Governor Andrew Cuomo is found to have sexually harassed ‘multiple women’

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A defiant New York Governor Andrew Cuomo refused  to resign on Tuesday after being found guilty of sexually harassing 11 women by NY AG Letitia James, claiming instead that her bombshell report into his conduct is a politicized attack and not a fair review, and publishing a set of rebuttals on his own website. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James released her long-awaited report into the allegations against embattled Cuomo on Tuesday. It finds him guilty of sexually harassing 11 women including some whose allegations were not previously known, like two state troopers and an executive assistant who says he groped her breast at the Governor’s mansion in Albany in November 2020. 

James said all of the allegations are corroborated but she has not recommended any criminal charges against him. It’s unclear if he will face any or if he will now step down as Governor. 

Cuomo, who has always denied the allegations, gave a televised address an hour after James’ report was released. 

He denied the allegations again with a slideshow of photos which showed him kissing men and women on the cheek throughout his career, which he says is proof the women who accused him of assault simply confused his ‘warm’ gestures.   

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President Biden – who said in March that Cuomo should resign if the report finds the allegations true – is yet to comment. 

His current term doesn’t end until November 2022. 

Among those who have called for his resignation is New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins.   

The 168-page report by James’ office finds that Cuomo fostered a ‘toxic work environment’ where women were punished for reporting their allegations. It says that instead of dealing with the complaints properly, the women were simply moved out of his orbit, into different departments.  

The report cites ‘relevant laws’ as Employer Liability and Executive Chamber Policy.  

The Governor, who has always denied the allegations, is yet to respond to the report’s findings. 

Among the allegations which the report says are true is that he sexually harassed a state trooper by running his ‘finger from her neck down her spine’ while they were sharing an elevator and saying ‘hey you’. 

He is also said to have rubbed a state employee’s stomach, ran his finger across the chest of another woman, and engaged in ‘widespread pattern’ of subjecting women to ‘unwanted hugs’.  

The report concludes: ‘The Governor sexually harassed a number of State employees through unwelcome and unwanted touching, as well as by making numerous offensive and sexually suggestive comments. 

‘We find that such conduct was part of a pattern of behavior that extended to his interactions with others outside of State government.’ 

Non-consensual touching, repeatedly made comments of a sexualized, gender based nature. 

Cuomo was grilled for 11 hours as part of the investigation. 

During questioning, the report says he ‘did not dispute that he sometimes commented on staff members’ appearance and attire (although generally only to compliment), and stated that, being “old fashioned,”. 

He said he uses terms like ‘honey’, ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling’ and that he regularly gave women hugs and kisses – sometimes on the lips. 

Among those who said he should resign at the very least was Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins. 

‘This report highlights unacceptable behavior Cuomo and his administration. The Governor must resign for the good of the state. Now that the investigation is complete, and the allegations have been substantiated, it should be clear to everyone that he can no longer serve as Governor.’ 

THE 11 WOMEN CUOMO HARASSED WITH UNWANTED TOUCHING, KISSING, INAPPROPRIATE COMMENTS AND RETALIATION 

‘Executive Assistant One’ 

The report says Cuomo groped ‘Executive Assistant One’ repeatedly sexually harassed her when she worked for him by subjecting her to ‘close and intimate hugs’, ‘kisses on the cheeks and forehead’, ‘at least one kiss on the lips’ and ‘touching her butt’. 

He allegedly referred to her and one other assistant as ‘mingle mamas’ and asked her repeatedly if she would ever cheat on her husband. 

In November 2020, he allegedly groped her breast at the Executive Mansion in Albany. 

‘For over three months, Executive Assistant #1 kept this groping incident to herself and planned to take it “to the grave,”4 but found herself becoming emotional (in a way that was visible to her colleagues in the Executive Chamber) while watching the Governor state, at a press conference on March 3, 2021, that he had never “touched anyone inappropriately.”5 She then confided in certain of her colleagues, who in turn reported her allegations to senior staff in the Executive Chamber, the report says. 

State Trooper #1 

The report says Cuomo sexually harassed a state trooper, referred to as Trooper #1, who he hired onto his protective detail, bending the three-year experience requirement. 

Once she was on his team, he allegedly ‘sexually harassed her on a number of occasions’ by ‘running his hand across her stomach  from her belly button to her right hip while she held a door open for him at an event’, ‘running his finger down her back’ while they were in an elevator together and saying “hey you”, kissing her on the cheek. 

He also allegedly asked her to help him find a girlfriend and said he wanted someone who ‘liked pain’, and asked her why she wanted to get married, saying ‘your sex drive goes down’. 

