Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo lashed out at Attorney General Letitia James after Nassau County confirmed the disgraced lawmaker won’t face criminal charges for inappropriately touching a state trooper in 2019.
Cuomo has avoided charges after an unnamed female state trooper said she felt ‘completely violated’ by his unwanted touching at an event at Belmont Park, on Long Island, in September 2019, a Long Island prosecutor said Thursday.
Acting Nassau County District Attorney Joyce Smith said in a statement on Thursday that an investigation found the allegations against Cuomo, 64, ‘credible, deeply troubling but not criminal under New York law.’
Following the announcement, Cuomo fired back at AG James, whose office has produced a 168-page report with 74,000 pieces of evidence and dozens of interviews claiming that the former governor sexually assaulted at least 11 women during his time in office.
Andrew Cuomo lashed out at Attorney General Letitia James calling her 168-page report into his inappropriate behavior ‘gross prosecutorial misconduct and an abuse of government power for political purposes’
Attorney General Letitia James’ report found that Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women in violation of federal and state civil rights law but left the possibility of pursuing potential criminal penalties to prosecutors
‘With each passing day it becomes more and more clear that the Attorney General’s report was the intersection of gross prosecutorial misconduct and an abuse of government power for political purposes,’ a spokesperson for Cuomo said Thursday.
DA Smith opened the investigation into Cuomo’s behavior at the race track after details of the encounter appeared in the AG’s August report on the sexual harassment allegations against the former governor.
The report chronicled accusations from 11 women and led to Cuomo’s resignation from office in August, though he has attacked the findings as biased and inaccurate.
‘Her press conference proclaimed “11 cases of violations of federal and state laws,” ignited the cancel culture mentality and started a media and political stampede against Governor Cuomo,’ Cuomo added in his statement.
‘James never presented the evidence to support such claims, her report omitted important exculpatory facts, she admitted her personal interference in preparing the report and had still refused to answer any questions from the press.
‘It was obviously a political springboard to remove Governor Cuomo so she could run for office, however it was so poorly done and obviously it backfired and James’ run for governor lasted only 5 weeks,’ Cuomo said.
James was a top contender to take Cuomo’s former position but dropped out of the gubernatorial race earlier this month after falling behind sitting Gov. Kathy Hochul in polling and fundraising numbers.
Nassau County District Attorney Joyce Smith said the allegations of Cuomo inappropriately touching a female trooper at Belmont Racetrack (pictured) in 2019 were ‘credible, deeply troubling but not criminal under New York law’
Cuomo will not face criminal charges for his alleged actions at the racetrack but is currently face a misdemeanor charge for groping a former aide
After James’ report was concluded, she said pursuing potential criminal penalties would be up to prosecutors.
According to the report, the female trooper said Cuomo ‘ran the palm of his left hand’ across her abdomen, to her belly button ‘and he pushed his hand back to her right hip where she kept her gun’ while she held a door open for him as he left an event at Belmont Park on September 23, 2019.
Cuomo was at the state-owned racetrack, home to the last leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, to break ground on a new arena for the NHL’s New York Islanders. The arena, adjacent to the track’s main grandstand and paddock, opened last month.
The trooper, a member of Cuomo’s security detail, told James’ investigators that Cuomo’s conduct at the event made her feel ‘completely violated because to me, like that’s between my chest and my privates, which, you know, if he was a little bit north or a little bit south, it’s not good.’
James’ report said that although the trooper was upset by Cuomo’s unwanted touching, she did not feel she could do anything about it.
‘I’m a trooper, newly assigned to the travel team. Do I want to make waves? No,’ she said, according to the report. ‘I’ve heard horror stories about people getting kicked off the detail or transferred over like little things. … I had no plans to report it.’
Cuomo’s spokesperson Rich Azzopardi, in a statement released Thursday afternoon, said Cuomo didn’t recall touching the trooper.
Azzopardi said it was common for the former governor to acknowledge a trooper who would hold the door open for him. Azzopardi didn’t respond to a question about whether Cuomo would acknowledge troopers by touching them.
