The Department of Justice suddenly announced this week that former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed 13 women over the course of eight years.
Can anyone remember a political figure whose fortune changed so drastically and quickly? Just a few years ago, Democrats were hanging on Cuomo’s every word during his COVID press briefings. People wanted him to run for president.
Politico reports:
DOJ says Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed 13 womenNew York — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed 13 women who worked for the state over the course of an eight-year period, the Department of Justice announced Friday as part of a civil rights settlement with his successor.The agreement concluded the governor’s office under Cuomo violated federal Title VII rules against discrimination and retaliation between 2013 and 2021.Cuomo and his staff engaged in “a pattern or practice of discrimination against female employees based on sex” and found they retaliated against the women, Justice Department officials found.The justice department found Cuomo “repeatedly subjected” women in his office to non-consensual sexual contact, ogling and gender-based nicknames. Top Cuomo staff “were aware of the conduct and retaliated against four of the women he harassed,” the DOJ concluded.“The conduct in the Executive Chamber under the former governor, the state’s most powerful elected official, was especially egregious because of the stark power differential involved and the victims’ lack of avenues to report and redress harassment,” Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general in the agency’s civil rights division, said in a statement.Federal officials Friday also announced they reached a settlement with Cuomo’s successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul, to expand her office’s human resources department, create new policies and procedures for reporting and develop “robust training” for anti-retaliation programs.
FOX News has reaction from Cuomo’s attorney, who calls the investigation politically motivated garbage:
In a statement, Cuomo’s attorney, Rita Glavin, said he didn’t harass anyone and that the DOJ investigation was based on a “deeply flawed, inaccurate, biased, and misleading report” by New York State Attorney General Letitia James.”This is nothing more than a political settlement with no investigation,” Glavin said.Cuomo is suing James for documents related to her 2021 investigation into alleged sexual harassment that led to his resignation in August 2021 following her bombshell report of his alleged misdeeds.In a separate statement, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said the DOJ’s investigation “isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.”
You can read the DOJ report here.
Last year, Cuomo hinted at mounting a political comeback and possibly even running for mayor of New York City. This development is probably going to put a damper on those plans.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY