Embattled New York Governor Andrew Cuomo 's top aide Melissa DeRosa has resigned after admitting 'the past two years have been e...
Embattled New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's top aide Melissa DeRosa has resigned after admitting 'the past two years have been emotionally and mentally trying.'
DeRosa, 38, who serves as Secretary to the Governor of the State of New York, announced her departure in a statement shared Sunday evening.
She is Cuomo's closest aide, and is quitting as he faces increasing pressure to resign over a New York Attorney General's report branding him a sex pest.
'It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve the people of New York for the past 10 years,' DeRosa said in a statement. 'New Yorkers' resilience, strength and optimism through the most difficult times has inspired me every day.
'Personally, the past two years have been emotionally and mentally trying. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such talented and committed colleagues.'
Andrew Cuomo's top aide Melissa DeRosa, pictured on August 2, announced her resignation Sunday night
Melissa DeRosa sits to the right of Gov. Andrew Cuomo during a March 20 COVID-19 press briefing, like she has during nearly every press briefing
This photo - taken in September 2016 - shows Cuomo with DeRosa at dinner
Tellingly, DeRosa's statement did not make a single reference to Cuomo, to whom she is said to have been extremely close.
DeRosa made history as the first woman to be appointed New York State's Secretary to the Governor in 2013, which is the most powerful appointed official in the state.
She became became a fixture in the state's daily COVID-19 press briefings, sitting right next to Cuomo at every meeting and played a key role in trying to limit the damage after allegations of sexual assault surfaced in the Spring.
But since the report dropped, she's been mostly quiet and out of the public limelight since the attorney general's bombshell report concluding that Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women.
Her last public statement was on August 3 - the day the attorney general's report was released - when she retweeted Cuomo's 15-minute response video where he denies the allegations in the report.
Josefa Velasquez, a reporter for The City NY, tweeted that Cuomo and his top staff have reportedly 'been trying to cut a deal in recent days, telling top state officials that he won’t seek a fourth term to make impeachment talks go away but no one is buying it, sources familiar with the talks say. Unless Cuomo resigns, impeachment is a go.'
Not only is DeRosa feeling the heat from Cuomo's sex pest scandal, she has become a target of criticism after former colleagues ripped her as a 'ruthless, heartless, evil human being.'
She 'doesn't have time for niceties' and 'will rip your heart out in order to get what she wants', a former Executive Chamber insider told the New York Post.
She was also 'the worst person I have ever worked for in my entire professional career', the source added.
'She doesn't have time to get to know you as a person. You are either an individual who gets something done for her — or you're in her way.'
While another former Cuomo staffer said DeRosa 'doesn't treat people well.'
'She would dress people down for no reason or over minor stuff. I would have to think long and hard to find anyone who would say nice things about her.'
The former employee said under DeRosa 'every problem is considered an equal crisis. Everything is treated as over the top. As a government, that's not sustainable.'
The source added: 'She is now going to experience the fruits of that.'
In this Jan. 18, 2017, file photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, accompanied by Melissa DeRosa, walks to talk with reporters after meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York
Cuomo is said to have described his top aide Melissa DeRosa as a 'mean girl'.
The claim was revealed in the New York attorney general's report, which detailed the 'toxic' work environment created by the governor and his feared advisor.
Letitia James's report into claims made by 11 women of sexual harassment painted a darker picture of DeRosa's role, however.
She worked to discredit several of the women, according to James's report, and was accused in the document of 'unlawful retaliation'.
DeRosa is accused in the 168-page document as helping to cultivate a 'toxic' workplace for young female staffers.
'She can be very tough to deal with,' a source told The New York Post.
'DeRosa is feared. If you cross her, you're crossing the governor.'
Cuomo himself nicknamed her and others within the inner circle 'mean girls', the report said - although he denied the moniker. She asked him to stop.
DeRosa was previously acting chief of staff for the former attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, who in 2018 resigned after multiple women accused him of sexual violence.
When the allegations against Cuomo began to emerge this Spring, DeRosa played a key role in trying to limit the damage.
