Toxic male in the wild & 'women’s champion' Andrew Cuomo spread oppo on his investigators and accusers

[jserraglio]

If he really ♥’s NY, this Lothario wannabe needs not to bring in a sexual harassment trainer now but to pen a resignation letter.

WAPO

Governor won't resign despite report saying conduct violated state and federal law

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo sexually harassed current and former state employees, creating a hostile work environment for women in violation of state and federal law, state attorney general Letitia James announced Tuesday.

In a 165-page report, investigators laid out a devastating portrait of behavior by the Democratic governor, substantiating an allegation that Cuomo embraced an executive assistant and reached under her blouse to grab her breast. Witnesses also described an environment in the governor’s office that was abusive and vindictive, with one of the women who came forward targeted for retaliation through the release of her personnel file, investigators said.

In all, the independent probe found that Cuomo harassed 11 women, including a state trooper whom the governor arranged to be put on his detail.

“This investigation has revealed conduct that corrodes the very fabric and character of our state government,” James (D) said at a news conference.

The findings were the result of a months-long investigation and interviews with 179 individuals, including women who accused the governor of misconduct, Cuomo himself and a coterie of his top advisers.

The probe was launched after multiple women accused Cuomo of inappropriate personal comments or unwelcome physical contact, including allegations that he groped an aide in the governor’s mansion and made sexually suggestive comments in the workplace.

James deflected questions from reporters about whether Cuomo should resign, saying “that decision is ultimately up to the governor of the state of New York.” She said that her office was not making any criminal referrals but noted that the report was publicly available.

In a video address Tuesday afternoon, Cuomo said he would continue serving as governor and defended himself as a champion of women and victims of sexual harassment. “The facts are much different than what has been portrayed,” he said.

“That’s not who I am,” he said of the depiction in the attorney general’s report.

Cuomo denied the claim that he groped an executive assistant’s breast. “That never happened,” he said. He said other complainants sought to “unfairly characterize and weaponize everyday interactions,” noting his tendency to greet women and men warmly.

The governor also said that he would bring in an “expert” to provide him and his office with sexual harassment training.

But the extent of the political fallout for Cuomo remains to be seen. In the wake of the report Tuesday, three New York House Democrats called on the governor to step down, joining about a dozen from the delegation who had previously done so.

“We commend the brave women who came forward and spoke truth to power,” Reps. Hakeem Jeffries, Thomas Suozzi and Gregory W. Meeks said in a statement. “The time has come for Governor Andrew Cuomo to do the right thing for the people of New York State and resign.”

The state’s two Democratic senators, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, also reiterated their calls for his resignation.

“No elected official is above the law,” they said in a statement. “The people of New York deserve better leadership in the governor’s office. We continue to believe that the Governor should resign.”

Separately, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D) called the report “disturbing” and the victim accounts “gut-wrenching.”

But he stopped short of saying that the findings were sufficient to move forward with impeachment proceedings against Cuomo. “We will now undertake an in-depth examination of the report and its corresponding exhibits with our Assembly counsels as well [as] the legal firm we have retained to assist us,” he said in a statement. “We will have more to say in the very near future.”

Among the allegations that the investigation substantiated: that the governor grabbed the buttocks of an employee of another state office, made sexually suggestive comments to a young female assistant and inappropriately touched other women not employed by the state.

The report found that Cuomo made numerous suggestive sexual comments that constituted “unlawful sexual harassment.” These included telling the female state trooper that his criteria for a girlfriend was someone who “can handle pain,” suggesting a buttock tattoo to one aide and calling two executive assistants “mingle mamas” while asking one of them whether she would be willing to cheat on her partner.

Joon Kim, the former acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York appointed by James to help lead the investigation, said that some women “suffered through unwanted touching and grabbing of their most intimate body parts.”

“The executive chamber’s workplace culture was rife with bullying, fear and intimidation on one hand while normalizing frequent flirtations and gender-based comments by the governor on the other,” Kim added.

In a long interview with investigators in late July, the governor admitted to some of the claims against him, according to special deputy Clark, but put a “different spin on them,” she said. In some instances, he denied allegations or said he did not remember details.

The women found Cuomo’s behavior humiliating, offensive or inappropriate, according to the investigation. In a text exchange with a close friend after one conversation with Curomo, aide Charlotte Bennett wrote, “Something just happened and I can’t even type it out … GOING TO BURST INTO TEARS.”

In one instance, Cuomo ran his hand across the stomach of the state trooper, who later told investigators, “I felt … completely violated because to me … that’s between my chest and my privates.” She added: “But, you know, I’m here to do a job.”