‘As he has said many times, Gov. Cuomo did not remember touching the trooper, but said that it was a common custom for him to acknowledge the presence of a trooper – male or female – holding a door as he walked past them,’ Azzopardi said.
‘This was only meant to be an acknowledgment of their presence and nothing more.’
The trooper told James´ investigators that what happened at Belmont Park was just one of many instances of Cuomo’s ‘flirtatious’ and ‘creepy’ behavior toward her.
She told investigators that Cuomo began flirting as soon as they met and quickly promoted her to his security detail despite her lack of experience.
One time, in an elevator ride in 2018, he traced his finger from her neck to her back, she said. ‘He then said: ‘Hey, you.’ So I turned around and said, ‘Oh, hey, how are you, sir?’ And that was basically it. I kind of was like freaked out.’
She also claims he suggested she go ‘upstairs’ with him for a private tour of his residence at the Executive Mansion in Albany. ‘It came off as creepy,’ the trooper said.
Another time, he asked to kiss her in the driveway outside his Mount Kisco home and proceeded to peck her cheek, she said.
‘I remember just freezing, being – in the back of my head, I’m like, oh, how do I say no politely?’ she told investigators. She was worried he was ‘going to take it out on the detail’ and place her ‘on the bad list.’
When he asked for a kiss a second time the trooper said she was sick. ‘He looked at me almost in disgust that I had denied him,’ the trooper told investigators.
The Nassau County investigation was limited to the encounter at Belmont Park, which is on the county’s border with New York City. Authorities in other parts of the state have been looking into other allegations in James’ report.
‘We thank the brave individuals who came forward and cooperated with our office during this investigation, and gratefully acknowledge our colleagues, Attorney General James and the New York State Assembly, for their diligence and collaboration,’ Smith said.
Brittany Commisso claimed that Cuomo violated her by running his hand under her shirt and grabbing her blouse during a holiday party at the governor’s Executive Mansion in Albany on December 7, 2020. He has always denied her claims
The complaint, which was signed by an investigator from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, alleges that the former governor ‘intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly place his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim and onto her intimate body part’
Following the release of James’ report, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil inquiry in August into sexual harassment claims made against Cuomo. The exact nature of the inquiry and its current status is unclear.
In October, the Albany County sheriff’s office filed a misdemeanor groping complaint against Cuomo, but a week later the district attorney asked a judge for more time to evaluate the evidence.
The DA said that the sheriff’s one-page criminal complaint, based on allegations from a woman who said Cuomo slid his hand up her blouse and grabbed her breast at the governor’s mansion in late 2020, was ‘potentially defective.’
The charges relate to the allegation of Brittany Commisso, a former aide who claimed Cuomo groped her breast in the office of the Executive Mansion in Albany in December 2020, when he was at the height of his pandemic popularity.
Cuomo has continued to deny that the inappropriate encounter took place.
Commisso’s claim was the most serious of all of the allegations listed in James’ report, which Cuomo has always maintained was a hit-job by James to get him out of her way. She is running for governor in November 2022.
If convicted, Cuomo could face up to one year in prison.
The complaint, which was signed by an investigator from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, alleges that the former governor ‘intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly place his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim and onto her intimate body part.’
Cuomo’s attorney Rita Glavin has said that Commisso’s ‘story changed over time.’
The complaint filed by the sheriff’s department investigator said evidence in the case included police BlackBerry messages, cell phone records, building security records and a text message from Cuomo’s mobile phone.
District attorneys in Oswego, Manhattan, suburban Westchester and Nassau counties also had said they asked for investigative materials from the attorney general’s inquiry to see if any of the allegations could result in criminal charges.
At the prosecutor’s request, a court delayed Cuomo’s scheduled arraignment until January 7.
The book, released in October 2020, centered on Cuomo’s early handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state
In November, the state Assembly Judiciary Committee released the findings of a separate probe concluding that Cuomo engaged in sexual harassment on multiple occasions and misappropriated state resources and staff to help him write a memoir that landed him a million dollar book deal.
