “trooper #1 was then hired into the PSU,” — the rarefied protective-services unit, which guards the governor. This, even though she fell short of the requirement of at least three years’ experience.