In a column we published today, I described the bad week Andrew Cuomo was already having by Tuesday night. Sure enough, things have gotten even worse for New York’s embattled governor.
A sixth woman has come forward, accusing the governor of abusive conduct. Very little is known about the substance of the allegation, which was first reported by the Albany Times Union and has been picked up by other outlets. The woman’s identity has not been disclosed, but she has been described as “a member of the Executive Chamber staff,” and reportedly says the governor “inappropriately touched her during an encounter last year at the Executive Mansion, the official residence of the governor.”
Yesterday afternoon, during a call with reporters, Cuomo said he was unaware that there had been an allegation from a sixth complainant. That is odd.
Reports indicate that Cuomo’s office was made aware of the new allegation this past weekend and passed the information along to the office of Attorney General Letitia James — who, as my column relates, named two special investigators on Monday to investigate the sexual harassment claims. As the New York Post notes, the Times Union published its report about the allegation over an hour before Cuomo’s conference call with members of the media. Moreover, the Times Union indicated that Beth Garvey, Cuomo’s counsel, told the paper that the governor’s office was passing along all relevant information “promptly to the investigators appointed by the attorney general.”
Ms. Garvey was on the media call with Cuomo. Nevertheless, when asked about the matter, the governor said, “I’m not aware of any other claim” beyond the five that had previously been reported.
Meantime, a new controversy is brewing over the issue Kyle raised yesterday: the astonishing amount of money Cuomo raked in for the self-congratulatory book he wrote about his performance in confronting COVID-19.
The book, of course, was published before revelations about how Cuomo’s administration concealed the true number of nursing-home patients who died from the disease, and before an analysis from the Empire Center for Public Policy (a think tank from whom Cuomo’s administration also withheld the data) concluded that over a thousand deaths may be attributable to Cuomo’s March 25, 2020, executive order, which forced nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients.
The Post reports that families of the deceased seniors are now pressuring Cuomo to donate his book-sale profits to a fund for the families.