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Female aide said Cuomo aggressively groped her at the governor’s mansion

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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 governor’s 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 of the mansion 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 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 aide and asked her why she was upset. The female aide subsequently told the supervisor 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.”

T‎he woman’s allegations, first reported Tuesday by the Times Union, are the most egregious claims the governor has faced as multiple women have come forward since December and accused him of sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior.

In the most recent case, 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, “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 state attorney general’s office.

“As I said last week, this is very simple: I never touched anyone inappropriately,” the governor 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.

State Attorney General Letitia James’ office is investigating multiple harassment allegations against Cuomo on the basis of a referral letter that Garvey, his counsel, requested in a March 1 letter.

This week, James announced the 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.

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.

The latest allegations by the woman who reported she had been groped by Cuomo at the governor’s mansion have escalated the severity of the accusations: The conduct she has described could potentially be pursued as a misdemeanor sexual assault charge.

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. Garvey’s March 1 letter to the attorney general invoked a section of Executive Law that empowers the attorney general’s office to conduct a civil investigation with the aide 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 he 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.

1of6Buy PhotoThe New York State Executive Mansion is viewed through a fence on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, on Eagle Street in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)Will Waldron/Albany Times Union
2of6Buy PhotoThe New York State Executive Mansion is viewed through a fence on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, on Eagle Street in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)Will Waldron/Albany Times Union
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4of6Buy PhotoThe New York State Executive Mansion is seen from Eagle Street on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)Will Waldron/Albany Times Union
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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 Cuomo 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 what Charlotte Bennett has alleged.”


“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,” Bennett continued. “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. 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.

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Third Former Andrew Cuomo Aide Describes Inappropriate Workplace Treatment

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ROCHESTER, N.Y.—A former aide of Gov.

Andrew Cuomo

said he asked her if she had a boyfriend, called her sweetheart, touched her on her lower back at a reception and once kissed her hand when she rose from her desk.

Ana Liss, now 35 years old, served as a policy and operations aide to Mr. Cuomo between 2013 and 2015. She said the actions by Mr. Cuomo were unsolicited and occurred in the first year while she sat at her desk, which was near his office in the Executive Chamber of the New York State Capitol in Albany.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Liss said she initially perceived Mr. Cuomo’s conduct as harmless flirtations. Over time, she said, she has come to see it as patronizing, and she added it diminished her from an educated professional to “just a skirt.”

“It’s not appropriate, really, in any setting,” she said.

In response to questions about Ms. Liss, Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Mr. Cuomo said Saturday: “Reporters and photographers have covered the governor for 14 years watching him kiss men and women and posing for pictures. At the public open-house mansion reception, there are hundreds of people, and he poses for hundreds of pictures. That’s what people in politics do.”

At his last public appearance on Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo said this behavior was customary for him.

“I understand that sensitivities have changed and behavior has changed, and I get it. And I’m going to learn from it,” he said.

Ana Liss displays a pin she earned while working in the governor’s office.



Photo:

libby march for The Wall Street Journal

Ms. Liss is the third former female aide to accuse Mr. Cuomo of inappropriate behavior in the workplace. The two other former aides have said he sexually harassed them. Mr. Cuomo has apologized for making people uncomfortable. He has said he never touched anyone inappropriately.

“It was unintentional, and I truly and deeply apologize for it,” he said Wednesday. “I feel awful about it and, frankly, I am embarrassed.”

Ms. Liss and other current and former administration officials said the governor regularly asked them about their dating lives, touched them and commented about their physical appearance. Longtime staffers told some women they should wear high heels when the governor was in Albany, according to Ms. Liss and other former staffers. Mr. Azzopardi said no one was compelled to wear high heels.

The Journal spoke with more than 30 officials who either work or have worked for Mr. Cuomo during his 10 years as governor. All of those officials, who include current and former agency heads, described a high-pressure environment where seven-day workweeks were common.

Several people described the working environment as toxic. Many former staffers recalled the governor’s actions more endearingly. Once on Valentine’s Day, Mr. Cuomo had roses delivered to the female employees, they said. Two women who received the flowers said they appreciated the gesture.

When asked about the criticism of working conditions, Mr. Azzopardi said: “The people of this state elected the governor to represent them four times during the last 14 years, and they know he works day and night for them. There is no secret these are tough jobs, and the work is demanding, but we have a top-tier team with many employees who have been here for years, and many others who have left and returned.”

One former aide, 25-year-old Charlotte Bennett, recently said Mr. Cuomo asked about her sex life and whether she had relationships with older men.

