ALBANY — A female aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo alleges he aggressively groped her in a sexually charged manner after she had been summoned to the Executive Mansion late last year, according to a person with direct knowledge of the woman's claims.
The staff member, whose identity is being withheld by the Times Union, had been called to the mansion under the apparent pretext of having her assist the governor with a minor technical issue involving his mobile phone. They were alone in Cuomo's private residence on the second floor when he closed the door and allegedly reached under her blouse and began to fondle her, according to the source.
The person, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said the woman — who is much younger than Cuomo — told the governor to stop. Her broader allegations include that he frequently engaged in flirtatious behavior with her, and that it was not the only time that he had touched her.
The story so far
The woman's story was revealed within the governor's Executive Chamber on March 3, as staff members watched his first news conference in the week since Lindsey Boylan published an online essay detailing her own allegations against Cuomo. In the news conference, the governor denied ever touching any women "inappropriately."
Hearing those remarks, the female aide became emotional. At least one female supervisor came to her assistance and asked why she was upset. The female aide subsequently told the supervisor about what she said had been inappropriate encounters with Cuomo, the source said.
In response to the Times Union's questions about the allegations, Cuomo on Wednesday evening issued a statement to the newspaper: "As I said yesterday, I have never done anything like this. The details of this report are gut-wrenching. I am not going to speak to the specifics of this or any other allegation given the ongoing review, but I am confident in the result of the attorney general’s report.”
State Attorney General Letitia James' office is overseeing an investigation of multiple harassment allegations against Cuomo. But the female aide's allegations, first reported Tuesday by the Times Union, describe the most egregious behavior attributed to the governor to date — conduct that could potentially be pursued as a misdemeanor sexual assault charge.
At least one of the woman's supervisors reported the allegations to an attorney in the governor's office on Monday.
On Tuesday afternoon, several hours after Cuomo's office had been asked about the matter by the Times Union, the governor said in a news conference, "I'm not aware of any other claim," when he was asked by a reporter about the new story, which by then had been published online. That story included a statement from his acting counsel, Beth Garvey, who said that "all allegations" of sexual harassment made against the governor were being referred to the attorney general's office.
"As I said last week, this is very simple: I never touched anyone inappropriately," Cuomo said Tuesday. "I never made any inappropriate advances ... (and) no one ever told me at the time that I made them feel uncomfortable. Obviously, there are people who said after the fact they felt uncomfortable."
The woman has not filed a formal complaint with the governor's office.
Aides to the governor on Tuesday said the governor stands by his statements that he never touched anyone inappropriately. They would not explain the governor's statement that he was unaware of the latest allegation against him.
This week, the attorney general's office announced its investigation will be handled by two private attorneys: Joon H. Kim, a former acting U.S. attorney for New York's Southern District in Manhattan, and Anne L. Clark, who specializes in labor law and sexual harassment cases.
On Wednesday morning, the attorney general's office declined to comment in response to detailed questions about how that office, which does not have statutory jurisdiction on any criminal component of the case, would be handled. The March 1 referral letter from Garvey to James authorizing the probe invoked a section of Executive Law that empowers the attorney general's office to conduct a civil investigation with the aid of office subpoenas, but not to pursue a criminal case or to bring the allegations before a grand jury.
If a criminal complaint is made, by Boylan or the female aide who alleges Cuomo groped her at the mansion, those cases could potentially by handled by the offices of Albany County District Attorney David Soares or Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.
The new allegations that came to light Tuesday immediately intensified the pressure from many lawmakers — including Cuomo's fellow Democrats — for the governor to resign. He had already faced calls to step down from state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie had issued a statement Sunday questioning Cuomo's ability to remain an effective leader.
Republicans in the Legislature have been more forceful in their remarks. Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt on Tuesday characterized the latest allegation as "a disturbing pattern of predatory pattern behavior by Gov. Cuomo, not to mention a pattern of lies and broken public trust."
The initial allegations were made by three women — Boylan as well as Charlotte Bennett and Anna Ruch, who did not work for Cuomo but told the New York Times last week that the governor grabbed her and attempted to kiss her at the 2019 wedding of one of his senior aides, Gareth Rhodes.
Bennett told the New York Times that Cuomo, during an encounter in his Capitol office last June, talked about being lonely during the pandemic and that he had missed being able to hug someone. She said that the governor never tried to touch her. Bennett, in another interview with CBS News, also recounted being alone with Cuomo at the mansion and said that he had asked her probing questions about her personal life but did not touch her.
Debra Katz, Bennett's attorney, issued a statement in response to this story late Wednesday saying the allegations by the female aide are "eerily similar" to Bennett's experience.
"Charlotte was summoned to the Capitol on a Saturday, left isolated with the governor and asked to help him with minor technical issues with his phone. Charlotte reported this behavior and the governor’s sexual proposition to his most senior aides, including his Special Counsel, Judith Mogul. In response, those aides failed to report Charlotte’s claims to the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations, as they were legally required," Katz said.
"Had the governor’s staff taken Charlotte Bennett’s allegations and their legal obligations seriously, perhaps this woman would have been spared of this sexual assault," she added. "That the governor does not deny touching people, but insists he never did it inappropriately, shows he is committed to gaslighting victims and perpetuating these lies. This is exactly how abusers operate."
Over the weekend, in stories published by the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, two more women came forward and described what they characterized as inappropriate behavior by Cuomo, including Karen Hinton, who worked with the governor more than two decades ago at the U.S. Housing and Urban Development agency.
blyons@timesunion.com
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