ALBANY — A group of commissioners sitting on the state’s embattled Joint Commission on Public Ethics scheduled a special meeting aimed at potentially launching their own internal inquiry into how disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s $5.1 million book deal was approved last year. 

The meeting — called for Tuesday, Oct. 5 at 10:30 am — was requested by JCOPE Commissioner David McNamara and discussed during a Thursday night panel meeting, according to a source.

The commission wasn’t supposed to meet until Oct. 19.

“The subject of the Tuesday meeting is whether an inquiry should be made into the circumstances of the approval of the book deal by JCOPE staff and whichever commissioners were involved,” the source said. 

“The book deal was approved, but no contract was ever submitted prior to that approval to JCOPE commissioners. The then-chairman of the commission Michael Rozen made the decision to withhold pertinent information regarding the book deal from the full commission,” the source said, adding that former JCOPE Chairwoman Camille Varlack — a Cuomo appointee who resigned in August — discussed the approval terms following intense prodding from interested panel members. 

The source also said Rozen was privy to the book contract details because he was briefed by former aides to Cuomo working in the executive chamber. 

Rozen stepped down from the board in February. 

The source said if commissioners decide to open their own probe following Tuesdays, the action “may or may not involve outside assistance.”

“We don’t know the whole story and we have a responsibility to find out what happened,” the source said.  

Approval for the book deal has been the subject of controversy among commissioners, as Cuomo’s application to obtain outside income from ‘American Crisis: Lessons in Leadership from the COVID-19 Pandemic’ was never voted on and approved by the full commission and instead was greenlit by JCOPE staff members.

Commissioner Gary Lavine, a Republican appointee named to the panel by state Sen. Minority Leader Rob Ortt, has said the staff-level approval was “illegal” and should have been subject to a full vote by the board. 

Lavine has said that Cuomo and his then-special counsel, Judith Mogul, made “material misrepresentations” involved in allegedly using state resources to write, edit and advance the book. 

He raised a motion during the panel’s September meeting that would have allowed the panel to revoke its internal approval and require Cuomo to reapply, but the move was defeated when Gov. Kathy Hochul’s new appointee sided with commissioners who voted against opening the inquiry.  

If the motion was approved and the commission found the deal was improper by standards set under the public officers law, it would have allowed commissioners to potentially claw back the royalties attached to the book deal or place fines on Cuomo.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Letitia James is conducting her own separate probe of the book deal and served a subpoena on the commission earlier this summer.

The FBI and Eastern District of New York are apparently also looking into the book deal and whether or not state resources were misused in its production.

“If JCOPE wants to investigate JCOPE, have at it,” said a Cuomo spokesman.