Six former New York governor Andrew Cuomo officials said they were contacted by his office days after a former aide accused the governor of sexual harassment in December, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Some of the people who were called said they had not heard of the government for months and considered the calls to be intimidating attempts, according to the newspaper.
“I felt intimidated and perplexed,” said Ana Liss, a former aide to the governor who received one of the calls. Liss also accused the governor of inappropriate behavior.
Lindsey Boylan, who tweeted in December that Cuomo had sexually harassed her “for years”, wrote in a Medium essay last month that Cuomo had subjected her to “widespread harassment” when she worked for him.
Boylan, now a candidate for president of the Manhattan district in New York City, worked for the Cuomo administration from 2015 to 2018 and accused Cuomo of making several inappropriate comments in front of other people and kissing her on the lips when they were alone.
Six women accused Cuomo of inappropriate behavior, which prompted him to resign. Cuomo denied touching anyone inappropriately, but acknowledged that he acted in a way that made people uncomfortable. He said it was unintentional and apologized.
The governor’s office did not respond to NBC News’s request for comment on calls made to former employees in December, but Rich Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Cuomo, told the Wall Street Journal that the office did not intimidate anyone.
“There was no targeted effort – this reach happened organically when everyone’s phone started to explode,” said Azzopardi.
“After Boylan’s tweets in December, she, her lawyers and members of the press started approaching former members of the Chamber, many of whom never worked with her,” said Azzopardi in a statement. Chamber was summoned to inform several employees and convey that they were uncomfortable with the disclosure. As a result, we proactively contacted some former colleagues to verify and ensure that they were informed. “
On Thursday night, after the Wall Street Journal report was published, Boylan tweeted that she had no lawyer at the time.
