New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday denied accusations that he had improperly touched a woman, calling a new accuser’s report “distressing”.
On Tuesday, the Albany Times Union reported that a sixth woman had made accusations of inappropriate behavior against Cuomo, accusing him of touching her without his consent at the governor’s mansion.
The newspaper reported on Wednesday that Cuomo reached under the employee’s shirt and stroked it. The newspaper cited an unidentified source.
“As I said yesterday, I never did anything like that,” Cuomo said in a statement to NBC News.
“The details of this report are distressing,” he said. “I will not speak about the details of this or any other allegation, given the ongoing review, but I am confident of the outcome of the Attorney General’s report.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James appointed two lawyers, one of whom was a former United States attorney, to lead an independent investigation.
The Times Union said the woman had not filed a formal complaint with the governor’s office.
The newspaper reported that its allegations were reported to the governor’s council by other officials in the executive chamber and that the information was also passed on by the governor’s office to the attorney general’s office.
On March 3, team members attended a press conference in which Cuomo denied touching someone inappropriately, and when the employee was upset, a supervisor came to her aid and the employee later told her what she claimed to have occurred, according to the Times. Unity.
The woman is the sixth who accused Cuomo of inappropriate behavior or sexual harassment. Not all women have accused him of touching them.
Cuomo denied touching anyone inappropriately, but acknowledged that he acted in ways that made people uncomfortable. He said it was unintentional and apologized.
Despite calls to resign, Cuomo said he would not resign.
On Sunday, state Senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, also a Democrat, asked him to step down. And on Monday, the Republican state legislators, who are the minority, presented a resolution to start the impeachment process.
NBC News did not verify the account of the sixth accuser whose allegations were reported by the Times Union.
The woman in this case was reportedly summoned to the governor’s mansion to assist him in a minor technical problem involving his cell phone.
A person described as being briefed on the matter told the newspaper that the woman told Cuomo to stop and that the broader allegations include that Cuomo often engaged in flirting behavior with her.
