Governor Andrew Cuomo gave up on Sunday his plan to get a former federal judge, who has close ties to one of the governor’s closest allies, to investigate allegations of sexual harassment.
Cuomo said he would ask Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, and Janet DiFiore, the chief judge of the highest court in the state of New York, to choose someone to investigate the sexual harassment charges brought by two women who worked in the Cuomo government.
In an effort “to avoid even the perceived lack of independence or inference from politics,” the Cuomo administration asked Ms. James and Ms. DiFiore to “jointly select an independent and qualified private practice attorney without political affiliation to conduct a full review of the matter and issue a public report, “Beth Garvey, special adviser to the governor, said in a statement.” The proceeds of the work will be controlled exclusively by that independent attorney personally selected by the Attorney General and the Chief Judge. “
Cuomo’s rapid course correction came less than 24 hours after The New York Times published an article detailing the accusations of a former 25-year-old governor’s aide, Charlotte Bennett. She said that Cuomo asked her about her sex life, including whether she practiced monogamy and had any interest in older men.
Cuomo, she said, said he was open to dating women in their 20s and spoke to her in a disconcerting way about his own experience with sexual violence. She said she later realized that he was preparing her. It was the second charge against the governor in a week.
Mr. Cuomo said that he believed he was acting as a mentor and “he never made any progress in relation to Mrs. Bennett, nor did I intend to act inappropriately”.
“This situation cannot and should not be resolved in the press,” he said in a statement released on Saturday. “I believe that the best way to get to the truth is through a complete and complete external review, and I am instructing all state employees to carry out this effort.”
The governor’s office initially said the investigation would be led by Barbara S. Jones, a former federal judge who worked with Cuomo’s adviser, Steven M. Cohen, after leaving the court.
This solution, which seemed destined to give him some control over the result, was met with a torrent of criticism.
Many elected officials – including Senate and State Assembly leaders – seemed skeptical of Jones’ ability to act independently, while under Cuomo’s supervision.
“I believe that the Attorney General should make an appointment to ensure that it is a truly independent investigation,” Carl E. Heastie, the President of the Assembly, wrote on Twitter, referring to the state’s attorney general, Letitia James.
“There must be an independent investigation – not conducted by an individual selected by the governor, but by the attorney general’s office,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Congresswoman from Queens, said on Twitter Sunday morning.
“With all due respect, you cannot choose a federal judge to work with your good friend and decide that he will be the investigator,” said Liz Krueger, a Democratic state senator from Manhattan.
Kathleen Rice, a congresswoman from Long Island and a former district attorney in Nassau County, was even more direct.
“The accused CANNOT nominate the investigator,” wrote Rice on Twitter. “TIME COURSE.”
A handful of lawmakers on the Democratic Party’s left flank joined some Republicans to demand that Cuomo resign immediately.
“The harassment suffered by these former employees is part of a clear pattern of abuse and manipulation by the governor, and that pattern makes him unworthy to hold the highest office in New York,” wrote state senator Alessandra Biaggi in a statement. posted on Twitter.
Even Jen Psaki, the press secretary to President Joe Biden, a longtime ally of Cuomo, was forced to intervene.
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union”, Psaki said the president endorsed an “independent” investigation into the allegations against Cuomo and described the allegations against the governor as “serious”.
“It was difficult to read this story, as a woman,” said Psaki.
The news closes a turbulent weekend that represents perhaps the worst month of Cuomo’s administration of a decade as governor of New York and pointed to a turnaround in his fortunes.
Last week, Lindsey Boylan, a former state economic development official, detailed her earlier accusation that Cuomo had harassed her on several occasions from 2016 to 2018, giving her an unsolicited kiss on the mouth in her Manhattan office. Mr. Cuomo denied the charges.
Erica Vladimer, co-founder of the Sexual Harassment Working Group, a collective of former civil servants, said the allegations of sexual harassment and bullying fit the same theme.
“These are not two separate sets of claims,” she said. “These are two examples of abuse, harassment, retaliation and the culture of a long-standing hostile work environment.”
Less than a year after news of Cuomo’s pandemic era sparked discussions about his presidential ambitions and caused the trend of #cuomosexual on Twitter, Democrats were openly wondering if the governor could survive this latest crisis, which comes in the wake of several others.
Ms. James, the state’s attorney general, reported in late January that the Cuomo administration had counted significantly fewer deaths in nursing homes in New York State.
A New York Times report found that Cuomo practically declared war on his own Department of Health over coronavirus policies, apparently leading to the departure of at least nine senior executives. It was then noted that its principal advisor, Melissa DeRosa, admitted that the state had withheld data on fatalities in nursing homes of the state legislature because it feared an investigation politically motivated by the Justice Department of the Trump administration, which spawned cover-up allegations and demands for Mr. Cuomo’s impeachment.
Federal prosecutors opened an inquiry into how Cuomo deals with asylums; lawmakers met to take Cuomo out of his unilateral emergency powers, which he was granted at the start of the pandemic; and potential competitors began to consider more seriously challenging him in next year’s elections.
“Lying about deaths in nursing homes and the treatment of a young woman and married woman who work for him is bad, very bad,” said Karen Hinton, who worked as Cuomo’s press secretary when he ran the federal bureau. housing.
Luke Broadwater contributed reports.