Cuomo has angrily denounced an ethics panel’s decision to force him to return the $5.1 million paid for his 2020 book, describing it as ‘political hypocrisy and duplicity at its worst’.
Earlier this month, Cuomo was ordered to turn over the proceeds to the AG’s office within 30 days, following a probe by a state ethics panel.
The profits from Cuomo’s ‘American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic’ came into question in October, when the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) announced that it was conducting an internal inquiry, reassessing its initial approval of Cuomo’s 2020 book.
‘Gov. Cuomo is not legally entitled to retain compensation… for any form of outside activity related to the book,’ said David McNamara, the commissioner, and a Senate Republican appointee.
Cuomo’s spokesman Rich Azzopardi condemned the decision, describing it as vengeance orchestrated by Cuomo’s political rivals.
‘This is political hypocrisy and duplicity at its worst,’ Azzopardi wrote in a statement.
The women who accused Gov Andrew Cuomo of harassment
Lindsay Boylan, 36
Former aide Lindsay Boylan, 36, was the first woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment in a Medium post on February 24. She claimed that the governor asked her to play strip poker and kissed her on the lips without her permission when she worked for him in 2017.
Lindsay Boylan, 36
Charlotte Bennett, 25
Charlotte Bennett, 25, came forward a few days after Boylan and claimed that Cuomo sexually harassed her last June while she was working as a health policy adviser in his administration at the height of the COVID-19 crisis.
Bennett accused Cuomo of ‘grooming’ her and asking inappropriate questions about her sex life.
She also claimed that he told her he was open to dating women in their 20s.
BENNETT said the governor asked her about her love life – including whether she ever had sex with older men – and talked about his own, saying that age differences didn’t matter in relationships and he was open to dating women over 22.
During a meeting alone in his office, the governor said he was lonely and talked about wanting to hug someone, Bennett said.
She said she swiftly complained to Cuomo’s chief of staff and was transferred to another job.
She said she spoke to a lawyer for the governor, but didn´t insist on further action because she liked her new post and wanted to move on.
Charlotte Bennett, 25
Anna Ruch, 33
Anna Ruch was the third woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment and the only one thus far who did not work with him in a professional capacity. She claimed that Cuomo put his hands on her face and asked if he could kiss her just moments after they met at a September 2019 wedding in Manhattan.
Anna Ruch, 33
Ana Liss, 35
Ana Liss, 35, a former aide, said Cuomo asked her whether she had a boyfriend, once kissed her hand at her desk and called her by patronizing names, including ‘blondie,’ ‘sweetheart’ and ‘honey.’
At a reception, the governor hugged her then put his arm around her lower back and waist as they posed for photo, Liss said.
She said she eventually asked for a job transfer. In an interview, Liss said she was ‘not claiming sexual harassment per se,’ but felt the administration ‘wasn’t a safe space for young women to work.’
Liss, who previously served as Cuomo’s policy and operations aide between 2013 and 2015, told the Wall Street Journal that during her time in his administration, the governor had subjected her to unsolicited advances, including touching her lower back, kissing her hand and quizzing her about her love life.
Ana Liss, 35
Karen Hinton, 62
The oldest allegations against Cuomo came from Karen Hinton, who served as a press aide for him when he led the US Department of Housing and Urban Development two decades ago and she was a consultant for the agency. Hinton told the Washington Post about a 2000 incident when she said Cuomo summoned her to his ‘dimly lit’ hotel room and embraced her after a work event. She said she tried to pull away from Cuomo when he pulled her back and held her before she managed to escape the room.
Karen Hinton, 62
Unnamed sixth accuser
The most damning allegations leveled against Cuomo to date came from a sixth accuser, whose name has not been released.
The accuser, who is a member of Cuomo’s staff, alleged that he closed a door, reached under her blouse and fondled her after summoning her to the governor’s mansion in Albany for help with his cellphone, according to the Times Union of Albany.
It first reported on her accusation last month; she then gave more detail in her first interview on the matter.
The woman spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy, although her identity is known within the governor´s circle, the Times Union reported.
