Governor Cuomo to Face Criminal Action After Release of Sexual Harassment Report
On Tuesday morning, a report came out from the office of the New York State Attorney General revealing details that pointed to Governor Andrew Cuomo being guilty of sexual harassment. This 165-page report gave endless details about several different incidents with 11 different women giving their accounts of everything that happened to them. Ever since then, Cuomo has been under fire from every avenue, whether that be by losing support from his allies, the impeachment inquiry being put together to force him out, and now, lawsuits and criminal investigations.
The floodgates have begun to open in regards to legal action against the New York Governor. As of right now, there are several attorneys’ offices throughout the state that are looking to take action against him. The two that are still waiting for a case are the Westchester and the Manhattan attorneys’ offices. However, in Albany, they now have a case.
On Thursday, the woman known as Executive Assistant #1 filed a formal criminal complaint against Cuomo, seeking justice for him allegedly groping her at the Governor’s mansion. She filed the complaint with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, who has said that it will be working with the Albany County District Attorney’s Office from here on out. The Albany County District Attorney David Soares said that they have been waiting for a formal complaint to come in, as they would not be able to take any legal action against Cuomo until a victim decided to pursue the charges. At this time the name of the executive assistant remains unknown and the specifics of the complaint have also been kept away from the public eye. All we know at this time is that the Governor is not currently facing charges.
Despite the fact that this complaint is just being filed, the Albany County District Attorney’s Office has been doing its own independent investigation on the allegations for quite some time. They only stopped the investigation when the New York State Attorney General Letitia James began her own. Soares then asked James to send the evidence her office collected over to his office so that the criminal investigation could be reinforced with more evidence. In the report, it is stated that Cuomo broke both state and federal laws. It is believed by several lawyers that based off of the details in the report, the Albany prosecutors have the option of going after Cuomo with misdemeanor sexual assault. They also say there are other options available to them, should they choose to go another route. Soares is also hoping that more victims come forward.
Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to accuse Governor Cuomo of sexual harassment, has also stated her intentions to file a lawsuit, although the details of that haven’t been confirmed as of this time. Boylan, who was a former aide to the Governor, went public with the harassment situation on Twitter in December of 2020, saying that Cuomo had harassed her for years. Boylan’s lawyer stated that they were planning to sue the Governor and those that helped him threaten Boylan with the destruction of her credibility.
Governor Cuomo has continued to stand his ground, saying that none of these allegations are true, including that the alleged groping of executive assistant #1 was a ridiculous story, as he never would have dared do something like that in the middle of the day at the office mansion. His lawyers have continuously taken shots at the report from New York Attorney General James, saying that the report was one-sided and completely inaccurate. As of right now, it still seems extremely unlikely that Cuomo will step down from his position as Governor of New York.
The only thing that might get Cuomo out of office is the impeachment inquiry that is nearing completion within the New York State Legislature. In fact, the Legislature has asked Cuomo and his legal team to submit evidence in his defense to them by Friday, August 13.
