As Cuomo’s team tried to spot one of its accusers

Days after Lindsey Boylan became the first woman to accuse Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of sexual harassment in a series of Twitter posts in December, people close to the governor began circulating an open letter that they expected former employees to sign.

The letter was a total attack on Boylan’s credibility, suggesting that his accusation was premeditated and politically motivated. He revealed personal complaints filed against her and tried to link her with supporters of former President Donald J. Trump.

“An allegation of sexual harassment as a weapon for personal political gain or to gain notoriety is not tolerated,” the letter concluded. “False claims downgrade the truth of credible claims.”

The initial idea, according to three people with direct knowledge of the events, was to get Cuomo’s former advisers – especially women – to sign their names to the letter and distribute it widely.

Several drafts were created and Cuomo was involved in creating the letter, one of the people said. The governor’s current advisers emailed at least one draft to a group of former advisors. From there, it circulated to the current and former advisors to the governor.

It is unclear how many people were asked to sign the letter, but two former employees, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not want to irritate Cuomo, decided that they did not want their names on it.

The letter, which was reviewed by The New York Times, was never published. Ms. Boylan did not immediately draft or follow up on her Twitter posts in December, allowing her accusations to subside, along with the urgency of the effort to discredit her. Still, the letter shows that the Cuomo government was ready to quickly and aggressively undermine Boylan, a Democrat who is running for the Manhattan district presidency.

At the time, officials in the governor’s office were aware of another issue of sexual harassment involving Mr. Cuomo, which had not yet been made public.

Six months earlier, Charlotte Bennett, an executive assistant and senior instructor, told two senior officials in the governor’s office that he had harassed her, asking if she was monogamous and sleeping with older men.

Ms. Bennett went public with her allegations in The New York Times last month, saying in an interview how she “understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me”, adding that “she felt terribly uncomfortable and scared”.

Ms. Bennett performed a few days after Ms. Boylan wrote an essay on Medium, detailing the allegations she initially made on Twitter on December 13. Ms. Boylan wrote that the governor would repeatedly try to touch her on his arms and legs and lower back, and that he once suggested “playing strip poker”.

Since then, several other women have accused Cuomo of improper conduct, from unwanted sexual advances to unsolicited kisses and footprints.

The governor denied having touched anyone inappropriately and begged New Yorkers to await the outcome of two separate investigations: one overseen by state attorney general Letitia James and the other by the state assembly. Although Cuomo suggested that some of his actions or statements may have been misinterpreted, his rejection of Boylan’s claims was much more strenuous.

“I believe that a woman has the right to come forward and express her opinion and express questions and concerns that she has,” said Cuomo on December 14. “But that is not true”.

Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor, said on Tuesday that the government had no comment on the Boylan letter, citing ongoing investigations.

At least one version of the letter included exchanges of Boylan’s text with some of Cuomo’s senior advisers last year, in an effort to suggest that she was malicious. The Times is not quoting the letter extensively to avoid publishing attacks on characters that have not been made public.

The draft largely deprecated Ms. Boylan and accused her of using her “political retribution” allegations.

The letter pointed out that Boylan’s campaign advisor also represented a political opponent of the governor, and that Boylan was “supported by Donald Trump’s lawyers and financiers: an active opponent of the governor.”

The initial plan for a letter about Ms. Boylan illustrated how the Cuomo government was prepared to launch a broader effort to undermine its credibility.

The approach seemed consistent with a culture of intimidation in the governor’s office described by former advisers, and Boylan was clearly a target.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Cuomo’s aides called at least six ex-aides shortly after Boylan’s Twitter posts, which accused the governor of harassing her in front of others. The calls were to ask if the former aides had heard about the accuser or to find out about her. Some of those contacted felt that the calls were intended to intimidate them into speaking.

Another Cuomo accuser and another former aide, Ana Liss, said she received a call from an adviser to the governor shortly after Boylan tweeted about the governor in December.

“I thought, why would he do that?” Liss, who now works for Monroe County, said in an interview. “He was trying to confirm how wide Lindsey’s network was.”

On Tuesday, Boylan’s lawyer, Jill Basinger, said the letter was another attempt to defame his client.

“Once again, a victim of sexual harassment who has the courage to tell his story is placed in the position of not only having to relive the trauma of a toxic work environment, but to defend himself against the malicious leak of alleged personal files, murders of characters and a whispered retaliatory campaign, ”said Basinger. “This page needs to be pulled from the governor’s harassment manual.”

The use of such tactics in harassment complaints is so common that it has its own acronym: DARVO, which means “to deny, attack and reverse the victim and the offender”.

“It is incredibly common for individuals who experience sexual harassment to also retaliate,” said Emily Martin, vice president of education and justice at the workplace of the National Women’s Law Center, which runs the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. “We heard thousands of people seeking help to deal with harassment in the workplace, and more than 70% of them say they were also retaliated against.”

Shortly after Boylan first accused Cuomo, several media organizations published details of his personal records that were released by the Cuomo government, describing unflattering reports of Boylan’s previous actions as chief and recommendations for disciplinary actions against her.

For Cuomo supporters, who denied any wrongdoing, the documents were excusing, painting the image of a disgruntled employee with an ax to grind.

Beth Garvey, Mr. Cuomo’s acting lawyer, defended the release of Ms. Boylan’s records, saying on Tuesday that, with certain exceptions, “it is within the discretion of a government entity to share written employment records, including in cases where members the media ask for this public information and when to correct inaccurate or misleading statements. “

She also cited the attorney general’s investigation and refrained from further comment.

The speed with which the documents were provided was exceptional, especially considering that state reporters in Albany and elsewhere are used to waiting months, if not years, for access to public records through the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

“The government has a well-documented history of being quite closed on FOIL,” said Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, noting efforts to stop reporters looking for Joseph Percoco, an aide close to Cuomo’s who was convicted of federal corruption charges in 2018. “There are considerable and consistent examples of them making it extremely difficult to obtain records.”

Lawyers who work with sexual harassment said an employee’s work history is irrelevant to whether or not they can complain about harassment.

“There is no defense against the harassment that the person was a bad employee,” said Elizabeth Kristen, a senior lawyer with Legal Assistance at Work in San Francisco, adding: “It is neither relevant. Perhaps she was the worst employee in the world, but she could still be harassed. “

Luis Ferré-Sadurní contributed reporting.