Another former adviser, Lindsey Boylan, said in a Feb. 24 Medium post that Mr. Cuomo tried to kiss her on the lips in his office and, during a 2017 flight on his plane, suggested they play strip poker. A spokeswoman for Mr. Cuomo has said Ms. Boylan’s accusations are false.

The governor is facing mounting pressure over the accusations, as well as how the state handled Covid-19 in nursing homes. State Attorney General Letitia James is overseeing an investigation into the accusations by Mses. Bennett and Boylan. Federal prosecutors are interested in how the governor’s top advisers pushed to alter a Health Department report to include a lower tally of deaths in those facilities, people familiar with the matter said.

Republicans and an increasing number of Democrats have called for Mr. Cuomo’s resignation or impeachment, but senior Democratic state lawmakers are resisting until Ms. James’s review is complete.

Ms. Liss said she decided to come forward after Mses. Bennett and Boylan accused Mr. Cuomo of sexual harassment. Ms. Liss said the governor’s response to their accusations has been inadequate.

Ms. Liss won a competitive fellowship in 2013 and joined Mr. Cuomo’s team to work on economic-development programs. She already had a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and had been working at a business-development firm in Rochester. She said she was proud of her role in the Executive Chamber but was dismayed that the governor never asked her about her work, focusing instead on personal questions or her appearance.

Ana Liss keeps in her office a framed picture of her and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, taken at a 2014 reception, showing his arm around her waist.



Photo:

Libby March for The Wall Street Journal

Ms. Liss recalled working at a May 6, 2014, reception at the Executive Mansion in Albany, which is Mr. Cuomo’s official residence. Mr. Cuomo was in a living room on the north side of the mansion’s first floor and noticed Ms. Liss, she recalled.

“He came right over to me and he was like, ‘Hey, Sweetheart!’” she said.

She said the governor hugged her, kissed her on both cheeks and then wrapped his arm around her lower back and grabbed her waist. They turned to a photographer, who took a picture that shows Mr. Cuomo’s hand around her waist.

In the Medium post, Ms. Boylan described a similar encounter with the governor at a Jan. 6, 2016, event at Madison Square Garden. She said Mr. Cuomo stopped to talk with her after a speech, and she was soon informed by her boss that the governor had a crush on her.

“It was an uncomfortable but all-too-familiar feeling: the struggle to be taken seriously by a powerful man who tied my worth to my body and my appearance,” Ms. Boylan wrote.

Ms. Liss said she never made a formal complaint about the behavior of the governor or anyone else. She said she eventually asked for a transfer to another office.

Ms. Liss said her experience working for the governor prompted her to begin mental-health counseling in 2014. She said she drank heavily that year, and she left the Executive Chamber in 2015 to take a position at Cornell University as a corporate-relations manager. Ms. Liss now works as the director of the Department of Planning and Development for Monroe County in upstate New York.

The Journal interviewed two other Empire State Fellows who said they observed Ms. Liss drinking heavily and skipping social engagements when she worked for the governor.

Peter Walke, a fellow who now serves as Vermont’s environmental conservation commissioner, said in a recent interview that he noticed Ms. Liss became more withdrawn over time.

After the allegations by Mses. Boylan and Bennett, Mr. Walke contacted Ms. Liss. She relayed her own experiences to him, Mr. Walke said.

Ms. Liss said she was proud of the work she did during her time in Albany, and still keeps in her office that picture of her and Mr. Cuomo at the reception. She supports the policies he has enacted.

“I just wish—I wish that he took me seriously,” she said.

—Leslie Brody and Jim Oberman contributed to this article.

Write to Jimmy Vielkind at Jimmy.Vielkind@wsj.com, Deanna Paul at deanna.paul@wsj.com and Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com

Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Second former aide accuses Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment: report

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A second woman has accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, according to a new report.

Charlotte Bennett, a 25-year-old former aide to Cuomo, told the New York Times that the governor asked her inappropriate personal questions and had said that he was open to relationships with women in their 20s.

Cuomo released a statement Saturday night saying, “Ms. Bennett was a hardworking and valued member of our team during COVID. She has every right to speak out.”

“When she came to me and opened up about being a sexual assault survivor and how it shaped her and her ongoing efforts to create an organization that empowered her voice to help other survivors, I tried to be supportive and helpful. Ms. Bennett’s initial impression was right: I was trying to be a mentor to her. I never made advances toward Ms. Bennett nor did I ever intend to act in any way that was inappropriate. The last thing I would ever have wanted was to make her feel any of the things that are being reported,” he said.

