A sixth woman has accused New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment during an incident in his home last year - as one of his ...
A sixth woman has accused New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment during an incident in his home last year - as one of his previous accusers claimed his office was 'toxic, retaliatory and hostile'.
The female aide claimed Cuomo touched her inappropriately during an encounter at his executive mansion last year when she had been summoned for work, the Times Union reports.
The staffer has not been named and no other details of the alleged incident were immediately available. The complaint was reportedly made by other staffers in Cuomo's Executive Chamber.
His office was made aware of the allegation over the weekend and reported it to the attorney general's office, which is charge of the probe into the allegations made by five other women.
'All allegations that we learn of directly or indirectly are going promptly to the investigators appointed by the attorney general,' Cuomo's acting counsel Beth Garvey said following the sixth allegation.
Cuomo, during a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, said he hadn't been made aware of the sixth allegation.
He doubled down on comments he made last week, saying: 'I never touched anyone inappropriately.'
The female aide claimed New York Gov Andrew Cuomo touched her inappropriately during an encounter at his executive mansion last year when she had been summoned for work
The complaint was reportedly made by other staffers in the Executive Chamber. The staffer has claimed Cuomo touched her inappropriately at his executive mansion in Albany last year
The latest allegation against Cuomo brings the total to six accusers.
Two more former aides came forward over the weekend to accuse the Democrat of sexual misconduct.
Ana Liss, 35, said that when she worked as a policy aide to the governor between 2013 and 2015, Cuomo called her 'sweetheart,' once kissed her hand and asked personal questions, including whether she had a boyfriend. She said he sometimes greeted her with a hug and a kiss on both cheeks.
Liss, who never made a formal complaint about the governor's behavior, said she initially thought of Cuomo's behavior as harmless, but it grew to bother her and felt it was patronizing.
In an interview with WROC on Monday, Liss said she wasn't sure if her interactions with Cuomo were sexual harassment but did describe it as inappropriate.
'For me there was one occasion where I was asked if I had a boyfriend by the governor. Those interactions I thought at the time were harmless flirtations, and 'that's how he is'. Other women went along with it and reacted kindly and bashfully to that kind of treatment. What really did me in, in state government, was the broader work environment which was hostile,' she said.
'It was toxic, retaliatory, hostile. There was screaming, there was name calling. There was a sense of fear in the air that you could say or do the wrong thing at any moment and you could lose your job.'
She said her allegations were not identical to Cuomo's first accusers but believes it establishes a patter of behavior.
'There were other women who were subject to much more explicit treatment than I was,' she said.
'I'm not claiming sexual harassment per se, I'm just saying that it wasn't a safe space for young women to work or women in general. There are women that didn't fit the archetype or the stereotype that were mocked and demoted. Like I said, it was a really retaliatory place to work.'
Ana Liss, 35, said that when she worked as a policy aide to the governor between 2013 and 2015, Cuomo called her 'sweetheart,' once kissed her hand and asked personal questions, including whether she had a boyfriend
Karen Hinton, 62, spoke to the Washington Post on Saturday about about an incident in which Cuomo allegedly summoned her to his 'dimly lit' hotel room and embraced her after a work event in 2000.
Hinton said that she tried to pull away from Cuomo but that he allegedly pulled her back and held her before she backed away and escaped the room.
The governor's office quickly denied that the incident in the hotel room ever took place.
Peter Ajemian, Cuomo's director of communications, told the Post that Hinton is a 'known antagonist of the Governor's who is attempting to take advantage of this moment to score cheap points with made up allegations from 21 years ago'.
'All women have the right to come forward and tell their story - however, it's also the responsibility of the press to consider self-motivation. This is reckless.'
Cuomo's workplace conduct has been under intense scrutiny in recent days as several women have publicly told of feeling sexually harassed, or at least made to feel demeaned and uncomfortable by the Democrat.
Ana Liss, 35, (pictured left) previously served as Cuomo's policy and operations aide between 2013 and 2015 but claims he subjected her to sexual misconduct during her time in his administration. Karen Hinton (right) claims the governor summoned her to his 'dimly lit' hotel room and embraced her after a work event in 2000 before she managed to escape
Charlotte Bennett, 25, worked as an aide for Cuomo. She claims he sexually harassed her and left her 'terrified'
Anna Ruch, 33, (left) claimed Cuomo behaved inappropriately at a Manhattan wedding in September 2019. Lindsey Boylan, 36, (right) claims Cuomo commented on her appearance inappropriately, kissed her without her consent and went out of his way to touch her on her lower back, arms and leg
Former adviser Lindsey Boylan, 36, said he made inappropriate comments on her appearance, once kissed her on the lips at the end of a meeting and suggested a game of strip poker as they sat with other aides on a jet flight.
Another former aide, Charlotte Bennett, 25, said Cuomo asked if she ever had sex with older men and made other comments she interpreted as gauging her interest in an affair.
Anna Ruch, 33, who did not work for the state, described Cuomo putting his hands on her face and asking if he could kiss her after they met at a wedding.
In a news conference last week, Cuomo denied ever touching anyone inappropriately but apologized for behaving in a way that he now realized had upset women he worked with.
He said he'd made jokes and asked personal questions in an attempt to be playful and frequently greeted people with hugs and kisses, as his father, Mario Cuomo, had done when he was governor.
'I understand sensitivities have changed. Behavior has changed,' Cuomo said. 'I get it and I'm going to learn from it.'
The state's attorney general has hired an outside law firm to investigate the sexual harassment allegations.
She has appointed Joon Kim, who was the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York for parts of 2017 and 2018, and employment lawyer Anne Clark to conduct the probe.
Anna Ruch claimed Cuomo put his hands on her face and asked if he could kiss her just moments after they met at a September 2019 wedding in Manhattan. After seeing the above photo, dozens on Twitter called Cuomo a 'Sexual Frankenstein'
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