It was revealed DeRosa and other top aides dragged their feet when Charlotte Bennett, a 25-year-old health policy adviser, reported Cuomo's deeply uncomfortable probing of her sexual history and previous abuse.
They should immediately, under state law, have passed her complaints to the Governor's Office of Employee Relations.
After Bennett came forward with her allegations, the Executive Chamber instituted 'changes in staffing' so that 'they would avoid situations where the Governor might be seen as being in a compromising situation with any woman.'
But DeRosa and Mogul apparently described the change as 'really more for the Governor's protection.'
DeRosa was reportedly furious with Cuomo for his behavior towards Bennett.
The pair were in a car, and DeRosa berated him, saying: 'I can't believe that this happened. I can't believe you put yourself in a situation where you would be having any version of this conversation.'
She then got out when the car stopped at a traffic light.
DeRosa attends Cuomo'sdaily briefing to media on COVID-19 pandemic at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research of Northwell Health in April 2020
Cuomo is spotted walking his dog in the morning of August 7th, 2021 - four days after the attorney general's report was released
When Lindsey Boylan, a former state economic development official, began tweeting allusion to harassment in 2020 - she would not make a full, public allegation until March of this year - DeRosa released Boylan's personnel record to certain media outlets.
DeRosa admitted the move to discredit Boylan when speaking to James's team, and said that she made the decision because Boylan's tweets about the governor — including that he was 'one of the biggest abusers of all time' — became 'more and more escalating,' the report states.
Former aide Josh Vlasto told the investigators that if DeRosa decided to leak the files, it was 'safe to say' the move 'was consistent with what the Governor wanted or had been discussed with him and he approved it.'
A current aide - who has since accused Cuomo of groping her - told James's team she saw the efforts as a way to discredit Boylan, by calling her 'crazy' and accusing her of having a political agenda, according to the report.
DeRosa also played a part in circulating a proposed op-ed, originally drafted by Cuomo, that contained 'personal and professional attacks' on Boylan, and later sharing it with current and former Executive Chamber employees.
'The draft letter or op-ed attacking Ms. Boylan — particularly when combined with the release of the confidential internal records to the press — constitutes retaliation,' the investigators wrote.
Another former employee was asked by DeRosa to call a current staff member - known as 'Kaitlin', who also accused Cuomo of harassment - and record the call, asking if she was working with Boylan or if she 'had her own allegations against the Governor or was talking to reporters.'
And when a state trooper made allegations against Cuomo, DeRosa, who serves as Cuomo's Chairwoman of the New York State Council on Women & Girls, tried to bury them and convince a newspaper editor not to publish them.
A reporter from The Albany Times-Union called requesting comment on the state trooper's allegations, and DeRosa yelled at the newspaper's editor saying, 'You guys are trying to reduce her hiring to being about looks. That's what men do.'
While in May it emerged DeRosa had 'screamed' at and 'bullied' Rep. Elise Stefanik over her opposition to the governor's plan to shift ventilators from less hard-hit areas of the state to New York City last year.
DeRosa called the Republican congresswoman, 36, on her personal cellphone 'furious' to get her to walk back her comments about Cuomo's executive order.
Stefanik reportedly refused and the two women haven't spoken since.
The incident marked the final nail in the coffin in the two women's 20-year friendship that began when they both attended elite prep school Albany Academy for Girls in upstate New York and had - up until then - survived their opposing political paths.
DeRosa attended Cornell University from 2000-2004, studying industrial and labor relations.
She returned in 2007 to study for a masters in public administration in 2009, before turning towards politics, serving as the NYS Director of 'Organizing for America ', President Obama’s national political action organization.
DeRosa married former Cuomo spokesman Matthew Wing, who is now Uber's head of communications, on August 27.
The pair, who met while Wing was working for Cuomo, live in co-op in Brooklyn that they for $2.2 million a couple of months after their wedding.
DeRosa and her husband Matthew Wing, who is now Uber's head of communications, live in a co-op in Brooklyn that they bought for $2.2 million a couple of months after their wedding. They met when Wing was a press secretary for Cuomo
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