The New York Assembly will suspend its impeachment probe of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) upon the governor’s resignation from office later this month, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie (D) said Friday.

       The news comes days after Cuomo announced that he plans to resign following a report by the state attorney general’s office that found he sexually harassed 11 women and oversaw an unlawful attempt to exact retribution against one of his accusers.

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       Cuomo’s resignation is effective Aug. 25, Heastie’s statement says.

       If he had been impeached by the Assembly and then convicted in a trial before the state Senate, Cuomo could have been banned from ever seeking office again.

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       But in a statement Friday, Heastie said that he, Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles D. Lavine and other Democrats in the chamber concluded that they lack the authority to take such action against a governor who has already left office.

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       “There are two reasons for this decision,” Heastie said. “First, the purpose of the Assembly Judiciary Committee’s impeachment investigation was to determine whether Governor Cuomo should remain in office. The governor’s resignation answers that directive. Second, we have been advised by Chair Lavine — with the assistance of counsel — of the belief that the constitution does not authorize the legislature to impeach and remove an elected official who is no longer in office.”

       Cuomo will be replaced by Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who will be New York’s first female governor. She announced Thursday that she plans to run for a full term in 2022.

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       Throughout months of escalating controversy, Cuomo had remained defiant and repeatedly denied improperly touching women, even as accusations multiplied.

       But earlier this week, he declared that “the best way I can help now is to step aside and let government get back to governing,” shortly after his attorney, Rita Glavin, delivered a lengthy attack on the state attorney general’s report.

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       After Cuomo announced his decision, members of the Judiciary Committee were debating whether to proceed with the impeachment inquiry.

       The legislative investigation has been looking at issues beyond the alleged sexual harassment, including Cuomo’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in nursing homes, claims that he gave preferential virus testing to friends and family members, and reports that he used state resources to write a book.

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       In his statement Friday, Heastie said that while the probe remains unfinished, it has already uncovered evidence against Cuomo that “could likely have resulted in articles of impeachment had he not resigned.”

       That evidence, he said, “concerned not only sexual harassment and misconduct but also the misuse of state resources in relation to the publication of the governor’s memoir as well as improper and misleading disclosure of nursing home data during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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       Cuomo still faces criminal investigations into his conduct by prosecutors in several counties, including New York, as well as an ongoing federal investigation by the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn into the administration’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.

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       The New York attorney general is separately probing whether the administration misused public resources when it provided Cuomo relatives and other well-connected New Yorkers with preferential virus testing and when aides helped him write a book last year that netted him more than $5 million.

       Heastie noted the continuing investigations and said that he has asked Lavine “to turn over to the relevant investigatory authorities all the evidence the committee has gathered.”