The woman, an executive assistant, told the Times Union the governor gave her kisses on the cheek and inappropriately tight hugs for years and made remarks including, ‘If you were single, the things that I would do to you’ and ‘I’m single and ready to mingle.’
Then, one day in November, she was summoned to his Executive Mansion office to help him with a cellphone problem, she said.
He got up from his desk, started groping her and told her ‘I don’t care’ after she tried to deflect him by saying he was going to get them into trouble, and then he slammed the door, she said.
Then he reached under her blouse and clutched one of her breasts over her bra, she told the newspaper.
The woman told a colleague this winter about the alleged encounter, and the co-worker told a supervisor in early March, according to the newspaper.
Cuomo called the report ‘gut-wrenching’ in a March statement and said: ‘I have never done anything like this.’
Another female aide, who has remained anonymous, claimed he called her to his Executive Mansion last year, reached under her blouse and fondled her
Jessica Bakeman
Jessica Bakeman claimed in a first-person article for New York Magazine that she was sexually harassed by Cuomo on several occasions since the start of her journalism career in 2012.
Bakeman added her voice as the seventh accuser as she detailed inappropriate touching by the governor as he continued to deny all of the claims.
‘He took my hand, as if to shake it, then refused to let go,’ Bakeman wrote of an interaction with Cuomo as she said goodnight at a holiday party in 2014 when she was only 25 years old.
‘He put his other arm around my back, his hand on my waist, and held me firmly in place while indicating to a photographer he wanted us to pose for a picture.’
At the time Bakeman had been working for what is now Politico New York and claimed that red flags went up as her ‘job was to analyze and scrutinize him’.
‘I didn’t want a photo of him with his hands on my body and a smile on my face,’ she wrote.
Jessica Bakeman, a reporter who once covered the Cuomo administration, was the seventh woman to come forward with claims of harassment
‘But I made the reflexive assessment that most women and marginalized people know instinctively, the calculation about risk and power and self-preservation. I knew it would be far easier to smile for the brief moment it takes to snap a picture than to challenge one of the most powerful men in the country.’
In an earlier 2012 incident while she was working for USA Today, Bakeman also claims that Cuomo kept her pinned to his side as he told a story to her male colleagues.
‘He left it there, and kept me pinned next to him, for several minutes as he finished telling his story,’ she said. ‘I stood there, my cheeks hot, giggling nervously as my male colleagues did the same. We all knew it was wrong, but we did nothing.’
The reporter, who now works in Florida, claimed that Cuomo ‘never let me forget I was a woman’ as she also alleged that he made frequent attempts to humiliate her, including calling out her purple phone instead of answering her question during a press gaggle.
Alyssa McGrath, 33
McGrath, a current administrative assistant in Cuomo’s office, told The New York Times that he looked down her shirt, quizzed her about her marital status, and told her she was beautiful, using an Italian phrase she had to ask her parents to interpret.
McGrath didn’t say the governor made sexual contact with her but thought his behavior was sexual harassment.
She recalled Cuomo kissing her on the forehead and gripping her firmly around the sides while posing for a photo at a 2019 office Christmas party.
Alyssa McGrath (pictured) is one of two aides who have come forward to accuse the governor of harassment
Sherry Vill, 55
Sherry Vill, 55, accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct during a press conference with her attorney Gloria Allred on Monday.
She alleges Cuomo grabbed her face and kissed her ‘aggressively and in a sexual manner’ on both cheeks in May 2017 while he was touring her home in Greece, near Rochester, as he inspected local flood damage.
Vill, who said she felt uncomfortable at the time, shared an image her daughter took on the day that showed Cuomo holding her face as he kissed her cheek and her attorney held up multiple photos showing the Governor inside her home.
The same photos appear on Cuomo’s Flickr account, as well as multiple others that show him kissing and greeting residents as he toured the town.
None of the women in the other photos have accused the governor of inappropriate behavior or wrongdoing.
Sherry Vill, 55, accused Cuomo of sexual misconduct on Monday. Vill, who said she felt uncomfortable at the time, shared an image her daughter took on the day that showed Cuomo holding her face as he kissed her cheek
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