A former aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo is accusing the aggressive New York leader of sexually harassing her – including kisses and unwanted touches – and says his top employees have “normalized” behavior.
Lindsey Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to the governor, said Cuomo was constantly looking for her and getting officials to schedule meetings with her, where he made inappropriate comments.
CUOMO RAISES EYEBROWS WITH ‘ANATOMY’ JOKE DURING THE VACCINATION TOUR
“Let’s play strip poker,” said Boylan Cuomo commented on a flight from an event in October 2017, according to an essay she wrote in Medium published Wednesday.
At another meeting in December 2016, Boylan said that Cuomo arranged with a keeper to meet her at his office in Albany, which she reluctantly agreed to. She said he took her to visit her office, “smiled” and showed him a box of cigars that he said was given to him by former President Bill Clinton while he served as secretary of housing and urban development.
Boylan said he interpreted this as a hint that makes reference to the case between Clinton and his then intern Monica Lewinsky in the mid-1990s.
She said she was warned by other officials when she joined the Cuomo administration in 2015 to “be careful with the governor”.
Boylan said his behavior “has been so normalized – particularly by Melissa DeRosa and other important women around him – that it is only now that I realize how insidious his abuse was.”
NY DEMOCRAT SAYS CUOMO’S PHONE WAS A TIME OF TERRORIZATION, ‘WIFE LEFT’ CRYING AND SHAKING ‘
She also claimed that just before the office incident, which made her uncomfortable, Stephanie Benton, director of the governor’s office, told her in an email that Cuomo suggested that she look for images of Lisa Shields – her alleged ex-girlfriend – because “we could be sisters” and told Boylan that she was “the most beautiful sister”.
“The governor started calling me ‘Lisa’ in front of his colleagues. It was degrading, ”wrote Boylan, including images of the email exchange between her and Benton.
Boylan said in another incident, this time at Cuomo’s New York office, he kissed her on the lips.
“I was in shock, but I kept walking,” wrote Boylan.
CUOMO ADMITTED THAT HE WOULD NOT PUT HIS MOTHER IN A NURSING HOUSE IN THE SAME MONTH THAT ISSUED COVID ORDER
“The idea that someone would think that I maintained my high position because of the governor’s ‘passion’ for me was more degrading than the kiss itself.”
Boylan accused the governor of harassment last year, but did not elaborate on his experiences at the time.
She wrote in her essay on Wednesday that she hopes that “the governor and his top advisers will try to disparage me further, just as they did with Assembly member Kim” – who has come forward in recent weeks with her own accusations against the governor of bullying and threatening you.
Neither Boylan nor Cuomo responded immediately to Fox News’s request for comment.
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, RN.Y., immediately asked Cuomo to step down after Boylan’s story, calling him “America’s Worst Governor” and “sexual predator criminal”.
Stefanik had already asked for Boylan’s allegations against Cuomo last year to be investigated further, but it did nothing.
“It is an inexcusable shame that almost every other elected official in the state of New York has quietly swept this serious and credible claim under the rug,” Stefanik said in a statement on Thursday.
“Sexual harassment and sexual abuse in the workplace are not a political issue, but right and wrong.”
“Governor Cuomo must resign immediately,” she continued. “And any elected official who doesn’t immediately ask for his resignation is complicit in allowing a sexual predator to continue to lead the great state of New York.
Boylan’s recently detailed allegations have sparked fresh calls for Cuomo to step down, as he faces intense scrutiny and pressure after explosive revelations that his administration has concealed accurate death counts in nursing homes amid the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing a federal investigation from the Department of Justice at elderly care institutions in four states, including New York
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
Several ongoing investigations continue to investigate the impact of the Cuomo guideline last March for nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients, resulting in thousands of deaths in assisted living facilities.