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Key Biden aide said pandemic was ‘best thing that ever happened to him’, book says | Joe Biden

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A senior adviser to Democrat Joe Biden in his campaign for president believed “Covid is the best thing that ever happened to him”, a new book reports.

It was, the authors add, a necessarily private comment that “campaign officials believed but would never say in public” as the US reeled from the impact of the pandemic amid hospitals stretched to breaking and with deaths mounting and the economy falling off a cliff.

The remark, made to “an associate” by Anita Dunn, a Washington powerbroker who the Atlantic called “The Mastermind Behind Biden’s No-Drama Approach to Trump”, is reported in Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.

The first major book on the 2020 election, a campaign indelibly marked by the coronavirus, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

This week, President Biden commemorated the 500,000th US Covid death with solemn ceremony and a request that Americans “remember those we lost and those we left behind”.

Allen and Parnes, of NBC News and The Hill, also collaborated on Shattered, a similarly speedy history of Hillary Clinton’s White House run in 2016. In their new book they record Biden’s view of his predecessor in her defeat by Trump – he thought her a “terrible candidate” – and the views of Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice-president from 2009 to 2017, as the 2020 campaign unfolded.

Obama first “seemed to be enamored with a former Texas congressman, Beto O’Rourke”, Allen and Parnes write, then later told Biden’s aides he feared his friend, aged 77 when the primary began, would only succeed in embarrassing himself and tarnishing a distinguished Washington career.

But Dunn’s reported comment points to what became the dominant theme of the election. As the pandemic capsized Trump along with the economy Biden, through a much more cautious approach to campaigning and basic public health concerns, appealed to voters as the right man to manage a recovery.

Trump sought to hammer Biden for “hiding in his basement” – a reference to Biden’s decision to rarely leave home in Wilmington, Delaware, instead campaigning virtually while the president held rallies and ignored public health guidelines. But such attacks did not hit home.

Though “both Trump and Biden were comfortable with the stylistic and substantive contrasts of their … responses to the coronavirus”, Allen and Parnes write, “Trump led loudly, Biden calmly said Trump misled”.

Like many members of his family and inner circle, Trump contracted the virus. He was reportedly more seriously ill than was publicly admitted. Biden stayed healthy and won the electoral college 306-232 and the popular vote by more than 7m.

Dunn, 63, is a veteran of six Democratic campaigns and three winning ones, having worked for Obama in 2008 and 2012. She has not taken a role in the Biden administration and according to her own consulting firm, SKDK, is “currently on leave … expected to return later this year”.

According to the profile published by the Atlantic in the immediate aftermath of Biden’s win in November, Dunn “came of age in the time when aides were neither seen nor heard … and still values discretion above almost all else”.

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Biden press aide TJ Ducklo resigns over ‘abhorrent’ remarks to female journalist | Biden administration

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White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo has resigned, the day after he was suspended for issuing a sexist and profane threat to a journalist inquiring about his relationship with another reporter.

In a statement on Saturday, Ducklo said he was “devastated to have embarrassed and disappointed my White House colleagues and President Biden”.

“No words can express my regret, my embarrassment and my disgust for my behavior,” he said. “I used language that no woman should ever have to hear from anyone, especially in a situation where she was just trying to do her job. It was language that was abhorrent, disrespectful and unacceptable.”

It is the first departure from the new administration, less than a month into President Joe Biden’s tenure, and comes as the White House was facing criticism for not living up to standards set by Biden himself in their decision to retain Ducklo.

During a virtual swearing-in for staff on inauguration day, Biden said “If you ever work with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I will fire you on the spot. No ifs, ands or buts.”

Ducklo was suspended for a week without pay on Friday after a report surfaced in Vanity Fair outlining his sexist threats against a female Politico journalist to try to suppress a story about his relationship, telling her “I will destroy you”.

The journalist had been seeking to report on his relationship with a political reporter at Axios who had previously covered the Biden campaign and transition.

Before Politico broke the story Tuesday, People Magazine had published a glowing profile of the relationship. It was the first time either one had publicly acknowledged that they were dating.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki faced a flurry of questions about the controversy on Friday, with reporters highlighting Biden’s comments and questioning the decision to merely suspend Ducklo for a week.

Confronted with those comments from the president, Psaki said on Friday that Ducklo’s conduct “doesn’t meet our standards, it doesn’t meet the president’s standard, and it was important that we took a step to make that clear”.

