NEW YORK (AP) — An investigation found that Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women in and out of state government and worked to retaliate against one of his accusers, New York's attorney general announced Tuesday in a finding that quickly renewed calls for the Democrat's resignation or impeachment.
NEW YORK (AP) - The New York state attorney general's office said Tuesday that Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed several women inside and outside the state government.
Cuomo headed a government where "a hostile work environment ... pregnant with fear and intimidation" prevailed, according to a prosecution investigation that lasted almost five months. Two independent attorneys interviewed 179 people to conduct the inquiry.
Labor lawyer Anne Clark, who led the investigation along with former Attorney General Joon Kim, said they believed the 11 complainants were credible. They added that the complaints were corroborated to a greater or lesser degree, for example, by witnesses or text messages.
Those interviewed included whistleblowers, former and current employees of the executive branch of the governorate, police and other state employees, and officials who regularly interacted with the governor.
"These interviews and other evidence revealed an extremely disturbing outlook: Governor Cuomo sexually harassed current and former employees, violating state and federal laws," State Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday when announcing the results of the investigation.
According to the investigation, on at least one occasion Cuomo and his subordinates attempted to retaliate against a former employee who accused him of misconduct. Cuomo also harassed women outside the state government, according to the inquiry.
In a press conference, James assured that the investigation could not have been carried out without "these heroic women who raised their voices."
Late last year, Cuomo faced allegations that he groped or sexually harassed women who worked with him or whom he met during public events. An employee reported that the governor touched her breast.
Another employee, Lindsey Boylan, reported that Cuomo kissed her on the lips in his office and "went out of his way to touch my back, arms or legs."
After Boylan filed his complaints in December, the Cuomo government tried to discredit her by revealing to journalists that she resigned after several subordinates complained that she yelled at and mistreated them.
Boylan assured that those documents "were handed over to journalists in an attempt to discredit me."
The findings of the investigation are sure to spark even more clamor for the resignation of Cuomo, who just a year ago was praised for his handling of the pandemic and even wrote a book about the episode.
Since then, the governor has been the target of multiple complaints, including that he used funds inappropriately to write the book and that his administration manipulated the figures on deaths from COVID-19 in nursing homes.
Cuomo scheduled a press conference in Albany to respond to the report.
The report detailed, for the first time, allegations that Cuomo sexually harassed a state police officer who is part of his bodyguard. According to the complaint, the governor stroked her with his hand on her stomach and back, kissed her on the cheek, asked her for help in finding a girlfriend and asked her why she did not wear a dress.
The report also includes a complaint from a woman employed by an energy company according to which Cuomo touched her inappropriately, stroking his fingers over the letters on her shirt while reading the company name aloud and then told her, “Right now I will say that I found a spider on your shoulder ”and he stroked her between her shoulder and her breasts.
"These brave women dared to challenge power and, in doing so, expressed their hope that while the governor is a powerful figure, the truth is more," Kim said at a press conference.
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