Major congressional Democrats from his state have called on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign following details of a sixth allegation of sexual harassment or sexual assault against the governor.
The majority of New York’s Democratic congressional delegation called for Cuomo’s resignation in coinciding statements Friday morning. The lawmakers include House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, House Oversight Chairman Carolyn Maloney, and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jamal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Grace Meng, Rep. Yvette Clark, Rep. Adriano Espaillat, Rep. Nydia Velasquez, Rep. Anthony Delgado, Rep. Brian Higgins and Rep. Sean Maloney.
Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., who previously called for Cuomo’s resignation, is the 13th of 19 House Democrats from the New York delegation who have called for Cuomo’s resignation.
[Update: A seventh woman, reporter Jessica Bakeman, who covered the governor in 2014, came forward Friday morning in New York magazine with an account of his repeatedly touching her in a way that made her uncomfortable.]
“After two accounts of sexual assault, four accounts of harassment, the Attorney General’s investigation finding the Governor’s admin hid nursing home data from the legislature & public, we agree with the 55+ members of the New York State legislature that the Governor must resign,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a Friday morning tweet.
Cuomo faces two separate investigations: one into allegations of workplace sexual misconduct by the New York Attorney General’s Office, and another from the U.S. Justice Department into his role in undercounting nursing home deaths in New York.
The sixth Cuomo accuser reportedly said the governor inappropriately touched her when she was at his mansion for work last year, an official close to the matter told the Albany Times Union on Tuesday. The publication withheld her name since she could not immediately be reached for comment, but noted that she is a member of the governor’s Executive Chamber staff.
The Albany Times Union reported Wednesday that the woman accused Cuomo of groping her when she was at the governor’s mansion. The governor allegedly summoned her to his private residence on the second floor of the mansion, where he reached under her blouse and began groping her, according to the Times Union.
Albany Police spokesman Steve Smith told The New York Times on Thursday that the department had reached out to the sixth alleged victim’s representative but has not received a formal complaint from the accuser, who remains anonymous.
The police department had not opened a criminal investigation but did offer its services to the accuser, Smith said, “as we would do with any other report or incident.”
Cuomo denied the allegations in a Thursday statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“As I said previously, I have never done anything like this,” Cuomo said. “The details of this report are gut-wrenching. I am not going to speak to the specifics of this or any other allegation given the ongoing review, but I am confident in the result of the [state] Attorney General’s report.”
Former Cuomo aide Ana Liss came forward with her allegations in a Wall Street Journal interview. Liss accused the governor of touching her lower back, kissing her hand, and inquiring about her relationship status.
Former Cuomo aide Karen Hinton told The Washington Post that Cuomo hugged her in an embrace that was “very long, too long, too tight, too intimate” in a dimly lit hotel room on a 2000 trip to Los Angeles. He was the head of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development at the time.
Anna Ruch, who was not a Cuomo aide or staffer, met Cuomo at a New York City wedding reception in September 2019, she told The New York Times. Ruch said the governor put his hand on her bare back, moved close to her, told her she was “aggressive” when she removed his hand, placed his hands on her cheeks and asked her if he could kiss her. Her friend later told her that he had kissed her cheek, she said.
Former Cuomo aide Charlotte Bennett told The New York Times that Cuomo asked her about her sex life, asked her whether she practiced monogamy, whether she was interested in older men, and discussed her past sexual assault in an uncomfortable manner.
Former Cuomo staffer Lindsey Boylan accused the governor of kissing her without her consent during a one-on-one briefing, making her uncomfortable and making a number of sexually charged comments to her.
