ALBANY — Despite the state attorney general's ongoing investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, senior aides to the governor said they are also conducting their own "parallel review" of a female aide's recent account of being groped by Cuomo at the Executive Mansion late last year.
"We have our own inquiries ongoing," a senior aide to the governor told the Times Union. "We have an obligation to investigate any claim of sexual harassment. And we, after reporting (the female aide's allegations) to the (attorney general), were directed to continue our own inquiry. … So there are multiple inquiries."
Officials with the office of Attorney General Letitia James, who has assigned two private attorneys to lead the investigation, did not respond to questions about the parallel inquiry being conducted by Cuomo's office. But a source in the office with knowledge of the matter denied that anyone from the attorney general's office had "directed" the governor's office to conduct a parallel inquiry.
"It's absurd. Why would you be doing that?" said the attorney for the woman who has accused Cuomo of groping her. "It's not appropriate, and obviously we're concerned with the ramifications and the effect on witnesses and the quest for the truth."
He characterized it as a "shadow investigation."
The attorney, whose client has not filed a formal complaint against Cuomo, asked that his name be withheld out of concern that revealing it would tend to reveal her identity to the general public. She remains employed in the governor's office. Her allegations were reported to Cuomo's senior aides on March 8 by at least one of her colleagues.
The woman's coworkers became aware of her claims on March 3 when she became emotional at work as they were observing Cuomo during a press conference in which he was denying ever touching any women "inappropriately." When they asked her what was wrong, she told them about her alleged encounter with Cuomo at the governor's mansion.
Beth Garvey, the governor's acting counsel, issued a statement late Wednesday: "We fully informed the (attorney general's) office of the required process with this type of allegation and they said to follow it. The matter was referred to GOER (Governor's Office of Employee Relations) and (we) informed local law enforcement and that is the full extent of the action."
Previously, the governor's administration has distanced itself from GOER, contending it is a separate office that conducts sexual harassment and other employee investigations without involvement from the Executive Chamber. Last June, the governor's office handled the sexual harassment allegations of another female aide, Charlotte Bennett, without referring the matter to GOER.
The attorneys enlisted by the attorney general to conduct the investigation of multiple sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo are Joon H. Kim, a former acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and Anne L. Clark, who has extensive experience in sexual harassment cases.
The separate investigation by the governor's office into the woman's groping allegations is unfolding as other staffers were recently informed that an attorney could be made available to accompany them if they are interviewed by the attorney general's investigators. The Executive Chamber staffers also were instructed that an attorney would be available to meet with them ahead of those interviews, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
That has unsettled some staff members, according to the person, because they are concerned about the implications of relying on an attorney provided by the Executive Chamber to potentially sit in on their interviews with the attorney general's investigators.
After this story was published online Wednesday evening, another senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigations, said: "It was also explicitly said that you can hire your own attorney if you don’t want to use (the attorneys retained by the governor's office)."
Two spokesmen for the governor's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
On March 10, in response to the Times Union's questions about the woman's groping allegations, Cuomo 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.”
In a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Cuomo said that he would no longer be commenting publicly on the allegations. He also would not comment on the state Assembly Majority's selection of a Washington, D.C., law firm to lead that chamber's impeachment investigation of the governor. Cuomo and his aides have consistently used the words "review" and "inquiry" to describe the investigations by the Assembly and attorney general's office.
"I am not going to take any questions or have any comments on the review," Cuomo said Wednesday. "Let the lawyers do their job and conduct the review and then we can talk about it when we have facts established … but other than that I’m going to respect the review and I won’t comment on it or related matters."
On the call with reporters, Cuomo mentioned the attorney general's probe and the Assembly's impeachment inquiry, but did not mention his office's internal investigation.
The disclosure by Cuomo's office that it's conducting an inquiry of the woman's groping allegations comes after Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said last week that the decision by Cuomo's acting counsel to refer the potential sexual assault allegation to the city's police department was "highly unusual." She said the incident is alleged to have occurred on state-owned property — the Executive Mansion — and would normally be handled by the State Police.
"No one can recall the Albany Police Department being contacted with a complaint of this type that happened on state property," Sheehan told the Times Union last week.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, second from left, is joined by State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, left, budget director Robert Mujica, second from right, and Beth Garvey, acting counsel and senior advisor, right, during a news briefing last year. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Will Waldron/Albany Times UnionCuomo's counsel reported the incident to Albany police on March 10 — hours after the Times Union published new details of the female aide's account of what she described as sexually aggressive groping by the governor after she was called to the mansion late last year.
“As a matter of state policy, when allegations of physical contact are made, the agency informs the complainant that they should contact their local police department,” Beth Garvey, the governor's acting counsel, said in a statement last week. “If they decline, the agency has an obligation to reach out themselves and inform the department of the allegation.”
On March 1, the governor’s office issued a referral letter empowering the attorney general to commence an investigation of allegations at that time that the governor had sexually harassed at least two former female staff members. That referral does not authorize the attorney general to conduct a criminal investigation or to subpoena witnesses before a grand jury.
The governor's administration has taken criticism for its failure to refer a complaint from Bennett, one of the former Cuomo aides who has made allegations against him, to the Governor's Office of Employee Relations, as required by his own 2018 executive order.
blyons@timesunion.com
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March 18, 2021 at 07:41AM
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Official: Cuomo's office conducting its own 'inquiry' of groping allegation - Times Union
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