The claims surfaced publicly earlier this year when Lindsey Boylan, a former aide, wrote in an online post that the governor had sexually harassed her for years, saying he touched her lower back and arms and once kissed her. His aides later released details from her personnel file, an action the investigation concluded was “unlawful retaliation.”

Days after Boylan’s post, Bennett, another former aide, alleged in an interview with the New York Times that Cuomo made suggestive comments she interpreted as sexual advances. A third aide, a staffer employed in the governor’s office, told the Albany Times Union that Cuomo groped her breast after summoning her to the governor’s mansion in November.

Other women said the governor quizzed them about their dating lives, part of an office culture they viewed as degrading and toxic.

The attorney general’s report found that his office did not handle complaints according to state law.

“We conclude that the Executive Chamber failed to follow its own policies and procedures related to sexual harassment in responding to several of the complaints,” the report said.
The governor and his aides sought to undermine the women who came forward and undercut the investigators, the report concluded.

After Boylan tweeted that the governor was “one of the biggest abusers of all time,” top aide Melissa DeRosa asked for her “full file.” It was then disseminated to a number of reporters over several days by Cuomo aides and advisers, according to the investigation.

Cuomo also drafted an op-ed to attack Boylan, but was talked out of it by advisers who reviewed it and found it to be “victim shaming that they found inadvisable.”

In addition, records uncovered by the investigators show that days after Cuomo said he welcomed the investigation, a longtime adviser said he was being asked to “spread oppo” about Kim. At another point, Cuomo advisers asked for conversations with potential victims to be recorded for information they could use to potentially defend the governor. But the recordings weren’t used because they didn’t go well, DeRosa testified.

Other state officials were brought in to assist with damage control.

At one point, Larry Schwartz, the state’s vaccine czar and a longtime Cuomo adviser, called county executives to ask if they were going to issue public statements for the governor to resign, the report found.

The investigation said DeRosa, the governor’s top aide, requested the calls, which made the county officials uncomfortable because they viewed them as implicit threats linking their access to vaccines to their stance on Cuomo’s actions.

And CNN anchor Chris Cuomo helped his brother draft a statement to address the allegations and attended calls with other advisers to discuss the matter, according to the investigation.

Chris Cuomo told investigators “there was discussion about remedial measures the Chamber should take in light of the sexual harassment allegations, but some people had taken the position that they should just wait,” according to the report.

The independent investigation was conducted by Kim, a partner at the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and Clark, a longtime employment and discrimination attorney. Both were appointed by James after Cuomo — under pressure from fellow Democrats — referred allegations about his behavior to her office.

Debra Katz, a lawyer for Bennett, said the investigation showed “egregious” sexual harassment and that his inner circle was “aware of the allegations and enabled him to continually sexually harass women, or just moved the women out.”
She called Cuomo’s rebuttal “disturbing.”

“If he really cared about the treatment of women in New York State, he would step down,” she said.

Even before it was released, Cuomo and his team tried to undermine the report, claiming that James has been using the probe to burnish her standing for a possible gubernatorial run. They also have accused the attorney general’s office of disclosing information to the news media, without providing evidence of such leaks.

Cuomo had been expected to seek a fourth term next year and has retained an approval rating in New York around 50 percent despite the slew of allegations, though some of his advisers saw it as his toughest race yet.

The governor remains under investigation by federal and state authorities on a number of other issues, including his administration’s handling of nursing home deaths during the pandemic, the preferred access that Cuomo family members were given to coronavirus testing, and work that state employees did on a memoir about his leadership during the pandemic that secured him a $5 million advance.

Michael Scherer is a national political reporter at The Washington Post. He was previously the Washington bureau chief for Time magazine, where he also served as the White House correspondent. Before joining Time, he was the Washington correspondent for Salon.com.

[maestrob]

Debra Katz, a lawyer for Bennett, said the investigation showed “egregious” sexual harassment and that his inner circle was “aware of the allegations and enabled him to continually sexually harass women, or just moved the women out.”She called Cuomo’s rebuttal “disturbing.”“If he really cared about the treatment of women in New York State, he would step down,” she said.

Indeed.

I didn't want to believe or accept this at first. My bad.

Cuomo looks like a clown now. He should go, stop thinking about himself and minimize the damage to the Democratic party: HIS party.

Ironic that our Lieutenant Governor is a very capable woman, an experienced and mature attorney herself, who could very capably run the state and possibly win re-election, Kathy Hochul.

This needs to end right now, so we can move on.

I am deeply ashamed about this whole situation. Really wanted to believe him.