The first woman to publicly accuse Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment claimed he once made a rude joke that he would “mount” her if he were a dog, according to a new report.
Lindsey Boylan, a former assistant to the governor, revealed Cuomo’s eerie remark in a lengthy interview with The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow, telling him that Cuomo was making the gross joke in 2018 after meeting at the governor’s mansion.
Boylan, 36, who is one of seven women to make allegations of sexual misconduct against the governor, said he made the comment after Cuomo’s dog – a German Shepherd mix named Captain – jumped up and down her neighborhood.
She said she was trying to calm the dog, but then backed out.
Then, Boylan said, Cuomo joked that he would try to “climb” her too if he were a dog.
“I remember being extracted, as well, what a stupid third-grade thing to say,” Boylan told the magazine.
“I just took it off,” she said.
A spokesman for the governor did not immediately return the request for comment.
Boylan first accused Cuomo of sexual harassment in a series of tweets in December, then blamed the governor’s alleged conduct in a detailed post on the Medium website.
She claimed Cuomo kissed her “on the lips” without warning in his Manhattan office in 2018 – and also claimed that the governor had asked her to play strip poker on a private plane a year earlier.
Cuomo has denied the charges, saying he never touched anyone inappropriately.
In the New Yorker interview, Boylan said her former administration boss Howard Zemsky once told her that Cuomo was “in love” with her.
She also recalled an extremely toxic workplace under the governor, where aides were reduced to tears and his political opponents were the target of childish games.
She recalled an occasion when Cuomo allegedly made fun of a female assistant’s haircut and left her in tears.
The governor also once joked about the weight of a former male servant, Boylan said.
“It was toxic, and especially for women,” she said in an interview from her time at the governor’s office.
Boylan also said that Cuomo, a longtime political enemy of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, had a dartboard with the mayor’s face on the grounds of the governor’s mansion.
“I couldn’t believe how brutal that was,” she told the magazine.