‘Trooper #1 found these interactions with the Governor not only offensive and uncomfortable, but markedly different from the way the Governor interacted with members of the PSU who were men, and she conveyed these incidents contemporaneously to colleagues,’ the report reads. 

Charlotte Bennett, 2020 

Bennett worked briefly for Cuomo as an aide. 

AG Letitia James says her allegations that Cuomo harassed her with a series of comments are corroborated. 

Among his alleged remarks are questions about if she’d date older men, asking her help to find a girlfriend, and apparently quizzing her on a sexual assault she had endured. 

One of the other comments that he made was that he wanted to ride into the mountains with women. 

State Entity Employee #1

The unidentified employee said she attended an event with Cuomo in September 2019. 

After giving a speech, Cuomo is said to have posed for pictures with her. While the picture was being taken, he ‘grabbed her butt’. 

‘The employee was shocked and discussed it with a number of friends, family and co-workers,’ the report says. 

She also ‘memorialized the Governor’s inappropriate touching’ contemporaneously, but the report doesn’t say how.  

State Entity Employee #2  – Doctor who gave Cuomo his COVID test on camera

One of the women whose allegations were corroborated was the doctor who performed his COVID-19 test at one of his March 2020 press conferences. 

She says that when he told her, in front of cameras ‘nice to see you doctor, you make that gown look good,’ it was sexual harassment. 

The investigators agreed. 

They also said that before the test, he asked her not to swab him so hard that it ‘hit his brain’. 

She replied that she’d be ‘gentle but accurate’ and he said ‘I’ve heard that before,’ which the doctor said was ‘implied in a sexual nature’.  

Virginia Limmiatis

Virginia Liammiatis worked for National Grid and was wearing a t-shirt with the company’s name written across her chest when she says she met Cuomo. 

He ran his ‘two fingers across her chest, pressing down on each of the letters as he did so and reading out the name of the company as he went’. 

The report says he then ‘leaned in, with his face close to her cheek, and said “I’m going to say I see a spider on your shoulder” before brushing the area between her shoulder and her breasts’.  

‘Ms. Limmiatis came forward in this investigation after she heard the Governor state, during the March 3, 2021 press conference, that he had never touched anyone inappropriately. 

‘As Ms. Limmiatis testified to us, “He is lying again. He touched me inappropriately. I am compelled to come forward to tell the truth… I didn’t know how to report what he did to me at the time and was burdened by shame, but not coming forward now would make me complicit in his lie, and I won’t do it.”’ 

Lindsey Boylan

Boylan says that Cuomo made inappropriate remarks to her when she worked as Chief of Staff to the CEO of the Empire State Development Corporation including that he found her attractive and that he wanted to play strip poker. 

She also says that he physically touched her on various parts of her body, including her waist, legs, and back. 

She claims that once she reported her allegations, she was victimized by his team who ran a smear campaign against her while she ran for office.   

Alyssa McGrath 

McGrath was another executive assistant who says Cuomo harassed her. 

‘In his interactions with another executive assistant, Alyssa McGrath, the Governor made inappropriate comments and engaged in harassing conduct, including: regularly asking about her personal life, including her marital status and divorce; asking whether Ms. McGrath would tell on Executive Assistant #1 if she were to cheat on her husband—and whether Ms. McGrath herself planned to “mingle” with men’.  

‘Kaitlin’ 

Kaitlin – whose second name is not public – met the Governor in 2016 at a fundraising event where they were photographed together in a dance pose. 

Afterwards, she was hired by him in a junior position but given a salary of $120,000 – a figure so high she says it was laughed at in her interview.  

Ana Liss 

Liss worked in the Executive Chamber between 2013 and 2015, during which time she says the governor subjected her to sexual harassment that included being called ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling’, and placing his hand around her lower waist. 

He also kissed her hands and cheek, she said.

Despite feeling uncomfortable, she says she did not report them because ‘for whatever reason, in his office the rules were different. It was just, you should view it as a compliment if the Governor finds you aesthetically pleasing enough, if he finds you interesting enough to ask questions like that. 

‘And so even though it was strange and uncomfortable and technically not permissible in a typical workplace environment, I was in this mindset that it was the twilight zone and…the typical rules did not apply.’ 

Anna Ruch 

Ruch was a guest at a wedding, as was the Governor, in 2019 when she says he put his hands on a section of her back that was exposed by a cut-out in her dress. 

She grabbed his wrist to move it away and he responded by saying ‘wow, you’re aggressive,’ according to the report. 

Cuomo then grabbed her face with both of his hands and said ‘can I kiss you?’ 

He was pictured kissing her cheek.