National overview
Cuomo administration leaked staff file accusing sexual harassment: Report
Assistants to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo allegedly leaked the staff file of a former staff member to the press after she sexually harassed the governor in a series of tweets in December. According to The New Yorker, a group of current and former Cuomo staff members have decided to release the staff record of Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to the governor, after she said Cuomo had sexually assaulted her for years afflicted. “Many saw and watched it,” she wrote in a tweet. According to the report, senior assistant Melissa DeRosa, Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo spokeswoman, and former secretary of state Steven Cohen, worked to defend Boylan’s allegations “in real time” and decided to expose the record, which allegations contain that Boylan colleagues, some of whom were women of color. When Boylan’s allegations surfaced, the Cuomo government was already facing a brewing scandal over the mishandling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic and the alleged cover-up that followed. “The decision was made jointly,” a source told the magazine. “That these are facts, the reporters must see.” Former Cuomo communications director Rich Bamberger, an intermediary who says he was not on the calls, reportedly called a number of reporters and encouraged them to reach out to the governor’s office. Azzopardi allegedly allegedly sent Boylan personnel files to reporters. Stories about the charges against Boylan appear in the Associated Press, the New York Post and the Albany Times Union. Following reports, Cuomo assistants began contacting people who worked under Boylan, and they also considered releasing a letter attacking Boylan’s credibility and reputation, although they decided against it. “My life was, you know, destroyed for a period of time,” Boylan told The New Yorker. Cuomo’s acting councilor, Beth Garvey, defended the decision to leak the staff record in a statement to the magazine, saying: ‘With general limited exceptions, it is generally within the discretion of a government entity to share edited service records. , also in cases where members of the media ask for such public information and when it is intended to correct inaccurate or misleading statements. Two months after he posted the allegations on Twitter, Boylan published an essay on Medium setting out the allegations. She set out an increasingly awkward relationship with the governor, in which he sought her out and arranged one-on-one meetings with her. The governor finally kissed her during one of the meetings, she says. Since Boylan published her essay in February, at least seven other women have brought their harassment against Cuomo to the fore. Earlier this month, after a sixth indictment was filed against Cuomo, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, both New York Democrats, joined most of the state’s congressional delegations to run for governor. insist third term to resign. The Times Union then reported that a member of the executive chamber staff, whose name withheld the newspaper, said that the governor “last year” stuck out from under her blouse and started begging her, after she was called in to to do work, according to the report. New York State House Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, later announced that the body’s judicial committee would open an investigation into the governor’s allegations. Cuomo has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying last week that it was “reckless and dangerous” for politicians to ask for his resignation before the investigation was completed. ‘Women have the right to come forward and be heard, and I fully encourage that. But I also want to be clear: there is still a question of truth. I did not do what was alleged, period, ‘Cuomo said in a call to reporters.