She pointed to apologies made by top members of the White House communications team and Ducklo himself to the Politico reporter as ample moves reflecting the seriousness of the situation.

On Saturday, Psaki said in a statement that Ducklo’s decision came with the support of White House chief of staff Ron Klain, and added that “we are committed to striving every day to meet the standard set by the president in treating others with dignity and respect, with civility and with a value for others through our words and our actions.”



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“Abhorrent, disrespectful, and unacceptable”: White House aide TJ Ducklo resigns after reports he threatened reporter

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White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo announced Saturday that he is resigning for the “abhorrent, disrespectful, and unacceptable” threats he made to a female reporter in January. Duklo’s resignation comes one day after he was placed on a one-week suspension over the incident. 

Vanity Fair reported on Friday that Ducklo had threatened to “destroy” Politico reporter Tara Palmeri that if she continued to pursue a story about his relationship with Axios reporter Alexi McCammond, who had previously covered the Biden campaign. 

CBS News has not been able to independently verify the phone call, but the conversation three weeks ago prompted a series of moves by the White House communications office, two people familiar with the situation told CBS News. It is unclear why it took more than three weeks for the White House to discipline Ducklo. 

In a statement posted to Twitter, Ducklo said he is “devastated to have embarrassed and disappointed” President Biden and others at the White House. 

“No words can express my regret, my embarrassment, and my disgust for my behavior,” Ducklo said in a statement. “I used language that no woman should ever have to hear from anyone, especially in a situation where she was just trying to do her job. It was language that was abhorrent, disrespectful, and unacceptable.” 

“I knew this was terrible. I know I can’t take it back. But I also know that I can learn from it and do better,” Ducklo continued. “This incident is not representative of who I am as a person, and I will be determined to earn back the trust of everyone I have let down because of my intolerable actions.” 

This is the first public statement Ducklo has made on the matter. 

In a statement, press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the resignation on Saturday, saying she had a discussion with him on Saturday evening. White House chief of staff Ron Klain supported the conversation, she added. 

“We are committed to striving every day to meet the standard set by the President in treating others with dignity and respect, with civility and with a value for others through our words and our actions,” Psaki said. 



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Cuomo aide attempts to clarify bombshell admission in COVID-19 nursing home death probe

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Melissa DeRosa, secretary to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, attempted to walk back an earlier admission that the state withheld COVID-19 nursing home death data on purpose, insisting Friday that the governor’s office was “comprehensive and transparent” in responding to records requests from the Trump administration’s Justice Department. 

On a phone call with New York’s Democratic lawmakers on Thursday, DeRosa reportedly said that Cuomo’s administration feared the data about COVID-19 deaths could “be used against us” by the Justice Department in the midst of its federal probe initiated against four states regarding nursing home deaths, including New York.

NY REP. TOM REED WILL FILE CRIMINAL COMPLAINT AGAINST CUOMO AIDE FOR ALLEGED COVID-19 NURSING HOME COVER-UP

“We were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation,” DeRosa told the lawmakers, according to the New York Post, which first reported the information.

But on Friday, DeRosa sought to clarify her comments, saying that she was “explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we needed to temporarily set aside the Legislature’s request to deal with the federal request first.” 

“We informed the houses of this at the time,” DeRosa said in a statement that was posted on Twitter by Rich Azzopardi, a senior Cuomo adviser. “We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and vaccine rollout. 

“As I said on a call with legislators, we could not fulfill their request as quickly as anyone would have liked. But we are committed to being better partners going forward as we share the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic.” 

CUOMO AIDE TELLS NY DEMOCRATS ADMINISTRATION HID NURSING HOME DATA TO KEEP IT FROM TRUMP DOJ: REPORT

The statement did little to quell the anger from Republican lawmakers, some who are now calling for a criminal indictment of Cuomo and top staffers for their mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Friday that he would be filing a criminal complaint with local and federal law enforcement for DeRosa’s arrest. 

DeRosa’s bombshell admission also fueled fury over an earlier discovery by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who said in late January that an investigation by her office revealed Cuomo’s administration had undercounted the COVID-19 death toll linked to nursing homes by as much as 50%. 

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On Wednesday, the state revealed the number of deaths was actually 15,049 residents in elder care facilities (nursing homes and assisted living/adult care facilities) — nearly 10,000 more than the state Health Department was reporting on Jan. 27, 2021 — according to a letter from the State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker sent to Senate Democrats.

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