Lindsey Boylan, the former New York state employee and adviser to Governor Andrew Cuomo who filed the first sexual harassment charges against him last December, suggests that he “retaliated” by ordering a smear campaign aimed at her and, in turn, instead, he endeavored to silence others with similar experiences.
“This stain was a blatant abuse of power by @nygovcuomo. He retaliated against me and others for speaking. I look forward to the AG investigating this,” tweeted Boylan on Tuesday, when questions arose about whether Cuomo had a hand in leaked documents this painted her, as an employee, in a negative way. Previously, a New York Post The report cited comments from Boylan’s lawyer, Jill Basinger, also accusing the governor of giving the green light to the state’s decision to release these documents when they did.
Boylan originally claimed that a series of leaked documents, obtained by the Associated Press, New York Post and the Albany Times union shortly after she published general statements about the governor’s conduct on Twitter, they were part of an effort led by Cuomo to discredit and perhaps intimidate her in a blog post in February. The media described the files received as “personal documents” and “personal records” containing information that allegedly indicated that Boylan had harassed and disparaged colleagues.
“Parts of an allegedly confidential personal file (which I have never seen) leaked to the media in an effort to defame me,” wrote Boylan in a personal essay published in Medium on February 24.
Boylan’s essay reported alleged workplace harassment and inappropriate behavior on the part of the governor during his time under his administration. Its publication precipitated a wave of accusations against Cuomo, shared by five other women – including Charlotte Bennett, Anna Ruch, Karen Hinton, Ana Liss – most of whom are former employees of the state of New York. A sixth accuser, identified only as a member of the staff of the New York State Executive Chamber, appeared on Tuesday.
The most recent allegation came when New York Attorney General Letitia James appointed two lawyers to lead an independent investigation into the growing number of harassment charges involving the governor. In the meantime, many are calling for an immediate end to his service as New York state leader.
Cuomo denied the charges. He apologized in comments this week, describing his alleged actions as “unintended”.
Reports published by the AP, Publish and Times union during the second week of December, she cited “personal” files that seemed to indicate that Boylan resigned her position in the Cuomo administration as a result of complaints from colleagues. These reports came to light almost immediately after Boylan, now a Democratic candidate for the Manhattan district presidency, revealed in a series of tweets that Cuomo “sexually harassed me for years”, adding: “Many saw and watched”.
Boylan ended up resigning from the Cuomo government in September 2018, citing contemptuous attitudes from Cuomo’s top aides when she started defending herself in office.
“I couldn’t ignore that anymore,” she wrote in the February article on Medium.
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Beth Garvey, Cuomo’s special advisor and senior advisor, allegedly avoided direct questions from the New Yorker who asked about his role in the December document leak.
“With certain limited exceptions, as a general matter, it is at the discretion of a government entity to share written employment records, including when members of the media request such public information and when it is for the purpose of correcting inaccurate or misleading statements,” Garvey said in a statement to the magazine, according to his Tuesday report. “Given the ongoing review by the State Attorney General, we are unable to comment further at this time.”
Newsweek contacted Cuomo’s office for further comments, but received no response in time for publication.