In the days after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was first accused of sexual harassment by a former aide, the governor’s office called at least six former employees to find out if they had heard from the prosecution or for information about it. to gather her in conversations that some said they saw as attempts to intimidate them.
Some of the people who received the calls said they had not heard from the administration for months before they got the call about the prosecution. One said a caller encouraged them to give reporters information that discredited the prosecutor, Lindsey Boylan, who worked as an economic adviser to the Cuomo government between 2015 and 2018.
The calls were made by current officials and former aides who are still close to the governor’s office, several recipients said. The outreach was commissioned by Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s best assistant, according to people familiar with the effort.
“I felt intimidated and baffled,” said Ana Liss, a former assistant to the governor who received one of the calls.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has denied touching anyone inappropriately and apologized for any behavior that may have been misinterpreted.
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Seth Wenig / Press Pool
Ms. Liss, who earlier this month accused Mr. Cuomo of improper conduct, said Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Mr. Cuomo, called her on December 21. The call came eight days after Ms. Boylan said in a post on Twitter that the governor sexually harassed her.
Ms. Liss had not worked for the governor for more than five years and could not remember the last time the administration had been in contact, she said.
She said Mr. Azzopardi reminded her on the phone how much she had accomplished in her work for the governor and asked if she had received a message from Mrs. Boylan. She told him she hadn’t and said the conversation ended nicely.
Mr. Azzopardi said in a statement: “Following Ms. Boylan’s tweets in December, she and her lawyers and members of the press began reaching out to former members of the Chamber, many of whom have never worked with her. Those former members of the chamber called to let several members of staff know and convey that they were upset by the outreach. As a result, we proactively contacted some former colleagues to check in and make sure they had a warning. “
Mr Azzopardi said the calls were not coordinated by Ms DeRosa. “There was no focused effort – this outreach happened organically when everyone’s phone started to blow up.” He added that they were not intimidating anyone.
In Twitter posts after this story was published, Ms. Boylan said she had not contacted anyone in December and had no lawyer at the time.
Three former employees of his time as governor and a current assistant to Mr. Cuomo have accused the governor of inappropriate behavior or sexual harassment in the workplace, prompting calls from Republicans and high-ranking state democrats to resign.
“I felt intimidated and baffled,” said Ana Liss, a former assistant to the governor who received one of the calls.
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Democrats dominating the state assembly have launched an impeachment investigation that will look at the charges as well as how the government treated Cuomo Covid-19 in nursing homes. State Attorney General Letitia James is now overseeing an investigation into the former aides’ allegations and how Mr. Cuomo’s office handled the complaints.
Mr. Cuomo has denied touching anyone inappropriately and apologized for any behavior that may have been misinterpreted. He has also called on the New Yorkers to hold back their judgment until Ms. James’s investigation is completed.
Ms. Boylan has said that Mr. Cuomo tried to kiss her on the lips in his office and, on a flight in 2017 on his plane, suggested they play strip poker.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Cuomo has denied Ms. Boylan’s allegations.
Another former assistant, Charlotte Bennett, said Mr. Cuomo asked about her sex life and if she had relationships with older men. Mrs. Liss has said that he asked her if she had a boyfriend, touched her on the lower back at a reception and kissed her hand once when she got up from her desk. A fourth woman accused the governor of touching her inappropriately at a meeting at the Executive Mansion last year this week.
On Wednesday, Mr Cuomo said in a statement: “As I said yesterday, I have never done anything like this. The details of this report are heartbreaking. I am not going to go into the details of this or any other allegation given the ongoing review, but I am confident in the outcome of the Attorney General’s report. “
The governor has encouraged women to come forward in previous statements and said his office would cooperate with Ms. James’s investigation.
But according to court records and former staffers, Mr. Cuomo and his aides have gone after accusers and rivals in the past.
In October 2000, Mr. Cuomo, while serving as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was accused of sex discrimination and harassment in an internal memo filed by Susan Gaffney, a former HUD inspector general. She accused Mr. Cuomo and other HUD officials of intimidation and bullying after initiating a congressional audit of some of Mr. Cuomo.
Ms. Gaffney testified before Congress in 1998 that Mr Cuomo’s aides were trying to infect her, including publishing an anonymous letter Mr Cuomo allegedly received saying she targeted minorities.
At one point, Mr. Cuomo assured her that he had nothing to do with the actions of key figures, she said. I suggested that if his chief aides acted without his approval, he should fire them; the secretary did not respond, ”she said in the 1998 testimony, adding that the tactics Mr. Cuomo and his aides used were” dirty tricks “to force her to resign.
Mrs. Gaffney could not be reached.
After Ms. Boylan tweeted her account in December, she said in a Feb. 24 Medium post that the media received “parts of a supposedly confidential personnel file” from her time with the administration. Ms. Boylan said in the post that she had never seen the file and that it was an attempt to smear her.
Responding to Ms. Boylan’s allegation about her personnel file, Beth Garvey, the governor’s acting counsel, said instances where members of the media request such public information and when it is intended to correct inaccurate or misleading statements. “
Ms. Boylan also said in the Medium post that “the governor’s loyalists called the city to ask about me.”
A recipient of a call said that in December the caller asked if Ms. Boylan had been in touch with the recipient and what the recipient thought of her claims.
Another recipient of a call said that a caller, a current officer with the Cuomo administration, asked if reporters had been contacted about Ms. Boylan and wanted to confirm the nature of the recipient’s experience with Ms. Boylan. “The subtext was clear: I was asked to smear dirt on her,” said the recipient.
Write to Khadeeja Safdar at [email protected], Deanna Paul at [email protected] and Jimmy Vielkind at [email protected]
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