New Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is giving his first public response to a report he ignored a judge's order to sell a home his mother bought with embezzled money 16 years ago.
The New York Times reported Heastie benefited financially by not selling his mother's apartment in the Bronx in 1999.
The paper said Heastie went on to sell the property six years later for $200,000 more than his mother paid for the home.
In an exclusive with NY1, Heastie calls the Times report "yellow journalism" and says he followed the advice of his mother's attorney.
"I would have been a fool to attempt to become a speaker if I believed there was something in my past to come back to bite me," Heastie said. "He said, 'You have no personal obligation to deal with your mother's situation. Go live your life,' and that's what I tried to do."
Heastie says he invested heavily in taxes and mortgages on his mother's home.
He calls the report foolish and insulting.